Tilt

January 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Naive, callow, and continually disappointed by others yet ever hopeful that things will turn around, Stan could be the voice of any sensitive, disillusioned youth trying to come to terms with a world that seems aligned against him. The Dart family was torn apart when Stan's father ran away with a much-younger girlfriend whom he had impregnated. The teen struggles to hold his remaining family together, caring for his gifted but troubled younger sister while his mother desperately pursues a relationship with a man Stan can't abide. His dreams for himself had been pinned on making the JV basketball team from which he had been cut the previous year, but those dreams seem dashed when it is announced that the school has dropped the program. Likewise, Stan's obsession with beautiful yet enigmatic Janine Igwash seems likely to end in frustration when a friend informs him that Janine is a gwog (girl who goes with girls). She is in the midst of ending her relationship with her girlfriend, however, and her growing attraction to Stan culminates in a passionate encounter (described in a way that might make some readers uncomfortable). Ashamed and embarrassed by his own sexual feelings and of the expression-and consequences-of those feelings in the adults in his life, the teen is deeply conflicted, but his rejection of the cynical and misogynistic views of his father suggest that his experiences will lead him to a healthy, mature perspective. The novel's brief closing chapter is beautiful, lyrical, and appropriately equivocal, and will resonate with readers long after they have finished the book.-Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011

Almost despite himself, 16-year-old Stan emerges with flying colors from a week of sweet confusion, domestic turmoil and momentous tests of character.

Basketball tryouts loom. Stan struggles with persistent erections—particularly after classmate Janine (correctly, as it turns out, rumored to be a GWOG—"Goes With Other Girls") asks him to a weekend dance. Worse yet, out of the blue his ne'er-do-well father shows up with Feldon, the child of an affair that caused Stan's parents to split up five years ago. Despite events that conspire to suggest otherwise—capped by a day in which Stan cuts class and tryouts to care for Feldon, then has a semi-unplanned bedroom rendezvous with Janine that begins with premature ejaculation and ends with his mother walking in—Stan is actually the most responsible member of his household. Moreover, not only is he versed in coping with his high-strung mother and tempestuous little sister (skills that help with troubled Feldon), he is endowed with a mouth and body that usually take over to do or say the right things whenever mental paralysis sets in. When Stan does finally meltdown, help from unexpected quarters brings him through with no permanent damage. The third-person narration is filtered through Stan's perceptions, and Cumyn demonstrates a great sense of phrasing: "Suddenly the wall of sound collapsed into rubble and everyone was clapping."

The comedy and drama are both mild, but the two eminently likable teens at the center of it look capable of keeping heads and hearts in balance in a world subject to sudden tilts. (Fiction. 13-16)

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