Tribes

There's the Logo Tribe, who "exhibit name brands wherever and whenever possible," the Digerati Tribe, who "worship bytes and silicon chips," and the Busybody Tribe, whose "batlike ears stretched high to gather up every vibration and echo." These are only a few of the exotic groups Percy Montmount has identified in his immense study of the human adolescent's rituals, "The Origin of the Species Revisited." And what better person to record these behaviors than one who is a member of no tribe? Ever since the death of his famous anthropologist father three years ago, Percy has blocked his grief by becoming an aloof observer of his classmates' odd rituals instead of an active player. But lately, it's gotten harder to classify his feelings as just biological responses to outside stimuli. Stimuli like his attraction to Elissa, a sexy, intelligent female biped, or his memories of Willard Stokes, the friend who committed suicide after suffering from unrequited love for a member of the Lipstick/Hairspray Tribe. And now that Graduation, that ultimate rite of passage, is almost upon him, Percy may be forced by unknown factors outside his tightly controlled environment to finally drop his field notebook and become what he dreads an actual participant in his own life. It is safe to say that there is no character quite like Percy in young adult literature. His unique coping mechanism of classifying his peers into Darwinian clusters is sheer brilliance on the part of author Arthur Slade, and makes for an original and entertaining novel that will be enjoyed by teen, teacher, and parent tribes alike. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert