Wednesday, April 23, 2008

What Superpower Would You Want?

I just opened the fridge and a coke rolled out and exploded on the floor. It completely soaked my pants and soggied up my shoes (#1 pet peeve). It went into some recesses in the kitchen I didn't know existed. And then, the dogs - in their excitement - traipsed through it all...and then started licking it up. While I was down on my knees cleaning it all very thoroughly, even the little grouty-grout pieces...I thought back to a book I finished recently. In the book, the main character (Thom) comes into his superpowers...superpowers that he didn't really know about before.

This book is called Hero and it is authored by Perry Moore (who, apparently, is the cat's pajamas, and just executive produced "The Lion, The Witch..." etc...).
Moore did a great job writing this book. He wasn't preachy. He wasn't one themed. He was multi-faceted and the book was an easy read.

Thom, despite having an unnecessary "h" in his name, was a very likable kid who was coming of age. He has a lot of issues to deal with: his home life, his budding powers of healing, his missing mother, oh...and the fact that he is gay and his father won't approve.

But what you like about Thom is that he decides he has to be true to himself and then he goes out and lives the life that makes that happen.
Many YA- GLBT books seem to stop at the fact that the main character is gay and out. Moore didn't let his book fall into this trap. Instead, the fact that Thom was gay was represented from the start...and his struggle became more about, as one of the secondary characters, Ruth, put it: choices. The choices that we make, good or bad, that influence our lives.

My superpower would be telepathy...so I could tell that the exploding coke was coming and avoid it all together. Altruistic, I know.
But I would use it to communicate that if we all read a little more Moore, we might be a better planet.

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