Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, a YA novel with a transgendered protagonist, is being published this October by Flux. (You can read my review here.) I asked the author, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, to guest blog about some of the issues the…
Author: petermarino
Peter is an English professor at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, New York where he teaches writing, speech, and the occasional literature class. He won the SUNY Chancellor's Award in 2006 for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity. His first young adult novel, Dough Boy, about a fat and self-conscious but very funny high school sophomore, was published by Holiday House in October 2005 and is now available in paperback. It was nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2006. His latest young adult novel, also with Holiday House, is Magic and Misery, about a teenage girl trying to balance her life with her best gay friend and her new boyfriend. It has been nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2009 and is on Booklist’s Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth and was placed on the ALA Round Table Rainbow Books Bibliography.. He is finishing up three (yes three) new novels for young readers. Peter’s full-length play, The Grandma Show, co-authored with Tom Ecobelli, has had productions all over the country. His ten-minute play “Ralph Smith of Schenectady, New York...” has been produced in the 9th Annual New York City 15 Minute Play Festival, the Samuel French 2003 Short Play Festival, and SlamBoston! 2005. Another one-act, “The Good Samaritan,” won first place in SlamBoston! 2006.
Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White
I was recently told by a graphic novelist that comic books and graphic novels differ only in how they are marketed, that they are basically the same art form. And thinking back to my youth where during camping trips I…
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children
I came to transgender awareness a bit late in life. I always wondered if the real issues surrounding gender identification were basically a problem with societal standards for what it meant to be a man or what it meant to…
King & King
This book is a bit old, but I’m revisiting it since it’s June, which is both Pride month and the month of my anniversary. (Our friend and professional storyteller Christie Keegan told a version of the story at my wedding…
Waiting for the Biblioburro
What a delight this book was. I even found myself obsessed with the heavy feel of the paper it is printed on (good news for those parents whose toddlers will maul a book). The story and illustrations are very basic,…
Dignity for All: Safeguarding LGBT Students
With anti-bullying curricula in the news very recently, Dignity for All: Safeguarding LGBT Students is a timely effort by Dr. Peter DeWitt, an elementary school principal and former teacher. This soft-cover reference is an informative and efficient resource for teachers,…
Heart and Soul-The Story of America and African-Americans
This book received effusive praise from the sacred cows of the industry and I assumed that it was a huge commercial hit as a result, especially considering its subject matter. But finding that it was lodged at a humble #12,000…
Richard Wright and the Library Card
This is a fairly old book, but I decided to include it because it’s Black History Month (for a couple more days) and because I remain a stalwart Richard Wright reader. Most of his work is probably not suited…
Marching with Aunt Susan
Marching with Aunt Susan, written by Claire Rudolf Murphy and illustrated by Stacey Schuett, makes a parallel between the great civil rights leader Susan B. Anthony and a girl living in the late 19th century named Bessie. Her brothers and…