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A review by jackiehorne
How We Began by Annabeth Albert, Vanessa North, Geonn Cannon, Amy Jo Cousins, Alexis Hall, Edie Danford, Delphine Dryden
4.0
ARC supplied by the publisher.
An enjoyable, if not really cohesive, collection of six "sweet" (the collection's term, not mine) LGBTQ stories. The first two (by Alexis Hall and Delphine Dryden) are fantasy, with the other four contemporary. Dryden's story, which she wrote for "to finally publish something my kids could read and enjoy" reads as if its intended audience is middle grade readers, those who like the How to Train Your Dragonbooks, and would be a good introduction to thinking about same-sex liking for readers of that age.
The other stories are suitable for teens as well as for adults. Hall's, set in a technologically dystopian future, focuses on two members of a wildly popular manufactured boys band, with one member's realization that the other's gender identification is not as boyish as everyone believes.
The other four stories work better together, focusing on high school and college-aged teens struggling with how and when to come out, and how to navigate their first forays into romance. North's story features a boy with on the Autism spectrum teaching an apparently straight boy how to knit, as part of the boy's required probation, with romance ensuing; Cousins writes of a transsexual teen whose finds a friend, and perhaps a boyfriend, in the coffee shop where she takes refuge from her unaccepting family. Albert's narrator is a young man who grew up in a rural setting going to college in NYC, in large part so he can find validation for his gay identity; Cannon's is a college-bound young woman debating whether it is worth it to tell her best friend (whom she's been carrying a torch for for ages) that she's gay.
For parents who'd like their kids to read about gender and sexual identity issues in the form of stories rather than nonfiction, but who'd like to stay away from the details of sex.
All proceeds for this book benefit The Trevor Project, the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ people ages thirteen to twenty four.
An enjoyable, if not really cohesive, collection of six "sweet" (the collection's term, not mine) LGBTQ stories. The first two (by Alexis Hall and Delphine Dryden) are fantasy, with the other four contemporary. Dryden's story, which she wrote for "to finally publish something my kids could read and enjoy" reads as if its intended audience is middle grade readers, those who like the How to Train Your Dragonbooks, and would be a good introduction to thinking about same-sex liking for readers of that age.
The other stories are suitable for teens as well as for adults. Hall's, set in a technologically dystopian future, focuses on two members of a wildly popular manufactured boys band, with one member's realization that the other's gender identification is not as boyish as everyone believes.
The other four stories work better together, focusing on high school and college-aged teens struggling with how and when to come out, and how to navigate their first forays into romance. North's story features a boy with on the Autism spectrum teaching an apparently straight boy how to knit, as part of the boy's required probation, with romance ensuing; Cousins writes of a transsexual teen whose finds a friend, and perhaps a boyfriend, in the coffee shop where she takes refuge from her unaccepting family. Albert's narrator is a young man who grew up in a rural setting going to college in NYC, in large part so he can find validation for his gay identity; Cannon's is a college-bound young woman debating whether it is worth it to tell her best friend (whom she's been carrying a torch for for ages) that she's gay.
For parents who'd like their kids to read about gender and sexual identity issues in the form of stories rather than nonfiction, but who'd like to stay away from the details of sex.
All proceeds for this book benefit The Trevor Project, the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ people ages thirteen to twenty four.