Interesting book.

When I asked about starting a GLBT club at a high school the other day, someone recommended The Geography Club by Brent Hartinger.

I picked up a copy today. Even the paperback was overpriced for the size, but that's pretty typical for "young adult" fiction. I got a new copy because the only used copy was more messed up than I wanted to deal with.

I finished it an hour or so back. It's way too real in places. If I didn't have the stories I was working on to channel that sort of emotion into, I think it'd have had me getting *way* more emotional than I like to.

But the kids in it are *real*. They're scared of being different, they're afraid of rejection. They do dumb things to try to fit in. And all the rest.

Even so, I recommend it. Because they get thru it. In spite of their screwups and the bad intentions of others, they manage to find the courage to do what they have to.

I was laughing hysterically in spots. And wanted to cry in others. And I'm going to be loaning my copy to a few people. Maybe even to a friend's teen daughter. though I'll have to loan it to her mom first. <g>

(no subject)

Once upon a time there was a child.

This child had a mother who had wanted a child badly and finally was able to adopt a baby after her husband died. The child loved mother. And tried to be like her. Even practicing until the child could sit with crossed legs "just like mom".

The child only had a few friends. The girl next door (until she moved away) a girl across the street, and a few boys who lived farther away.

The boys played pranks the child sometimes. But nothing too bad, though a few could have been if the child hadn't gotten suspicious. The girls didn't always want to play with the child, but the didn't try to play mean tricks either.

Then the child started school. And the world changed...

Boys made fun of the child for sitting with crossed legs. And for wanting to play with the girls.

For the child was a boy...

Stupid males...

I had to go bail Tim out of the pound tonight. He just *won't* wear his collar all the time, but he keeps forgetting to check the calendar to see when the full moon is.

Thank god for implanted Pet ID chips. I remember the old days when a were would get picked up and have to deal with being naked with a bunch of dogs when moonset came...

At least now they can scan and stick them in a different pen. And have a robe or something for when they change back.

Anyway, there I was zipping along on a story that I'd *finally* got past a block on. And the phone rings. As soon as I saw the caller ID, I just *knew* it had to be Tim. Again.

It was. So I saved the file and called a cab. Then I dug a collar and leash out of the toy bag. They went into my shoulder bag.

There were the usual hassles once I got there. Paying the fines. Paying for the food he'd eaten (of *course* he was ravenous, changing takes energy and if I know him, he'd not eaten since lunch). Listening to the inevitable lecture about him not wearing his collar.

They'd have lectured him, but when he's not ready for the change he tends to wind up kind of dumb in wolf form. So as his "emergency contact" in the file they lectured me.

Fortunately, they cut it short. Seems they had truck load of suspected weres on the way in. First night is pretty chaotic in a big city like Portland.

So they let him out and I put the collar and leash on him. Then I called another cab to take us home.

I got lucky and a friend who drives cab was both on duty and available. Anti-discrimination laws or no, most cabbies won't let you take a changed were. I can't blame them given that some aren't housebroken very well.

I swear I'm going to get his collar tomorrow and lock it on him.

Hmmm... come to think of it, if I use the padded cuffs from the toy bag, I can chain him up and he'll still be stuck when he changes back.

Well, I've got to go. He *owes* me and I'm feeling like playing with the "doggy". :-)

(no, I'm not crazy. It's all( cadhla's fault. See her "rabbithole" posts)