Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit

Jaye Robin Brown | August 2016 | HarperTeen | 419 pages

From Goodreads:

Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees. Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so-tempting sister of her new friend at school. But Jo couldn’t possibly think of breaking her promise to her dad. Even if she’s starting to fall for the girl. Even if there’s a chance Mary Carlson might be interested in her, too. Right?

My Take:

Commendable story for the refreshing premise alone: as the daughter of a preacher, it’s fascinating to me that instead of a Christian teenage girl trying to wrangle with the “sin” of her sexual orientation and hiding it from her family, we have her going back into the closet for everyone else’s sake. Jo’s been promised a radio talk show where she can talk about what’s it like to be gay and Christian simultaneously - hey, they’re not mutually exclusive, what a concept! - and it’s this carrot that’s dangling in front of her that makes for an interesting “gotta keep things hush-hush” plot. Overall, the BIG LESSON in this book is “honesty is the best policy,” and aside from one pretty hot-and-heavy make-out session, the sexual content in this book is minimal. Typical teenage-level swearing. I’d say it’d be pretty safe to have in your classrooms’ mini-libraries for independent reading.

Hello and welcome to Queering the Curriculum!

Here I’ll be posting some LGBTQ YA book reviews and other ideas and resources that would increase LGBTQ representation and visibility in your classrooms.