Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom

January 30, 2012
High school seniors Lucas and Tessa have been lifelong friends, but when he asks her to the prom she turns him down, revealing that she is gay and has a girlfriend. Angry at this rejection and that Tessa kept something from him, Lucas betrays Tessa’s secret and even gives a mean interview to the school newspaper (“ur whole Prom is going to be about her instead of being a normal dance”). There are protestors outside Tessa’s parents’ grocery store, the school administration is threatening to expel her, and the school board may cancel the prom. Franklin and Halpin’s third he said/she said collaboration (following Jenna & Josh’s Fauxmance and The Half-Life of Planets) will have readers empathizing both with Lucas’s desire to “make things right” and Tessa’s pain as she deals with hate in the hallways and at home. Lucas’s ultimate “grand gesture” is farfetched, but it’s also a fun release after an emotional story about the struggles gay teens often face and what it means to be a friend. Ages 12–up. Agents: (for Franklin) Faye Bender, Faye Bender Literary Agency; (for Halpin) Douglas Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic.

January 15, 2012
In a story unapologetically ripped from the headlines, a small-town high-school student starts a furor by announcing her intention to wear a tuxedo to prom and bring a same-sex date. Lucas has always loved his best friend Tessa. But his grand, public invitation for her to be his prom date unexpectedly inspires Tessa to acknowledge what she has known in the back of her mind for years: She is a lesbian. In chapters narrated alternately by Luke and Tessa, readers experience Luke's initial anger and Tessa's growing self-confidence. Then it all hits the fan: Parents become outraged, students vandalize Tessa's locker, the school board threatens to cancel prom and a media circus descends as the story becomes national news. Readers familiar with lesbian would-be promgoer Constance McMillen will recognize the sequence of events here, from the arrival of a supportive but brusque ACLU lawyer to the exclusionary private prom parents create after the school-sponsored dance is axed. And despite a few standout characters--Luke's mom in particular takes a funny and surprising tough-love approach to her son--the book mostly reads as a dramatization of the 2010 news story. An accessible, if not original, take on coming out and overcoming adversity. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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April 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up-A "he feels/she feels" story of love, friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness that could have come straight from recent headlines. When Lucas finally addresses his feelings for his best friend, Tessa, and invites her to prom, he doesn't get the answer he expects. Tessa comes out to Lucas as a lesbian, and, feeling betrayed, he does not keep her secret safe. Soon the entire nation is watching the battle that emerges, culminating in the school deciding to cancel prom rather than let Tessa attend in a tuxedo with a female date. Telling the story through alternating viewpoints, the authors do not shy away from the complex emotions each character feels as they create a realistic snapshot of a devastating situation with an uplifting conclusion. Tessa is thrust into the role of spokesperson and hero for lesbian and gay youth and has to dig into reserves of strength she didn't know she had, while Lucas has to figure out how to manage feeling betrayed and doing what he knows is right in spite of that. Everything comes together in this novel a little more happily than it tends to in real life, but the story is made entirely believable by the skill of the authors.-Sharon Senser McKellar, Oakland Public Library, CA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
Grades 8-12 In a story ripped from the headlines, Tessa Masterson, a lesbian, fights against her small, conservative Indiana town for the right to wear a tuxedo and bring her girlfriend to the prom. While the controversy provides the novel's framework, this is, at its core, a story about two friends, told from he-said, she-said perspectives. When Lucas, a boy who believes in grand gestures, asks his best friend turned love interest, Tessa, to the prom on a 20-foot-tall sign outside her family's grocery store, his question is met with a confession: Tessa's gay. What follows is a firestorm: hurt Lucas betrays Tessa to the school paperour whole Prom is going to be about Tessa Masterson instead of just being a normal dance. The religious come out en masse to protest, the school administration votes to cancel the prom, the grocery store is boycotted, the ACLU becomes involved, and Tessa's story becomes national news fodder. Plus, Lucas starts to regret his words. The book doesn't break gay-lit ground, but with an over-the-top gesture forming the conclusion, it's kind of fabulous.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)