First, Storysouth has released the list of stories up for the Million Writers awards and Eclectica has three stories in the running! So yea for our wonderful literary magazine and if you haven't checked it out (we've been online for 10 years people!!!), then please take a minute now and see all the coolness we have to offer.

I keep looking at the books I have lined out for the next several columns at Bookslut and it is so godawful frustrating that so few of them are for boys. I never really thought about it when I was reading for myself, but now that I'm trying to let the world know just what good stuff is out there for young adults, I am continuously surprised by how little is aimed at boys. Or maybe I should qualify that - by how little quality writing is aimed at boys.

Yeah - it's always easy to find crap, isn't it?

I'm sure I'm missing some stuff but honestly, I receive catalogs from about fifteen different publishers now (several of those with multiple imprints) and I'm totally on the lookout for books for boys. And I'm just not seeing all the much. In the wake of all this Gossip Girl furor (and I still think Naomi Wolf went a little crazy) I couldn't help but think that there is really nothing at all to compare those books to in the teenage male world. Not that we all want trash for boys, but there isn't even really trash for boys.

What does that mean exactly?

The more I've been thinking about the books I was reading in high school the more I'm remembering that none - NONE - of my guy friends were reading anything at all that wasn't assigned. I can't remember a single one of those smart articulate guys walking around with a book. My brother was reading Sci Fi pretty much all the time and now that I think about it, that was pretty amazing. I don't remember any of his friends reading or any of them talking about reading. It's odd, and since I have son and I take this reviewing deal seriously, it has become much more important. We don't seem to publish nearly enough good books for boys and I wish I understood why.

Having said all that, I pounced when I saw Craig Crist-Evans's Vietnam book, Amaryllis in the Candlewick catalog. There were a couple of things that made this book leap out at me - it's about Vietnam, it's told from the perspective of two brothers (one in letters home from the war and one, much younger, stuck behind) and it takes place in Florida. It's actually not just any Florida, the book opens in Cocoa Beach which is about 20 minutes from where I grew up. Then it shifts down to Palm Beach County, where I had my first job out of college. I loved how well Crist-Evans nailed the territory, from the heat to the jalousie windows to the constant search for decent waves (lord do I know that feeling!). But what really impressed me about this book was the relationship between Jimmy and Frank and the letters Frank sends home to his little brother as he slowly falls apart in Vietnam. Kirkus Reviews has a quote on the book cover "This is the finest depiction of war we've yet seen" and I have to agree that I'm mightily impressed. On every level, Crist-Evans wrote an incredibly honest book with Amaryllis. And although I am a girl and I loved it, I know this is the book for any and every 15 year old boy in America. It will appeal to all kinds of boys - to boys who think they know everything and boys who are certain they do not. It is just so well done, and I'm really looking forward to including it in next month's column at Bookslut.

In fact, I was thinking maybe I would try and interview Crist-Evans and find out how he knew so much about Florida. Then I found out on the web that he passed away last year, at the age of 51. And I loved his book so much that I feel like I just lost someone who should have been my friend.

We just didn't get a chance to meet each other yet.

I just keep trying to remember that I'm lucky to have found his book, and be glad that at least I can spread the word on one of the amazing things he gave the world.

Amaryllis - it's a beauty and everyone should read it.