The realm of possibility

Interesting look at intersecting lives and loves among teens but a bit too slow for this reader. Will speak to sensitive YAs.

I always find it amazing how verse novels manage to convey such a complete image of the story and characters without using complete sentences. My major complaint about this book was that it was confusing, switching back and forth between too many characters. However, Levithan did a good job of

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tying all the stories together and giving multiple viewpoints, so despite being confusing and a bit disjointed, I liked it.

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I've never read a book of poetry quite like this. Each poem of Levithan's tells a story, but they are sometimes loosely connected (which you don't notice until the end -- and it's very effective). The poems are usually several pages, written in different styles, but on the whole, they are mostly

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quite powerful. I didn't like all the poems and obviously there were those I liked more than others. But that's the way it is with all collections. Overall, if you like Levithan's writing and don't mind poetry, this is a good book to read.

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There were some great lines in this little collection of poems--some interesting characters. Overall, though, I wasn't drawn into their world consistently enough to want to chase the relationships around and figure out how all these voices fit together. Here and there I found large emotions,

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moments of triumph.

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This book made me sit down and think. It doesn't deal with just one character but many. It shows how one person effects everyone around them in some sort of way. It lets you inside the mind of what teenagers think about instead of sticking wit the teenage angst in one character. Its not a shallow

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book either it does have depth to it. Give it a read.

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A teenager's thoughts about love--their confused, conflicting feelings about things---actually make for interesting poems. These poems aren't flowery or trite. They're honest, intimate. Each poem tells a different story told in an interesting way, with small surprises at the beginnings and endings

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of many a line. As a reader, I most appreciated the poems that had a narrative arc---most do, but some are stronger than others. It took some time for me to realize that each poem was told by a different speaker, and that the speakers were classmates who knew each other. I think it would have been helpful had the author clarified this point early on in the book.

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A novel in verse with 20 chapters voiced by 20 different high school students describing events their own perspectives. As the narrative progresses, the reader comes to understand how the students lives all overlap - usually peripherally, but sometimes very significantly. The novel charts the

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emotional growth that the characters were going through as they struggle to identify themselves in contrast with the relationships with their classmates.

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Possibly one of the most wonderful books i have ever read. Written in a variety of poems, it can be a bit hard to follow, and it took me a long time to read, to figure out who was speaking etc. But the author perfectly captures the moods of the different characters, and the book becomes incredibly

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absorbing.
The ending is left hanging a bit, but that does follow with the tradition of the book. It does tackle some issues which some may not like though, like homosexuality and anorexia, but they're not the main focus.
Over all, brilliant.
:)

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In this verse "novel," David Levithan allows the individual voices of his twenty teenage protagonists to weave the communal story of their loves, fights, doubts, and striving to figure out their world.

I came to this novel skeptical of the verse novel form, and I'm leaving it still skeptical. Some

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of the sections of the book clearly are poetry, marked by a clarity, economy, and novelty of language that is the benchmark for good verse. Others, however, read more like prose with arbitrary line breaks or, worse, like doggerel. The moments of beauty--I'm thinking here of Anton and Gail's interlocking sections, especially--elevate the low points of the book, and make it worth reading.

The depth of characterization is low, and at times it is difficult to identify the speakers. I was impressed by Levithan's incorporation of speakers into each other's poems; however, the effect did not achieve the multi-dimensional knowledge of character that would have been possible with a smaller cast or with a traditional novel format.

The themes covered will appeal to a wide range of teen readers who will find characters who reflect their own experiences, emotions, and doubts. From my experience, it might be difficult to encourage less enthusiastic readers to try out the verse format, since many people tend to view poetry as difficult to understand.

I'm still not convinced by the verse novel, but I want to read more in the event that I find an example that satisfyingly merges prose and poetry.

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What I Say:

Using several different poetic forms and weaving characters throughout the poems in this book, Levithan has created a book that will delight thoughtful teens. This is a book that yields more fruit with each reading. The cover bills this as a novel in verse form; it is really a collection

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of poems that convey a mood and some detail about how students make sense of their sexuality, their problems, their lives, and their world. While this collection of poems can be confusing, readers are rewarded for their persistence.

What teens say:

Some of the poems were great, especially the one the book is named after. It took me a while to figure out that the poems relate to all the characters. Some of the poems seemed forced. I wish there was something to keep track of who was speaking. Most of the poems were great and there were a lot of different styles that made the book even better. This book won’t be popular here, however because most high school students have been taught to be afraid of homosexuality.

I read the first 97 pages and didn’t like it. The homosexuality scares me.

I have really begun to like all these books written as poetry, but I didn’t really care for this book. I read about the first 50 or 60 pages, then stopped. The characters were just too hard to keep track of.

