February's Book Pick is ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
This book gets it right in so many ways--for one thing, it speaks to the heart of what is most difficult about adolescence--how, if ever, you will find your place in the world. It's about being uncomfortable as you grow into yourself.
As Ari says, when he's working at the burger place on New Year's Eve:
Somewhere toward the end of the shift we all started singing U2 songs. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Yeah, that was a good song. My theme song. But really I thought it was everybody's theme song.
Ari is desperate to find himself. He feels alienated from almost everyone around him. He has a close relationship with his mother, but his father is more difficult-- the strong, silent type, and it's this father who Ari emulates. Ari finds it difficult to talk to most people, especially kids his own age, until Dante shows up at the neighborhood pool and teaches him to swim. Dante is everything Ari is not. Dante is comfortable in his own skin, knows who he is and what he wants, and he's a talker, too. He coaxes Ari into conversation, and Ari opens up to him.
The storytelling, reflecting Ari's character, is somewhat spare and straightforward, matter-of-fact, maybe? but the writing is gorgeous, and everything that needs to be said is said.
I hope you give this Printz Honor Book from 2013 a try.
--Lynn
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