The You Know Who Girls: Freshman Year

by Annameekee Hesik

Overview

Abbey Brooks, Gila High freshman-to-be, never thought a hellish day of shopping at the mall with her best friend, Kate, could change her life. But when she orders French fries from the flirtatious Hot Dog on a Stick Chick, she gets more than deep-fried potatoes. Abbey tries to ignore the weird, happy feeling in her gut, but that proves to be as impossible as avoiding the very insistent (and--rumor has it--very lesbian) players on Gila High's girls' basketball team. They want freakishly long-legged Abbey to try out, and Abbey doesn't hate the idea. But Kate made Abbey pinky swear to avoid basketball and to keep away from the you-know-who girls on the team.

Sometimes promises can't be kept. And sometimes girls in uniform are impossible to resist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602827547
Publisher:	Bold Strokes Books
Publication date:	10/16/2012
Series:	You Know Who Girls Series , #1
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Annameekee Hesik came out when she was fifteen and has since told her entire family, the pet store guy, the lady in line at the post office, and pretty much anyone else she comes in contact with. After surviving high school, she went to college for six years and changed her major five times. She is thrilled she finally decided to become a high school English teacher (with a background in anthropology, American Sign Language, history, and environmental biology). And yes, she is out to her students, too. When she isn’t teaching lessons on writing, reading, and talking about why reading and writing are so important, she spends her time in Santa Cruz, California, walking her dogs, riding bikes with her wife, slurping down mocha shakes, and writing books that she hopes will help lesbian and questioning teens feel like they are not the only girl loving girls in the world.

Editorial Reviews

Just before their freshman year at Gila High, Abbey and her best friend, Kate, are warned by Kate's older sister, Jenn, that the basketball team is full of "lezzies." Despite promising Kate that she "will never try out for basketball or be friends with those you-know-who girls," Abbey starts the year secretly crushed out on a girl she meets at a food court and is quickly scooped up by Garrett and Stef, sophomore basketball players and out lesbians. She soon learns about Gila High's tangled web of lesbian relationships, including Stef's involvement with Keeta, Abbey's increasingly flirtatious crush. Over the first few months of the year, Abbey joins the junior varsity basketball team and becomes involved with Keeta behind Stef's back, despite her new friends' warnings that Keeta is bad news. Abbey's well-rendered narrative voice easily conveys the joy of discovering new friends and the deliciousness of illicit kisses, as well as her fears about her old friends and her mom finding out. The cast, appropriately for the Tuscon setting, is ethnically diverse, and Keeta's frequent Spanglish comes across as dreamy without being exoticized. The story isn't completely polished--for instance, Abbey once recalls an incident that doesn't actually appear in the text. However, its warmth and enthusiasm more than make up for its small oversights. (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews