17 February 2024 ULTRAVIOLET by Aida Salazar, Scholastic/Scholastic Press April 2024, 304p., ISBN: 978-1-338-77565-5

“We're talking away

I don't know what I'm to say

I'll say it anyway

Today is another day to find you

Shyin' away

Oh, I'll be comin' for your love, okay”

– A-ha, “Take On Me” (1985)

“Ultraviolet

Who invented love, anyway?

Had to be a girl, right?

Had to be.

Cause I don’t get it.

Who can understand

the feelings of shimmering sol

that swallows anything

smart you wanna say

and tangles your blushing

nerves up inside your growling guts

so bad, you almost wanna fart

so bad, your skin turns all goose bumpy?

Just by looking at the brown besos

of her eyes, the embers of her cheeks,

hearing the sound of her voice in the key of F

entering your ears, taking root inside

the blob of your thirteen-year-old dude brain

and washing everything you see

with a reel of colors beyond the spectrum

red,

orange,

yellow,

green,

blue,

indigo,

violet.

More than that.

Ultraviolet.

Glow in the dark outrageous.

It’s what I see when Camelia is around.

Is this what it feels like to be

in love?”

ULTRAVIOLET, a stand-alone companion to Ms. Salizar’s award-winning THE MOON WITHIN (2019), is a tale of eighth-grade love and a stellar introduction to the physiology (and sometimes toxicity) of male adolescence. It’s a tale that begins so beautifully, and never once lets up. 

“‘And you are a flower.

My flower, Camelia.’

Camelia scrunches her nose at me

like she is smelling something foul.

Let’s get something straight, Elio.

It’s cool you see all this color

but I’m nobody’s flower,

boys don’t own girls.

My lowrider heart

crashes against

the hydrant of my spine

and I feel like a corny,

stupid junkyard car.

But it revs back up

when she lands a kiss

with her silky soft lips

right on

mine.

Then gives me 

a hemp friendship bracelet

she made

just for me.”

But, like most eighth-grade, puppy dog romances, this one is not destined to last. And Elio Solis is going to face bigger challenges than getting Camelia back into his arms again. 

Through reading about Elio’s reactions of jealousy, despair, and frustration, guys fortunate enough to find and read this gem will have tools to better understand their rapidly-changing bodies, and to sidestep a lot of the bitterness and antisocial behavior in which Elio engages (and which his mom, several of his good friends, and Camelia all call him on). Elio is fortunate to become part of a father-son men’s circle, and can thereby learn to process so much of what he’s dealing with.

ULTRAVIOLET is a distinguished, lyrical, important, and memorable read for tweens. Particularly, given the tale’s multiple conversations about consent, this one you want to see in every elementary- and middle school collection.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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