28 November 2003 THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY by David Levithan, Random House/Knopf, August 2004, ISBN 0-375-82845-1

"...I want to be strong I want to laugh along

I want to belong to the living

Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive

I want to wreck my stockings in some juke box dive

Do you want - do you want - do you want

To dance with me baby

Do you want to take a chance

On maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby

Well, come on..."

--Joni Mitchell, All I Want

(Jed)

"Here's what I know about the realm of possibility--

it is always expanding, it is never what you think

it is. Everything around us was once deemed

impossible. From the airplane overhead to

the phones in our pockets to the choir girl

putting her arm around the metalhead.

As hard as it is for us to see sometimes, we all exist

within the realm of possibility. Most of the limits

are of our own world's devising. And yet,

every day we each do so many things

that were once impossible to us..."

In traversing THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY, David Levithan has possibly created the most ambitious--and most romantic--YA verse novel yet published. Over the span of some months, twenty interconnected students from a high school each share a defining piece of their lives--one piece per character. Writing in a variety of poetic formats, including song lyrics, Levithan has created distinctive-yet-interwoven stories for each of these twenty teens, and what they tell us in those stories strikes a perfect balance between the uniqueness of the lives they reveal and the universality of the feelings and experiences within those lives.

(Lily)

"At that moment, a truck speeds across the bridge. It comes

dangerously close to us

and shakes the false ground that we sit on.

I am jolted

forward, into the rail.

The orange

falls from my hand

"And the word I think is precarious. Because as the bridge rocks like

a beast with a

tremor down its spine, as I pitch forward so close to the

air of no return, I am

struck

by how precarious it all is. How the things that hold us

are only as strong

as

the faith we have in them--

you go on the bridge because you

trust it will not

fall

the fingers will clasp because we

trust them to.

You need two hands to

hold a heart"

In fact, I cannot help but imagine hearing bits of our own former students' voices (Hi, Che!) in several of the pieces. For instance, the metalhead to whom Jed refers is Anton, whose contribution to the book is a series of wry "Suburban Myths":

"popularity is in fact a democracy. it is a fair

and square contest, each month, students vote,

and the kindest, most compassionate people

are always chosen to be the most popular,

just as we always choose the best person

in the country to be president, we always pick

the most deserving people to be popular.

they, in turn, humbly accept and prove to be

role models for all the rest of the students,

because their position is so much based

on worth and not at all on

looks or

cruelty."

"...I understand about indecision

But I don't care if I get behind

People livin’ in competition

All I want is to have my peace of mind..."

--Boston, Peace of Mind

If having to deal with the popular people isn't enough, how about competing with a guy who is "frozen at this age that I can't wait to leave." The piece which will be appreciated by millions of afflicted high school students--and which I chose to read aloud to my college-level nieces and nephew after Thanksgiving dinner--is the hysterically funny and moving rant entitled, "My girlfriend is in love with Holden Caufield."

Indeed, I have already read the entire book aloud once and am impatient to find a second audience. Meanwhile, since it is a bit of a mystery at first who is talking about whom (as if you are in the hallway, overhearing one side of a conversation), I have enjoyed going back through the book with a notepad and pencil in order to draw a schematic of the interrelationships, and to then reread several of the views from "the other side."

As with BOY MEETS BOY, David Levithan's realm encompasses a joyful and optimistic range of possibilities. Things are the way they should be, with kids from various groups--whether by intention or by fate--being there for each other. And even when characters feel overwhelmed, things turn out for the best or, at least, are getting better:

"zack tells me it won't be as hard tomorrow, and I know he's right

zero hour has passed"

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com