Graffiti Moon

December 19, 2011
Crowley (A Little Wanting Song) returns with a moving contemporary spin on disguised-identity romances (think You’ve Got Mail), first published in Australia. The novel is told in the voices of two creative older teenagers—Ed, aka secretive graffiti artist Shadow, and Lucy, a fledgling glass blower—interspersed with the poems of Leo/Poet, Ed’s best friend and graffiti partner. Set over the course of one long night, Crowley’s story slowly develops the relationship between Ed and Lucy, enemies since a disastrous date two years earlier. Lucy is obsessed with Shadow and his art; she tells Ed, “I just want to meet one guy, one guy, who thinks art is cool.” The teens’ artistic sensibilities are richly and affectingly expressed; readers will agonize over their obvious compatibility and long for them to recognize each other as soul mates. The beauty and danger of the nocturnal urban landscape is an effective counterpoint to the growing attraction of the sensitive yet bristly pair. Secondary characters—close friends, artistic mentors, and well-meaning parents—are strongly rendered, layering the steadily engrossing story with credible complexity. Ages 14–up. Agent: Catherine Drayton, InkWell Management.

December 1, 2011
Alternating narrators and snatches of poetry tell the tale of love among graffiti artists. Lucy has been searching for the mysterious graffiti artist Shadow, whose work seems to address her fear of romance. Unfortunately, the only guy who knows how to track him down is Ed, whose nose Lucy broke at the end of a disastrous date. Ed knows how to track down Shadow because he is Shadow--a secret he hopes to keep from Lucy while he leads her around town revisiting old haunts. When Lucy discovers that Ed has been lying to her, she must deal with her conflicted feelings over the artist and the annoying man. Readers will quickly realize that Ed and Shadow are one and the same, a fact that Crowley reveals fairly early on. With that mystery stripped away, Ed is difficult to like, lacking both a strong personality and emotional resonance. His difficulty at school due to dyslexia smacks of pandering and isn't well integrated into the overall story. Lucy's personality is slightly more developed; glassblowing is a talent not often seen in teen fiction. However, Crowley's divided narrative doesn't suit the characters, and the decision to intersperse poems into the mix further fractures their interactions. There's splashes of color, but teens will find their interest washes out rapidly. (Fiction. 13 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up-This adventure, set in Australia, is one for the art crowd. Lucy, Jazz, and Daisy plan to celebrate graduation by staying out all night. And while they're at it, Lucy is determined to meet Shadow, a mysterious graffiti artist who has tagged the city with his soulful works. Jazz is set on finding Poet, Shadow's partner and the wordsmith of his wall art. Daisy just wants boyfriend Dylan to remember that it's her birthday. Dealing with his dyslexia by quitting school, Ed has lost his job in a paint store and is talked into robbing the art wing of the high school this particular night with Leo and Dylan. They decide to hang out with the girls until it's time for the heist. Ed takes Lucy on a search for Shadow and along the way they visit a number of his paintings around the city. Chapters that alternate between Lucy and Ed (who, unbeknownst to Lucy, is Shadow) rely heavily on art-themed metaphor to describe the encroaching darkness, city scenes, traffic lights, and impending dawn. Part gallery tour, part crime caper, and part romance, Graffiti Moon is an artsy spin on the common young adult theme of self-discovery. The references to artists and specific works may intimidate readers who have little related knowledge, but it might also nudge them to learn about Vermeer and others. The aesthetic tone of the story is punctuated with comic relief and some coarse language. While Lucy's and Ed's inner dialogues sometimes seem unrealistically metaphorical, readers will appreciate the original and sympathetic characters. A paint-covered thumbs up!-Karen Elliott, Grafton High School, WI

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
Grades 7-10 Glass-artist Lucy is in love with Shadow, a sensitive graffiti artist whose work stealthily appears all over their Australian city. She knows they're soul mates who just haven't met yet. What she doesn't know is that Shadow, whose real name is Ed, has already taken her out, but it was such a disaster that they haven't spoken since. On the final night of senior year, Lucy and her friend Jazz meet up with Ed and his partner in art, Leo (aka Poet). In alternating voices, Ed, Lucy, and Leo chronicle their night, reflect on their pasts and home lives, fall in love, get in fights, almost rob a school, and contemplate their futures in one of the great teen-lit setups: the will-they, won't-they postgraduation all-nighter.The three teens' artistic sensibilities come through in their voices. Poet explores poetic forms, Shadow sees colors and art everywhere, and Lucy's experience in her brittle but strong medium clearly informs her outlook. Laced with humor and sadness, longing and joy, this slice of life is satisfying and hopeful.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)