Will Grayson, Will Grayson-- John Green and David Levithan

Meet Will Grayson: He's the quiet almost-but-not-quite popular kid whose BFF Tiny is the biggest, gayest force in his small world. Will Grayson, his crush Jane, and Tiny take off for Chicago to catch an amazing band. When Will Grayson's fake ID doesn't work, he's reduced to passing the time in a very unlikely place...

Meet Will Grayson: He's the kid in all black, on antidepressants, and a closeted gay guy in love with his internet boyfriend Isaac. When Isaac proposes they meet IRL, Will Grayson travels to Chicago and finds the proposed meeting place, which is a very unlikely location...

Will Grayson stumbles upon the other Will Grayson... and when two universes collide, all kinds of unlikely things start to happen. Throw in some unrequited love, musical theater, lies, and recovery and you have this story. It's told in chapters narrated by alternating Will Graysons and each have a distinct voice and personality.

I enjoyed this book. It's a quick read and thankfully the concept of the two Will Graysons doesn't wear on the reader. The end was a little cheesy, but hey, you can't have it all, right? I would recommend this book to teens who like coming of age type stories, other books by either of the authors, positive coming out stories, or quirky concept type books.

This book will be published in April 2010.

Love is the Higher Law- David Levithan

Love is the Higher Law takes place in New York City on September 11, 2001. This story is the tale of three teens, Claire, Peter, and Jasper, and their experiences with the biggest attack on the USA that most American youth have lived through.

Their story overlaps, though not too strongly until about halfway through the book. Just like many New Yorkers, Clarie, Peter, and Jasper are affected by the attacks on the twin towers differently, but strongly, and even months later are feeling the affects of the tragedy.

Honestly, I struggle with Davie Levithan. He has moments of brilliance (one or two of his short stories in How They Met) but mostly his books are a bit meh. Still, this is a really great short book for teens who want to read 9/11 fiction, teens who feel connected with NYC, or those who want a book with gay characters in it.

How They Met and other stories-- David Levithan

I am pretty picky when it comes to short stories... so many of them read like novels that didn't really work, so the author turned the piece into a short story. I was very pleased to find that David Levithan's collection was quite good. Levithan really seems to get what makes a short story appealing to readers. Even though some were more captivating than others, each story in How They Met had a unique tone and good character development. (My personal favorite was Starbucks Boy).

Levithan says at the beginning of this book that these are stories about love, not love stories. I would have to agree... love stories makes me think about romance, while stories about love makes me think of relationships. And, in each of his stories, relationships between friends, lovers, family, etc are the key element.

Although I am not a huge fan of his other work, with the notable exception of the two books he cowrote with Rachel Cohn (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Eli's No Kiss List), I can easily recommend this book with few reservations. Levithan is known for writing novels with gay characters, but this book talks about all types of relationships, including hetero and homosexual, and many things in-between. Because of this, I believe this short story collection will reach a wider variety of readers than some other collections I have read in the past.

Teens who liked Julie Anne Peters' Girl to Girl, Francesca Lia Block's Blood Roses, 21 Proms and This is Push: stories from the edge (both edited by Levithan), or Meg Cabot's Prom Nights from Hell should enjoy this book. I would also recommend How They Met to fans of Cohn and Levithan's cowriten novels, readers of romance in general, and readers who appreciate not-so-mainstream lovestories.