Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins, 603 pages

I think you could call this a stand alone novel, but it is a follow up to Ellen Hopkin's adult novel, Triangles.  For the first 300 or 400 pages of Tilt, the storyline overlaps with Triangles, but in Tilt, it is told from the teens perspective as opposed to their mother's perspective.  Tilt follows the lives of three teens, Mikayla, Harley and Shane.  Shane and Harley are cousins and Mikayla is a good friend.  Mikayla finds herself alone and pregnant when the father of her child abandons her.  She must decide to keep her baby or chose adoption.  Harley finds herself in dangerous situations, pressured by the boys she thinks care about her.  And, Shane, as a homosexual teen, finds himself in love with a young man with HIV.  Tilt is sad and heartfelt as the reader watches their lives intertwine and tumble out of control.

What If? Answers to Questions About What It Means to Be Gay and Lesbian by Eric Marcus

What If? Answers to Questions About What It Means to Be Gay and Lesbian by Eric Marcus, 185 pages

Written for the juvenile reader and previously published as What If Someone I Know Is Gay?  is a very informative book written for juveniles.  It contains questions and answers by real teens about subjects such as bullying and suicide.  It contains lists of National Organizations for young people, resource books and videos.  This would be a great book for juveniles with questions on this subject matter.

This Book Is Gay by James Dawson

This Book Is Gay by James Dawson, 264 pages

This Book Is Gay is a very informative and descriptive book written for the teen audience. The book contains detailed drawings that go along with the text. This book contains a lot of information not only for teens but also for adults. I found it a very interesting read.  In the back, it also contains a list of gay icons and terms and definitions.

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins, 622 pages

This book is the sequel to the book Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. I thought Perfect would follow what happened to the characters in the book Impulse. But, what it is about is characters related to the characters in Impulse. written in the same tense as Impulse. This was a very thought provoking book. Perfect follows the lives of characters who were all associated with Conner. Cara is Conner's twin sister who is striving to be perfect in every way. Kendra is Conner's ex girlfriend who is trying to win beauty pageants while losing weight to the point her health is at risk.  Jenna is Kendra's sister who finds herself in a relationship with Andre.  All these teens are trying to find their perfect selves in a way that destroys their lives and those of their loved ones.

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, 666 pages

I had been searching for this book for a while when I found it while searching our catalog in our new Evergreen library system.  I enjoyed reading this book, even though it dealt with many taboo subjects.  But, I really felt like I connected with the three main characters in the book. Vanessa feels flawed as a person and only feels good when she is cutting herself.  Tony is a young, homosexual drug user who is living on the streets, trying to recover from the lose of his partner and from being abandoned by his father.   Conner is a teen who feels he cannot live up to the high standards his parents have set for him and recovering from having a sexual relationship with a teacher.  Each of the three find themselves locked up together in a psychiatric hospital called Aspen Springs.  The three each tried to commit suicide in their own way: Vanessa by cutting, Tony by pills, and Conner by shooting himself in the chest.  They are each sent to Aspen Springs to recover.  The three connect in a very special way.  The ending was shocking.