Good Moon Rising

Jan begins her senior year of high school not expecting that she will lose the starring part in the school play, take over as director when her beloved drama teacher becomes ill, and realize that she is a lesbian

Grade 8 Up?Jan is a high school senior, just back from summer stock and hoping for the role of Elizabeth in the school production of The Crucible. When a new student named Kerry gets the part, Jan's larger-than-life mentor, Mrs. Nicholson, assigns Jan to be stage manager instead. Then, as stand-in director when Mrs. Nicholson falls ill, Jan coaches Kerry. Eventually, the two realize that they are sexually attracted to one another. Other cast members notice, too. Some harass them, threatening the success of the play; others think it's nobody's business. Told in third-person narrative, this is a straightforward story of teen romance with a '90s twist. It gets off to a slow start, but tension builds as the young women receive increasingly disturbing hate messages. They finally "come out," affirming their feelings and undercutting the clique that had targeted them. Allusion to Salem witch hunts of the 17th century is obvious but effective, and the novel is well paced. Some may call this story a rehash of Garden's Annie on My Mind (Farrar, 1992), but it's more of an update. Although M.E. Kerr's Deliver Us from Evie (HarperCollins, 1994) is stronger, Good Moon Rising will find grateful readers among some of the same kids who appreciated that book.?Claudia Morrow, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Following a successful stint in summer stock, Jan fully expects her drama teacher, Mrs. Nicholson, to give her the best part in the school play, The Crucible. After auditions, however, a new girl gets the role. Hurt though she is, Jan admits that Kerry is perfect for the part and reluctantly accepts the job of stage manager. Jan works closely with all the cast members, including the arrogant male lead, Kent. She also coaches Kerry, finding herself more and more attracted to her. The feeling is reciprocal, and it isn't long before Jan and Kerry are in love, a fact they attempt to keep secret. Kent, however, who harbors a dislike of Jan, launches a vicious campaign of rumor and innuendo, first among the cast and then throughout the school. Meanwhile, Mrs. Nicholson succumbs by degrees to cancer, leaving Jan to direct the play, which further infuriates Kent. What opened as a tender tale becomes a story of the outrages heaped on any teenager suspected of being different, although Kent's deep, almost pathological hatred, chalked up much later to homophobia, is never adequately explained in the early pages. This is not Annie on My Mind (1982) revisited, but it covers similar territory. (Fiction. 14+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 9^-12. Another lesbian love story by the author of the widely praised and widely condemned Annie on My Mind (1982), this novel, set in a small New Hampshire town, will have more immediacy for YAs since it is not cast in a retrospective mode. High-school senior Janna Montcrief is sure she will get the part of Elizabeth Procter in this year's junior-senior play, Arthur Miller's The Crucible; but enter Kerry Socrides, new junior and a dead ringer for Elizabeth. Bitter at first at being appointed stage manager instead of getting the role, Jan comes to realize her directing potential and thrills to the feeling of putting a patchwork of scenes together to create a total, powerful play. She also gets to know and like Kerry by coaching her and gradually becomes aware that her feelings for Kerry go beyond friendship. The love relationship between the two girls evolves tentatively until the first quick, soft kiss on the lips. The sex scenes lack explicitness beyond the fumbling fondling typical of teen romances. As Jan and Kerry begin spending more and more time together, suspicions arise, and gay baiting begins, led by the determinedly macho Kent. Characterizations ring true, with one exception: Jan's summer stock gay friend, Raphael; although he plays a pivotal part in the girls' coming out, we just don't get to know him well enough to get beyond the stereotype; also, his letter to Jan seems contrived to get AIDS information across. Otherwise, the school scene, the play rehearsals, the interactions between characters, and the support the girls get when they finally squelch the rumors by coming out are natural and believable. Garden offers no easy answers: true, the gay bashers are suspended, but what will happen when they return to school, and how will the student body at large react to Jan and Kerry's love? Sally Estes