You Know Me Well

Just because you live near San Francisco and there are other gay kids at school doesn’t mean that life is simple; as LaCour (Everything Leads to You) and Levithan (Two Boys Kissing) know, teenage life is never simple. It’s the start of Pride Week, and Katie feels like she has grown apart from her friends, and that meeting the girl she’s had a crush on forever is more than she can handle. Mark is at a gay bar competing in an underwear contest; he wins, but the victory emboldens Ryan, the friend Mark wishes were more, to dance with an attractive guy. When Katie bumps into Mark, they become a team as Mark imagines life without Ryan, Katie imagines it with Violet, and the future looms. There are a lot of emotional switchbacks packed into a single week, but the authors, writing in alternating chapters, incisively explore the excitement and costs of change, and the importance of friends in figuring out what to keep and what to jettison. Ages 13–up. [em]Agent: (for LaCour) Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger; (for Levithan) Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (June) [/em]