Boy Girl Boy - Ron Koertge

This is a really interesting book told from the perspective of, you guessed it, two girls and one boy. It's by the author of one of last year's Young Reader's Choice nominees whose work I really enjoy. Some of the topics in this novel are pretty mature, so I don't think I'll be getting it for our library, but it was an interesting story based on the premise that these three best friends who are about to graduate from high school are going to take off together to California and live there as soon as they graduate. But underneath it all, the three of them are changing, and none of them is really sure that going to California together is what they want anymore. But they don't really know how to tell the other two because the they think they'd be spoiling the plan.

I think that people often get themselves into situations like this, maybe not as big as moving to California, but they say they'll do something and then something else happens and they want to change their mind but they don't feel like they can. How do we develop the skills to exit gracefully when we need to? And what if we don't? Where does that leave us? Why is it often more difficult to let others down than to let ourselves down? Is this a learned behavior? I'm pretty sure that in part it is, but maybe not completely. Maybe there's a part of us that instinctively wants to protect those we care about. Is it all bad? Definitely not, but sometimes it really is. OK, I'm off my soapbox now. This book would be good for mature 8th graders and up. It's available at Multnomah County Libraries.