This month’s Vintage YA is very on theme for February! Sadly, I haven’t read this title myself, and my local library doesn’t have it available for check out. (It’s on special reserve or something) I do plan on reading the book eventually, but with a pending move in the works I’m trying not to increase my amount ‘stuff’. Regardless, I feel that this book needs special mention. Here’s the summary provided by Goodreads:

“This groundbreaking book is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings. This book is so truthful and honest; it has been banned from many school libraries and even publicly burned in Kansas City.

Of the author and the book, the Margaret A. Edwards Award committee said, “Nancy Garden has the distinction of being the first author for young adults to create a lesbian love story with a positive ending. Using a fluid, readable style, Garden opens a window through which readers can find courage to be true to themselves.”

I would also like to mention that this book is on my YA Banned Books Bracelet, which I wrote about for last month’s Literary Inspired Item.

I loved the idea of this book. A teenage lesbian story filled with love and heartache. It’s a coming of age story that there are rarely others to compare it too. Everyone experiences love for a first time and it isn’t always with the hottest guy at school, or an undead vampire. This is an example of power to women, in this case, young women on the right to freely express whom they want to love.

This Valentines Day should be celebrated by all of those in love, and with the progression of more states in the US making gay marriage legal, I can only hope that one-day people all over the world can love freely. Thank you Nancy Garden for writing this book and paving the way for girls who love girls to read about others that feel the same way they do.