BABY BE-BOP

Block, F. Baby Be-Bop. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Dirk McDonald is artist, has a cat named Kit, gets straight “A’s” in school, is a fast runner, and has a strong lean body.  He dreams of being James Dean and lives with his grandmother, Fifi, who has a dog named Kaboodle and longs to have grandchildren. Haveghurst developmental stages state, that society expects appropriate sex roles, so he can’t tell anyone he’s attracted to the same sex.   The problem is that Dirk is in love with his best friend Pup Lambert, and he can’t tell his grandmother because she’ll think it’s just a phase.  When he gets the strength to tell Pup how he feels, Pup is already dating a girl because he too is afraid of what the world might say. This is apparent when Pup tells Dirk, “I love you, but I can’t handle it.”  Dirk, can’t handle it either after that.

            He decides to explore his cognitive needs in search of meaning to his existence and mask who he really is by choosing violent dancing and loud music.  He gets tangled up in a gay bashing, gets beaten up by skinheads for voicing his opinion about their swastika tattoos.  As he lays there, having given up, he encounters his great grandmother in some kind of unusual dream.  I feel his pain, when it seems that you don't want to live and that there's nobody that will understand.  She tells him of people that have given up on life because they were too scared to tell.  She also tells him about his parents, how much they loved each other. Dirk is looking for his belongingness needs, he desperately wants to love someone and to be loved back just as much. There are some racy parts in this book that kept me wanting to read more.  Dirk dreams about his father on a train, but can’t see his face, he also dreams about men taking showers together on a train.   Dirk has loved as much as his parents as stated by his great grandmother, “Any love that is love is right.”  Don’t be afraid to tell others who you are, is the theme and it’s apparent when Duck told Dirk, “Telling your story is touching, It sets you free.”  This magic love of his deceased family saves him and he finally understands that there is nothing wrong with who he is and doesn’t have to be afraid to let others know.  Francesca Lia Block is one of the YA authors on the list for books to read.

 Take a look at her website, it includes her biography and other books she has written along with information about herself and services she provides.
http://www.francescaliablock.com/books

these are covers of other books by Francesca Lia Block they include Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and The Goat Guys, and Missing Angel Juan are books that follow the adventures of a group of friends living in Los Angeles.  She also wrote The Hanged Man.