Pink by Lili Wilkinson

Wilkinson, Lili. Pink. New York: Harper Teen, 2009. Print. ISBN978-0-06-192653-2. Hardcover. $16.99 USD.

Awards/Honors:

-Highly Commended, The Barbara Jefferis Award 2010
-Honor Book for the US 2012 Stonewall Book Award for children's and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience

Annotation:

Ava is not gay or straight. Ava likes to wear black, but also likes to wear pink. Her world is split in to two and she doesn't know where she fits in.

Booktalk:

“I hid backstage, taping down leads so the actors wouldn’t trip over them. I liked the satisfying feeling of pulling the black gaffer tape from the roll and ripping it off. I also liked the darkness. No one could see me here. I didn’t have to feel like I was the one being ripped apart between my two new identities.”  

Ava, a high school student that would love to fit in is on a roller coaster ride of a lifetime. This young character wants a change from it all, her all black wearing wardrobe, her title as a lesbian, her bold and beautiful girlfriend, and the school that isn’t taken seriously by its’ students. Sick of hiding her love of learning, Ava leaves it all behind to start at a new school, Billy Hughes School for Academic Excellence. Here she will find out if she likes boys, can fit in to the popular crowd, and most of all, can wear pink. 

At first Ava divides her two worlds secretly and with minor lies and complications. The world with girlfriend Chloe and the world of Billy Hughes remain unknown to one another but soon things become complicated. Ava finds herself backtracking and fitting in with the “Screws” (the stage crew screw-up’s) rather than fitting in with the Pastels” (the pale clothed preppy kids). Now life has become even more complicated. Ava has to figure out if she’s a lesbian, straight, or bisexual. She also has to learn to stop trying to fit in and to be herself. It all seems very complicated but when is high school and being a teenager ever simple?  

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