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Summary
Summary
This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance. When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he's found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul's not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right. This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world. From the Hardcover edition.
Author Notes
David Levithan was born in 1972. He graduated from Brown University in 1994 and is a senior editor at Scholastic. He has written numerous books including Boy Meets Boy, The Realm of Possibility, Every Day, and Another Day.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This gay love story imagines a community where sexuality is not a source of conflict. In PW's words, "Those who enter this debut author's sweet new world will find a refreshing, offbeat romance." Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(High School) Joining Brent Hartinger's audacious Geography Club (rev. 3/03) are two more novels taking a look at gay high school life. In Boy Meets Boy, sophomore Paul's school couldn't get more gay-friendly: the star quarterback, a drag queen named Infinite Darlene, is also homecoming queen, and the mood of the town is equally welcoming, dropping the homophobic Boy Scouts for ""Joy Scouts,"" for example. While sometimes threatening to waft the story off to Never-land, it's a premise that allows Levithan's gay characters to explore the vicissitudes of love on the same terms as the straight kids. Paul, who came out in kindergarten, is swooning over new-kid Noah but still has some emotional baggage with former boyfriend Kyle, who has been hinting that he'd like to get back together. This is the stuff of teen romance novels, to be sure, but while Paul's narration can wax lyrical at all the right moments, it's also a bit lofty, as when Paul constructs one thousand origami flowers just for day one in a campaign to win Noah back after Noah's heard that Paul kissed Kyle. (Kissing is as far as anyone goes in this book.) Paul's a good kid and a smart one, but his hyper-articulateness and fondness for rarefied digression make him a hero difficult to warm up to. Kids who suspect that they're probably not interesting enough for Boy Meets Boy will feel more at home at Rainbow High, a world apart from Paul's school, and one that many kids will know, from both real life and teen television drama. First introduced in Rainbow Boys, Nelson, Jason, and (another) Kyle are gay high school seniors. Nelson and Kyle are best friends, Jason and Kyle are boyfriends, and each one of them is facing decisions. Having discovered, after unsafe sex with a stranger and much worry, that he's still HIV-negative, should Nelson break off his budding relationship with the HIV-positive Jeremy? Can Jason come out to the rest of the basketball team and keep his scholarship to Tech? Will Kyle go to Princeton, as his father wishes, or Tech, to be with Jason? With chapters shifting attention among the three protagonists in turn, there's a soap opera-like suspense that is both banal and magnetic. And to his credit, the author refuses easy solutions to the dilemmas. While not nearly as stylish or subtle as Boy Meets Boy, Rainbow High wears its heart on its sleeve and has a frankness (""You should've seen his JPEG. Total boner magnet"") that teens will appreciate. While the gay kids in Boy Meets Boy are the kind who read The Lost Language of Cranes in junior high and do book reports on Oscar Wilde, one suspects that even they would find Rainbow Boys a guilty pleasure--and reassuring, too. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 9-12. Paul, a high-school sophomore, is gay. Big deal! He's known he was gay since he was in kindergarten. Remarkably, everybody else knows it, too, and nobody cares. Clearly, the world Paul inhabits in this breakthrough book (the first upbeat gay novel for teens) differs from the real world: two boys walk through town holding hands; the cross-dressing quarterback, named Infinite Darlene, is not only captain of the football team but also homecoming queen; the school has a biker cheerleading team. Even in this whimsical world, however, the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly: Paul meets--and gets--the boy, Noah, a new kid in town, but loses him. Then, in perfect balance with this extraordinarily large-hearted, cheerful book, something unpredictable but deeply satisfying happens. Though at times arch and even precious, this wacky, charming, original story is never outrageous, and its characters are fresh, real, and deeply engaging. In its blithe acceptance and celebration of human differences, this is arguably the most important gay novel since Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind; it certainly seems to represent a revolution in the publishing of gay-themed books for adolescents. --Michael Cart Copyright 2003 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-David Levithan's novel (Knopf, 2003) about high school romance is brought to life by more than two dozen actors. Nicholas Robideau provides 15-year-old Paul's narrative voice as the story of friendship, sexual identity, school and family politics, and young love unfolds in mostly-but not completely-lighthearted scenes. The tale is set in a present-day ideal world where gays and cross dressers are accepted and there's no gay bashing, Paul has always known he is gay-and so are many of his friends. His best friend lives a largely closeted life, in fear of his parents' religious intolerance. The school quarterback is a wily transgender youth popularly known as Infinite Darlene. When Paul meets Noah, the attraction is mutual, but Paul's busy and sometimes ambitious social life, coupled with Noah's fear of getting hurt again, temporarily derail the course of true love. Eventually--and after the school bookie has provided all with the opportunity to wager on the outcome--Paul and Noah do get together, and even Joanie, Paul's oldest friend, with whom he's had a miserable falling out, is coming around. A well-conceived bonus at the end of the book's narration gives three of the actors the opportunity to compare their own high school experiences with Paul's.