Summer Reading 2013: Last Exit to Normal (Realistic Fiction)

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Spiky-haired skater Ben Campbell moves with his gay dads to rural Montana, where he finds animal carcasses, trucks, a cute farm girl and a troubled kid next door. Readers will love watching this hilarious teen grapple with his new digs, delinquent tendencies and irrepressible sarcasm. Miss Mae, Ben's grisly Grandma, serves as a fantastic, country-fried foil to Ben's snarky cynicism. Quick, unfiltered dialogue generates great moments of witty banter, but also captures darker explosions of rage between father and son. Ben still resents his dad's decision to honor his sexuality and come out, even if it meant dismantling their family. Fortunately, this is not an evil stepfather story. Harmon constructs a much more interesting scenario, in which Ben actually likes his father's partner, Edward. Teen readers will realize that anger isn't usually rational and identify with Ben's lingering frustration. They will also realize that Ben is a benevolent guy—one who rescues a man from under a tractor and tries to save a boy from an abusive home. (Kirkus)

Michael Harmon is a high-school dropout and writer whose first novel, Skate, draws on the author's own rebellious youth. Harmon once stated: "My interest in writing began as a tremendous avenue to vent my anger while in high school. Poetry, short stories, and journal entries littered my bedroom. As I grew older and found success where I hadn't in high school, my passion for writing remained, though it became more tempered and introspective about the circumstance I had been in as a teen. The effect I hope my books have is multi-faceted, really. I hope that the teenagers who read my work can relate to the truth of them, or gain understanding and compassion for their counterparts who do. I wish for parents to read my work and talk with their children about the different aspects and social situations in- cluded. And lastly, I would like for teachers and administrators to read what their students are reading to gain more perspective on why so many teens feel the way they do." (Encyclopedia.com)