Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

 Will Grayson's best friend, Tiny, is very big and very proudly gay.  Will is sometimes embarrassed by Tiny's flamboyant personality and wants to hide when he hears that Tiny wants to produce a musical play he has written about himself. Meanwhile, another boy names Will Grayson is sarcastic, depressed and offensive.  His only friends is an emo girl and a guy he met online whom he suspects he is in love with. After some high school drama in each of their lives, the two Will Graysons meet on the worst day of the emo Will Grayson's life. The other Will Grayson introduces the emo one to Tiny, and everything changes for a while. Can the island of happiness emo Will Grayson found last?  Will Tiny be able to pull off his musical?  With best friend Will Grayson lose his best friend, or find his first girlfriend?  

I put this book on hold while I was putting together my Pride Month display back at the beginning of June.  It was on all the Pride Month lists.  When it came in I braced myself to read something way out of my normal comfort zone. I do that sometimes just to stretch myself and open my mind. In some ways this was out of my comfort zone.  It contains some, (or really, a lot) of sexually explicit dialog, i.e. locker room type talk.  It is also full of other language, include a whole mine field of F-bombs.  However, there isn't any depictions of sexual acts, either homo or heterosexual.  The book is about coming of age and coming out, but it is mostly about friendship and I can see why it has received a lot of attention.  I would be astounded if it were not on a bunch of banned book lists, and it is probably totally illegal in Florida, but I found it kind of wonderful.  (320 p. 2010)