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Twenty teen voices sound off in twenty eclectic poems, and the effect is a rousing chorus of love and life in one high school community. The monologues gently unfold interwoven stories of friendship, romance, grief, unrequited crushes, and sexual experimentation that exhibit an authentic sense of

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teen angst but also convey remarkable optimism. The diverse characters constantly challenge their stereotypes: the buff jock who shows genuine tenderness toward his troubled girlfriend, the mean girl who has an epiphany of emotional intelligence, the devout gospel singer who connects with the loner goth. Strong gay and lesbian characters, too, pour their hearts into distinctive free verse, and it is in fact the touching portrait of a gay couple celebrating their first anniversary that anchors the narrative.

My VOYA ratings: 5Q (“Hard to imagine it being better written”) and 3P (“Will appeal with pushing”). With such an impressive variety of characters and relationships and poetic styles, young readers will be hard pressed not to identify and empathize with someone in this book. While its free verse form may deter those who are not into poetry, the stellar quality of the writing and characterization makes it worth pushing.

I looked forward to finally reading David Levithan but was unsure what to expect from a novel in verse. Well, I loved this one. "Escapade," a poem that pays subtle homage to the friendship of Weetzie and Dirk of Weetzie Bat fame, also makes a direct reference to My So-Called Life, and indeed, I detected an overall vibe similar to the most empowering moments of that show. My only complaint was that the chapter and section titles made it difficult to track who's who. A comprehensive table of contents at the beginning would have been easier to refer to than the five separate lists of names before each section.

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3Q, 4P
This book was pretty lovely, which is the word I used to describe his other book Boy Meets Boy when I read that last summer. The teenage world both these stories inhabit are filled with acceptance and love. There's also pain and angst (moreso in this collection than in BMB), but it's almost

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always internally originated - there is little bullying to be found, despite the fact that he writes about a lot of LGBTQ characters. It's lovely.

This book was basically made up of 20 different stories from 20 different characters. Each character only has one section to tell his or her story, but their names and situations intertwine throughout the others. Some seem like letters, some seem like journal entries, but all are poetry. Each voice is distinct. The characters are about as fleshed out as you could hope for only really being around for maybe ten pages each.

The format, however, was a bit clunky. There are five sections, each with four characters. The characters are listed at the very beginning of the section, but not on the character stories themselves. I was constantly flipping back and forth from the title page to the chapter, trying to figure out who was speaking. Usually it took me a page or two to get acquainted or reacquainted to the character, if he or she had been introduced before. If I were recommending this to anyone, I would suggest he or she take brief notes at the end of each chapter, with the character name and his or her basic plot-line. That would have helped a lot.

Reviews for this book seem mostly positive. All the reviews I have seen of Levithan's work praise his ability to describe a world full of tolerance and love without making it seem unrealistic or saccharine. This book would definitely help bring to light the differences that may be present between us, but don't have to divide us. Because of the intertwining story lines, it definitely feels like a book about community.

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Written through the voice of twenty high schoolers, we are given a glimpse into how their lives interconnect and see their unique views on the same occurrences. Written poetically, with each characters "chapter" written in a different format, some in song lyrics, some as lists and one written

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alphabetically, Levithan is able to give us a realistic view into the minds and actions of young adults. Although the format might be off-putting to some, it is a wonderful display of how poetry can be transformed in our everyday lives, not the stuffy poems one is used to analyzing to death in school. Not a book for everyone, but those who read it, should find it enjoyable and unique- a good change of pace from the typical novel.

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VOYA 4Q 5P

I absolutely loved this book, this was my first book by David Levithan and I can't wait to read his other ones. The whole book is essentially a collection of poems by 20 characters, all interconnected teens that go to the same high school. I loved the idea of it, however, each character

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only gets about 10 pages each, which in verse, is not much. This made it a little difficult to follow on how they were all connected - however, I still walked away loving the book. I know it sounds weird, saying that I love the book, even though I had a hard keeping track of characters. However, the stories were all so touching and each reflected such an honest part of adolescence and life in high school. Some of the subjects can be a little dark, like eating disorders, but I walked away with such a sense of hope after the last poem, it was incredible.

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"You think you know your possibilities
Then other people come into
your life
and suddenly there are so many
more."

I have always loved David Levithan's writing style. And combining that with free-versed poems exhibited such a powerful book of overflowing emotions.

I absolutely loved this book, even if it took me so long to read. There were only like 2 chapters I didn't really care for, but the rest was so so good, I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

Some of the short stories were good reads, but a lot less engaging then Levithan's other stories. Some of the poetry was good, some was just there. I think this is more suitable for Y-erA audiences than his other work.

This book was an incredibly awkward, at times painful read, in the most beautiful way possible. I love the way that all the characters are connected to each other, even if they themselves do not see it, or even know each other/ feature in the other's story.

This book was a return trip to high

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school angst. It contained everything I managed to escape during my own adolescence. They guy I thought was my first love is as close as I get to the stories within. Was it just me or did the church girl remind y'all of one Mercedes Jones of Glee fame (the character not the actress).

Though I would not read this book again, I think it is one of those prolific, and profound, books that everyone ought to read once.

4 Claddagh rings out of 5.

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