Hard Love, by Ellen Wittlinger. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999.
As the book opens, John is printing off the first copy of his new zine, which he writes partly to deal with his parents, who have become increasingly unable to deal with him since their divorce. He starts reexamining his relationship to his parents and to the world after meeting another zine writer.
I can see why this book is so highly acclaimed (it’s won the Printz and Lambda awards). At first, I just wanted to slap John for being so snarky and offputting. But as I saw more of why he was so angry and walled-off, this made his sarcasm more understandable, and at the same time he opened himself up to expressing pain and compassion both in his narration and in his actual interactions in the book. His growing affection for Marisol is expressed beautifully…some of the early plot and the fact that the book had won a Lambda had me all set up to expect him to be gay, so when he realized he was in love with Marisol, it surprised me as much as it did him! The segments written as letters and zine entries flow well with the plot, and don’t feel contrived or trying to be “cool”. Backstory exposition can often be crowbar-ed in on the way to the real plot, but this made a creative way to see the inner thoughts and history of characters other than the first-person narrator in a very authentic way. This book will resonate with many teens going through difficult relationships of any kind.
Booktalk hook: The review of “Bananafish” would make a nice succinct read-aloud review and hook for the book as a whole.
