Keeping You a Secret

Keeping You a Secret

Author	Julie Anne Peters
Language	English
Genre	Young adult novel
Publisher	Little, Brown
Publication date	2003
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	250 pg
ISBN	0-316-00985-7
OCLC	59282187

Keeping You a Secret is a young adult novel by Julie Anne Peters. It was first published in hardback in 2003, and later in paperback in 2005.

The novel is about Holland, a 17-year-old girl, discovering her sexuality and what it is like to experience homophobia. What starts out as a confusing "girl crush" becomes a discovery of Holland's true feelings and coping with the concept of attraction to a member of her own sex. Other characters in the novel discover her crush and employ various means of physical and emotional abuse and violence, displaying strong homophobic behaviors.

Keeping You a Secret was a finalist for the 2004 Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature and Stonewall Book Award.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews referred to the novel as "revealing" and noted that "gay or straight" readers will "identify with the excitement that accompanies that first love affair. At the heart is the realization that secrecy can damage many relationships, no matter the connection". ^[1]

Publishers Weekly wrote, "Peters [...] raises important points about the ramifications of coming out, but covers so much territory that her plotting suffers". They noted that some character development and action "seems too sudden", "comes across as extreme", or "feel[s] contrived". They concluded that "readers will appreciate Holland's new ability to live free of others' expectations [...] but the messages here seem to take precedence over plot". ^[2]

Booklist also reviewed the novel. ^[3]

Awards and honors

Keeping You a Secret was a finalist for the 2004 Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature ^[4] and Stonewall Book Award. ^[5] It was also included on the American Library Association's 2004 Amelia Bloomer List. ^[6]

See also

• Novels portal
• Children and Young Adult Literature portal

• Lesbian teen fiction

References

1. "Keeping You A Secret". Kirkus Reviews . April 15, 2003. Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
2. "KEEPING YOU A SECRET by Julie Anne Peters". Publishers Weekly . April 21, 2003. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
3. "Keeping You A Secret". Booklist . June 1, 2003. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
4. Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (July 10, 2004). "16th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary . Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
5. "Keeping you a Secret | Awards & Grants". American Library Association . September 29, 2009. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
6. "2004 Amelia Bloomer List". American Library Association . January 13, 2017. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved December 15, 2023.

Further reading

• Kokkola, Lydia (September 16, 2014). "Make Yourself At Home! Adolescents in Search of the Queer Spaces of Home". Barnboken. 37. doi: 10.14811/clr.v37i0.175 . ISSN   0347-772X.
• Jones, Caroline E. (2013). "From Homoplot to Progressive Novel: Lesbian Experience and Identity in Contemporary Young Adult Novels" . The Lion and the Unicorn. 37 (1): 74–93. doi:10.1353/uni.2013.0003. ISSN   1080-6563 – via Project MUSE.
• Oktarini, Hernita (2012). The Process of Becoming a Lesbian as Experienced by Holland Jaeger in Julie Anne Peters' Keeping You a Secret (PDF) (Master of Arts thesis). Yogyakarta State University.
• Skiba, Brooke (January 1, 2014). "Inviting Gender Literacy into the Classroom: An Analysis of Gender Portrayal Issues in YA Realistic Fiction". Senior Independent Study Theses.