Music from Another World

In 1977, Anita Bryant and Harvey Milk are on the rise. Rising high school juniors Tammy and Sharon are too old for their summer pen-pal assignment, but they don’t have a choice: class credit calls. Tammy’s from an evangelical family in affluent Orange County; Sharon lives in San Francisco (the Catholic part, not the cool part), but they both love Patti Smith and are getting into punk rock. The girls are also keeping big secrets: Tammy’s gay, and so is Sharon’s brother Peter. Sharon tells her diary the stuff she wants to keep private; Tammy writes to Harvey Milk, the only openly gay person she’s ever seen. When Tammy’s life in her family’s church becomes untenable and Sharon starts having unexpected feelings for girls, things get complicated—and interesting. Talley (Pulp) specializes in LGBTQ-themed historical fiction, and she draws from rich material here: antigay ordinances hitting the ballot, Castro Street activism heating up. Tammy and Sharon and their growing friendship are believable and sympathetically rendered, and readers will root for them as they struggle to decide which is harder: staying in the closet or coming out. Ages 13–up.[em] (Mar.) [/em]