Welcome to Litsy!

This title won a Batchelder Award Honor which put it on my radar. It‘s a uniquely told story: using both comics and prose pieces, it almost feels like a journal. I was slowly charmed by it, and the ending was exactly right.

This is a beautiful, subtle story of queer teenage love set in small town Portugal, told alternately in graphic novel and prose poem format. The art is gorgeous, dynamic, and expressive. The words are poetic yet simple, and authentic in a way that brought me right back to being 16 and having a crush.I loved this! Definitely read this if you're a fan of Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki's graphic novels.

"Pardalita, I tried to sit as far away from you as possible. But since we were in a circle, the farthest away meant facing you directly. Not the best plan."

"How far can you be from someone without them noticing you don't want any distance at all?"

Ah, the idiosyncrasies of a queer teenage crush

#QueerBooks

Images like the page above bring me right back to the two years I lived in Portugal. Loved this book about realizing there‘s more out there than one‘s own small town. Also loved Raquel‘s growing awareness of the world around her and the possibility of love.

I was blown away by this slice of life story of two young women falling in love & how the younger of the two realizes the larger possibilities of life outside of their small town in Portugal when she travels to Lisbon with the older one. Contemporary social issues about migrants are tied seamlessly to searching for info on Sappho & Lesbos. Translation by Lyn Miller-Lachman. Hybrid format: verse & graphic novel. #LGBTQ #YA

—Sophia de Mello Breyner wrote a poem that‘s called ‘Adapted from Alcman.‘ It goes:
The muse, the siren
Her song loud and pure.
—Is that all?
—It‘s all you need.

Every time I come across a reference to jacarandas, I think of Jenny and her Reading Envy podcast. She is missed.