Uses for Boys

Starred review from December 3, 2012
Anna still remembers the “tell-me-again times” when her single mother would reassure her that she was all her mother ever wanted. Through lyrical language, repeated phrases, and pared-down chapters that are often no longer than a page or two, debut novelist Scheidt traces Anna’s lonely path from age seven to 16, as her mother chases one man after another, leaving Anna to fend for herself. Anna has a series of early sexual encounters, is raped by an older boy, and eventually drops out of high school to move in with her teenage boyfriend. On her own, she makes missteps but also meets people trying just as hard as she is to stay afloat, as well as families that exude the warmth and closeness she craves. Readers will be moved as smart, honest Anna learns she can draw on her innate strength to write her own story—one with room for the wounded people she loves. Scheidt’s novel packs a punch; this fast-moving book can be devoured in one sitting, but reveals even more upon rereading. Ages 13–up. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency.

Starred review from November 15, 2012
A teen girl grapples movingly with maternal abandonment, sexuality and identity. Anna is the center of her young mother's world: "Now I have everything," she tells wee Anna repeatedly. Eventually, her devotion to single motherhood proves insufficient to address her own abandonment issues. Anna's mom begins to date, marry and divorce a series of faceless men in a depressing and self-defeating cycle that leaves her pre-pubescent daughter totally unmoored. Now middle school-aged, Anna is alone for days at a time in an empty suburban house, and she drifts into a series of precociously sexual encounters that she thinks will give her the "everything" she wants so badly. As much a user of boys as she is used by them, Anna is often sad but rarely self-pitying, finding ways to cope with loneliness and the self-sufficiency her neglectful mother has thrust upon her: stretching the grocery money, keeping the television on for company, building an enviable thrift-shop wardrobe. Friendship with Toy, a similarly wounded connoisseur of fashion and boys, leads Anna to look for something bigger and better in her relationships. The final third of the story moves a bit fast, but it works, and Anna is so compellingly flawed and quietly winning that readers won't quibble. Haunting, frank and un-put-downable. (Fiction. 14-17)

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December 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Scheidt paints a vivid and heart-wrenching picture of loneliness. The story unfolds as Anna is introduced to a series of men in her mother's life, men who come and go, as her mother becomes increasingly absent from home, and from parenthood in general. Anna's isolation lends itself to all of the behaviors one might expect: older boyfriends, early sexual experiences, experimentation with pot and booze. What's so special about this book is how Anna's behavior defies expectations. She is extremely tender and loving with the boys she dates (which makes one wonder about the title, since Anna's affection is nearly always genuine). She and her best friend, Toy, admire Audrey Hepburn and Billie Holiday; they exhibit taste and restraint in their second-hand stylishness. Anna isn't terribly reckless, all things considered, and she truly wishes her mother would come home for good. Eventually, she moves out and begins life as a dropout barista. Her apartment is spare, her life simple and steadfast. She falls in love, not only with Sam, but also with his large, warm, connected family. Her problems are not neatly resolved, to the author's credit, and readers feel the pain and uncertainty that come with disappointing someone you admire, and being disappointed by someone you love. This beautifully crafted novel is sweet and wonderfully straightforward. Give it to readers who loved Jessica Warman's Where the Truth Lies (Walker, 2010), Sara Zarr's Story of a Girl (Little, Brown, 2007), and Thalia Chaltas's Because I Am Furniture (Viking, 2009).-Nora G. Murphy, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, LaCanada-Flintridge, CA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2012
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Many girls will relate to the fact that there are no fathers in this story. Anna Bloom and her mother are everything to each other, for a time anyway. Then her mother starts falling for one man after the next, leaving young Anna alone for extended periods of time and marrying and divorcing in a vicious cycle. It's no wonder Anna starts to look to boys in order to define her own self-worth, and she mistakenly equates sex with love. Her first sexual experience comes at 14, and by 16, she has moved in with Joey (I want to take care of him) and dropped out of school. There's desperation in Anna's need for sexin her need to mold boyfriends into the family she never hadand her loneliness is palpable. By novel's end, readers will find themselves emotionally exhausted but hopeful. Scheidt's spare and poetic debut offers up pretty images for some decidedly unpretty situations (the unmade bed is peaked and stormy); at times, her prose feels as tightly wrought as a novel in verse. This is a story about where we come from and how, sometimes, we have to break free from the past in order to shape our own future. Scheidt could have easily spiraled into preachy territory here, but she never does. Lots of teens will see themselves in the pages of this beautiful, honest novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)