Idgie Says:As with her first book, this also deals with life of a teenage girl living with the confusion, uncertainty and heartache of being attracted to her own sex instead of the opposite sex, fearing being an outcast and fearing rejection at the same time. The first book had a harsher punishment for such a thing as it was set in the Middle East and you can be condemned to death for being a lesbian. This novel is set in the United States where peer pressure shunning and family issues would be the biggest heartache...... beside the fact of not getting the girl you love.
I think these books are great for young people to read - to realize that if they are not feeling or following "the Norm", that they are NOT alone.
Dew on the Kudzu review of Sara's first book, If You Could Be Mine can be found HERE.
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Algonquin Young Readers
October 7, 2014
Book Description:
High-school junior Leila has made it most of the way through Armstead Academy without having a crush on anyone, which is something of a relief. Her Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual.
Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia’s confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be, and many are keeping fascinating secrets of their own.