Geography Club

Hartinger, Brent. Geography Club. (2003). 1st. New York City: HarperCollins.

Written by Brent Hartinger, Geography Club is a young adult novel told by Russell, a gay teenager trying to fit in high school while hiding is true identity. Russell Middlebrook lives in a very small town in which he is convinced he is the only person that is gay. After discovering the most popular kid in school, his best friend, and others are also homosexual, Russell has the idea to get together. Finally feeling a sense of belonging among each other, the group decides to create a club in school so that they could meet openly without having to hide it from their peers. The only problem is that they still don’t want anyone else to know. They create a geography club, hoping that no one in their right mind would want to join. The pressures of high school, relationships, and self discovery force strain in the geography club and Russell finds his life spiraling out of control.

Brent Hartinger does an amazing job of breaking common stereotypes that are usually associated with GLBT members. Some of the gay and lesbian characters include two jocks, the smartest girl in school, a theater kid, and your typical high school teenager. The book also includes a character that everyone believes is gay, but he is actually heterosexual. This allows outsiders to look beyond their typical views of this group and realize that people could be exactly like them, except they could have a different sexuality or the other way around. This also allows any one to find themselves in the pages of this novel. As a piece of diverse literature, Geography Club addresses issues of bullying, friendships, love, school, and identity. All of these issues are found among many middle and high school students, both gay and straight. There is something for everyone in this novel and overall it accurately portrays the image of GLBT members.

Like in Molly’s Family and Heather Has Two Mommies, the author of Geography Club is an insider to the GLBT group. Readers find this out in the about the author section in the back flap of the novel. Because Brent Hartinger is an insider, readers can trust that his views are accurate.

Image From:: http://students.umf.maine.edu/~dyerbj/GeographyClub.jpg