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"""Was he . . . you know?"" Bella doesn't know if Dominic was gay or not, but she knows he was bullied. And she knows the adults who could have helped didn't because of some stupid policy. Now Dominic's dead. And he's not the only one in the district. Somebody should do something, right? It's never been Bella's thing to stand up for a cause, but for some reason, this fight has become her fight."

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9781467707091

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Teens at Texas' ethnically diverse Southside High fight an anti-gay school policy after incidents of homophobic bullying. When her teacher witnesses an act of anti-gay violence in the school hallway and refuses to intervene, Bella--short for Isabel--is horrified. Even though Dominic, the student being bullied, downplays the incident when Bella asks him about it, Bella feels called to action. When she decides to join the school's Gay-Straight Alliance, however, she discovers the club only exists unofficially. Zoe, one of the students involved, explains, 'There's something going on....The teachers are totally freaked out about anything having to do with gay people.' Readers who remember The Alliance (2013), set at Southside a year earlier, will recognize the district's 'neutrality policy' as the reason teachers refuse to intervene in homophobic bullying or even teach works by queer creators such as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay or Aaron Copland. Here, Bella and Zoe uncover the policy and launch a community-wide battle against it. Although the story is bare-bones short, the characters are well-drawn, and there is room for nuance. Bella is interested in a female classmate, June, but what that means about her sexuality is left refreshingly ambiguous. An inspiring tale, simply told. --Kirkus Reviews --Journal Series Review: While fairly short and to the point, this series of low-reading-level, high-interest fiction titles are interesting to read and worth having in any teen collection. The topics covered are hard hitting, controversial, and may fill a need in most teen collections. Each title can be read alone but also manages to connect with the other titles in one way or another. In The Alliance, lesbian Carmen Mendoza is being threatened, probably by the same person who bullied football player Scott King's best friend into suicide (before the book starts) over being gay. Both try to start a Gay-Straight Alliance separately, then are teamed up and almost succeed before school board politics interfere. The GSA story appears again, in a different way, in The Fight; which features Bella trying to take a stand against a school board policy that may have contributed to a friend killing himself partway through the story. In Overexposed, Daisy sends some explicit phone pics to her boyfriend right before they fight. Naturally, they end up all over school, her older brother tries to defend her, and the school administration steps in with their sexting policies. Finally, Full Impact demonstrates to readers the dangers of football, focusing on concussions. Arnie begins to act a bit weird, but his best friend Norval tries to blow it off. Norval does not want to ruin their friendship or Arnie's chances at a college scholarship--until it is too late. Arnie is in the hospital, and his football and high school careers are over. Each book has strongly believable plots, well-developed characters, and relevant topics for today's youth. While this reviewer only read four of the twelve titles in the SurvivingSouthside series, all would be worth adding in the less expensive paperback format to any teen collection. --BayViews --Journal

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