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Somewhere on the eastern coast of the US that's home to Francesca Lia Block's Los Angeles is a town where six-foot-five drag queens play high-school football, kindergarten teachers write comments like "Definitely gay and has a very good sense of self" on student report cards, quiz-bowl teams are as important as football teams, and cheerleaders ride Harleys. Paul and his friends go to high school in this town. Paul meets Noah, falls for him, does something dumb, and loses him. The last half of the story is about Paul working to get Noah back. Paul narrates his own story, and he talks and thinks like teens wish they did, much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her Scooby squad. Paul learns that love is still scary when boy meets boy even if it's as accepted as mom's apple pie. With wry humor, wickedly quirky and yet real characters, and real situations, this is a must for any library serving teens. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Now away we go 9 p.m. on a November Saturday. Joni, Tony, and I are out on the town. Tony is from the next town over and he needs to get out. His parents are extremely religious. It doesn't even matter which religion--they're all the same at a certain point, and few of them want a gay boy cruising around with his friends on a Saturday night. So every week Tony feeds us bible stories, then on Saturday we show up at his doorstep well versed in parables and earnestness, dazzling his parents with our blinding purity. They slip him a twenty and tell him to enjoy our study group. We go spend the money on romantic comedies, dimestore toys, and diner jukeboxes. Our happiness is the closest we'll ever come to a generous God, so we figure Tony's parents would understand, if only they weren't set on misunderstanding so many things. Tony has to be home by midnight, so we are on a Cinderella mission. With this in mind, we keep our eye on the ball. There isn't really a gay scene or a straight scene in our town. They got all mixed up a while back, which I think is for the best. Back when I was in second grade, the older gay kids who didn't flee to the city for entertainment would have to make their own fun. Now it's all good. Most of the straight guys try to sneak into the Queer Beer bar. Boys who love boys flirt with girls who love girls. And whether your heart is strictly ballroom or bluegrass punk, the dance floors are open to whatever you have to offer. This is my town. I've lived here all my life. Tonight, our Gaystafarian bud Zeke is gigging at the local chain bookstore. Joni has a driver's license from the state where her grandmother lives, so she drives us around in the family sedan. We roll down the windows and crank the radio--we like the idea of our music spilling out over the whole neighborhood, becoming part of the air. Tony has a desperate look tonight, so we let him control the dial. He switches to a Mope Folk station, and we ask him what's going on. "I can't say," he tells us, and we know what he means. That nameless empty. We try to cheer him up by treating him to a blue Slurp-Slurp at the local 24-7. We each take sips, to see whose tongue can get the bluest. Once Tony's sticking his tongue out with the rest of us, we know he's going to be okay. Zeke's already jamming by the time we get to the highway bookstore. He's put his stage in the European History section, and every now and then he'll throw names like Hadrian and Copernicus into his mojo rap. The place is crowded. A little girl in the children's section puts the Velveteen Rabbit on her shoulders for a better view. Her moms are standing behind her, holding hands and nodding to Zeke's tune. The Gaystafarian crowd has planted itself in the Gardening section, while the three straight members of the guys' lacrosse team are ogling a bookstore clerk from Literature. She doesn't seem to mind. Her glasses are the color of licorice. I move through the crowd with ease, sharing nods and smiling hellos. I love this scene, this floating reality. I am a solo flier looking out over the land of Boyfriends and Girlfriends. I am three notes in the middle of a song. Joni grabs me and Tony, pulling us into Self-Help. There are a few monkish types already there, some of them trying to ignore the music and learn the Thirteen Ways to Be an Effective Person. I know Joni's brought us here because sometimes you just have to dance like a madman in the Self-Help section of your local bookstore. So we dance. Tony hesitates--he isn't much of a dancer. But as I've told him a million times, when it comes to true dancing, it doesn't matter what you look like--it's all about the joy you feel. Zeke's jive is infectious. People are crooning and swooning into one another. You can see the books on the shelves in kaleidoscope form--spinning rows of colors, the passing blur of words. I sway. I sing. I elevate. My friends are by my side, and Zeke is working the Huguenots into his melody. I spin around and knock a few books off the shelves. When the song is through, I bend to pick them up. I grasp on the ground and come face to face with a cool pair of sneakers. "This yours?" a voice above the sneakers asks. I look up. And there he is. His hair points in ten different directions. His eyes are a little close together, but man, are they green. There's a little birthmark on his neck, the shape of a comma. I think he's wonderful. He's holding a book out to me. Migraines Are Only in Your Mind. I am aware of my breathing. I am aware of my heartbeat. I am aware that my shirt is half untucked. I take the book from him and say thanks. I put it back on the shelf. There's no way that Self-Help can help me now. "Do you know Zeke?" I ask, nodding to the stand. "No," the boy answers. "I just came for a book." "I'm Paul." "I'm Noah." He shakes my hand. I am touching his hand. I can feel Joni and Tony keeping their curious distance. "Do you know Zeke?" Noah asks. "His tunes are magnificent." I roll the word in my head--magnificent. It's like a gift to hear. "Yeah, we go to school together," I say casually. "The high school?" "That's the one." I'm looking down. He has perfect hands. "I go there, too." "You do?" I can't believe I've never seen him before. If I'd seen him before, it would have damn well registered. "Two weeks now. Are you a senior?" I look down at my Keds. "I'm a sophomore." "Cool." Now I fear he's humoring me. There's nothing cool about being a sophomore. Even a new kid would know that. Excerpted from Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.