A gay 12 year old boy begins his first year of junior high with the vow that this will be the year that he kisses a boy. Like The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers—only lighter, brighter and more youthful—The Boys and the Bees is set in Minneapolis and involves a confused but sweet adolescent kid coming to grips with growing up gay and feeling completely lost about it.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This wry account of adolescent same-sex stirrings avoids the flamboyant drag queens, messy crystal meth addiction and suicidal moments of its predecessor, The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers (though it does share that story's optimistic ending), focusing instead on teen angst that's more hormonal than melodramatic. Eleven-year-old Andy, the novel's precocious narrator, enters sixth grade at his buttoned-down Catholic school in St. Paul, Minn., aching with bottled-up desire—specifically for star athlete Mark—even though the captain of the basketball team is apparently courting the prettiest girl in the school. At the same time, because he's still closeted, Andy is increasingly flustered by his friendship with school "faggot" James and tries to distance himself from his obvious but persistent best friend. Meanwhile, the sports stud whose handsome blondness Andy covets is struggling secretly with his own conflicted sexuality. Though this isn't being marketed as a YA title, Babcock's empathic rendering of his young characters' voices makes it more than suitable for readers the age of the three boys who form the novel's romantic tangle. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Joe Babcock effortlessly captures a voice rarely heard." - JT LeRoy (author of Sarah - Bloomsbury)"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Boys and the Bees,
By Bradley (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Boys and the Bees (Paperback)
"The Boys and the Bees" so beautifully captures that brief moment in time between Power Ranger pajamas and sex. Andy is a young boy who can't quite understand why he's infatuated with the basketball star and not the least bit interested in the beauty queen. This sounds like the set-up to a sappy, melodramatic "gay novel" for the younger set; however, Joe Babcock rises above the genre and produces a crisp and sparkling story that avoids all the usual pitfalls of gay lit.
Andy's is a voice rarely heard - a twelve year old whose priorities change in the blink of an eye. Babcock refuses to speak down to his young audience, while being careful not to go too far in the opposite direction (think Dawson's Creek). He manages to maintain an accurate depiction of adolescence, overflowing with gentle comedy and moving sincerity. So whether you're gay or straight, young or old, male or female, each sentence is so rich with meaning that you'll instantly be hurled back into your childhood - a time when every obstacle seemed so utterly monumental, yet was so easily resolved by an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. Wise, witty, bittersweet - never cheesy - "The Boys and the Bees" is a stellar coming of age story by virtue of not really being one. Rather, it's a beautiful snapshot of a young boy that Joe Babcock has brought to life for a hundred and some odd pages. We all should be so lucky to hand our photographs over to this author and have him spin a story far better than our memories. This is truly a remarkable piece of writing.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Light novel recommended for young gay teens,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Boys and the Bees (Paperback)
The author of the (somewhat dark but delightful) gay teen novel "The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers" is back, this time with a much lighter story of an 11 year old boy in Catholic school, Andy, whose teenage angst is directed into a crush on the school's star basketball player, Mark. Trying to impress Mark and his friends, Andy distances himself from his best friend James, whose effeminate mannerisms have made him a favorite target of the older boys to taunt and ridicule. Andy also finds himself at odds with Anna, who is fond of Mark and is jealous of the time Mark spends with Andy, trying to help him make the school basketball team. At night, Andy retreats to his typewriter, where he buries his emotions into his "novel," a story of a shy country girl who has a secret crush on a handsome boy, not so coincidentally named Mark.
Coming in at just 137 pages (the original listing on Amazon erroneously said 230 pages), the novel is a bit lightweight and predictable for adults, although it is recommended for young gay or questioning teens as a harmless gay-positive tale, without any explicit content, to make them feel better about themselves. In that latter context, I'd give the book four stars out of five.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Suprisingly Realistic, Diappointingly Short,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Boys and the Bees (Paperback)
This book was surprisingly realistic in the way the characters reacted. There were many points where I myself could relate and honestly say that "I've been there and done that!"
This is the story of a young boy, Andy, who enters junior high in the hopes that it will be his best year ever. He soon finds that it is possibly his worst year ever and he will soon find out where his loyalties lie. I thought that the book could have been longer, and more detailed. At times it felt like the author just wasn't giving enough details or information. Also at times it felt like you could tell it really was written by an adult,and although the author did a good job, I believe it is the hardest challenge for authors to portray teenagers in a story, especially in the given plot. Overall, 4 stars. Well written. Good for Readers in Junior High and up. (12+)
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First Sentence:
Sitting in my dad's recliner with the TV on, I listened to my mom gather up her purse and keys as her heels clicked across the kitchen floor. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sister Mary Kelly, Coach Pooch, Mark Saddle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Casey Fisher, Secret Santas New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Sitting in my dad's recliner with the TV on, I listened to my mom gather up her purse and keys as her heels clicked across the kitchen floor. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sister Mary Kelly, Coach Pooch, Mark Saddle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Casey Fisher, Secret Santas New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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