Boy Meets Boy

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Original ISBN 978-0-375-83299-4
Knopf, 2003
185 pages

Plot Summary: Paul has known since kindergarten that he is gay. He lives in a town that is very accepting and tolerant. Teenaged Paul has a wide variety of friends: the cross-dressing football quarterback, Infinite Darlene; Tony who has to lie to his parents about his homosexuality; Joni who used to be in love with Ted, but is now in love with Chuck; and Noah, the boy that Paul likes…really likes. Told over a few weeks, the story tells the tale of how special and fragile love and friendship can be.

Critical Evaluation: The story is told from the perspective of high school sophomore, Paul. In describing the town in which he lives, you see that the
town is very accepting.  Even when the story seems a bit over the top,
(the cheerleaders come into the pep rally on Harleys) it’s really not.
Boy Meets Boy is a novel that discusses a lot of different relationships: boy
and boy; girl and boy; child and parent; friend and friend. Michael Cart, in his
review for Booklist said, “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 and seems to represent a revolution in the publishing of gay-themed books for adolescents.”

Reader’s Annotation: Boy meets boy; boy loses boy; boy works hard to get boy back…all while juggling fractured friendships and an ex-boyfriend.

Author Information: Levithan was born in 1972 and wrote his first book, Boy Meets Boy, in 2003. He has authored or co-authored 16 books. One interesting fact about Levithan is that writing is not his full-time job. He is also the editorial director for Scholastic, where he has worked since gaining an internship at age 19. He is also the founding editor of PUSH which focuses on new YA authors and voices. Levithan has received the Lambda Literary Award twice: first in 2003 for Boy Meets Boy, and again in 2006. Boy Meets Boy was named one of ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2004.

His website can be found at http://www.davidlevithan.com/

Genre: LGBT; Realistic fiction; Coming-of-age

Curriculum Ties: English Language Arts to illustrate theme

Booktalking Ideas: I would read descriptions of the cast of characters (as depicted on the back of the book).

Reading Level / Interest Age: Grades 8-12

Lexile: 730

Challenge Issues: The book has been challenged in Wisconsin and Tennessee for its reference to homosexuality.

Reason for Item’s Inclusion: As mentioned previously, this novel is considered to be an important gay novel. The novel also depicts a town that is accepting and tolerant of everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation.

References:

Cart, M. (2003, August). Starred reviews: Books for youth [Review of the book Boy Meets Boy, by D. Levithan]. Booklist, 99(22), 1980. Retrieved form Academic Search Premier at Persistent URL: http://libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10619609&site=ehost-live

David Levithan. (2012, July 26). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Levithan