A Valentine's Recommendation: My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

So, in honor of Valentine's Day today, I am going to talk about my favorite book ever. (It's in my top three favorite books of all time so you know it's good. 

It's calles My Most Excellent Year, and it was written by Steve Kluger and takes place in Boston over the 2003-2004 school year. (I think. It may be 02-03 or 04-05. Anyway, it was a contemporary when it came out, now there are SOME bits that are outdated, but for the most part it has aged very well.)

(It's not my favorite cover, but it works well enough that I won't complain. It could have been a lot worse.)

Actual description:

 Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.

Wow is that boring or what? Here's my description/review, which is way more informative: 

My Most Excellent Year is a 3+ POV epistolary novel. (There are 3 official POVs, but sometimes we see emails between the parents or a note from the guidance counselor, or newspaper clippings. It's realt seamlessly integrated and it's great. 

It's about a Bostonian boy with a dead mom falling in love for the first time with a whip smart Mexican daughter of an ambassador, while his “brother”/bff is struggling with being gay and Chinese. Oh and a little Deaf boy who plays baseball in the park and is obsessed with Mary Poppins crashes into their lives and shakes EVERYTHING up.

 It is a FABULOUS book full of realistic freshman-year feels, a really nice girl friendship in the background, and a diverse cast. It’s so awesome. The kids have their love stories, but there's also a huge emphasis on friendship, family and adults starting over too. 

There are shenanigans, jokes, a LOT of musical theater references, baseball games, a quest involving internment camps, and an especially hilarious ski trip. It is one of my top three favorite novels ever and you should DEFINITELY read it. 

There is literally something for everyone in this book. Sports people get the baseball, there's political activism in the form of Alejandra's outspokenness, there's a musical serving as an EXCELLENT allegory, there is SO MUCH AWESOME IN THIS BOOK I AM CONSTANTLY FLOORED. 

Also the author's website is in-universe and it rocks. 

This book and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks are the reasons that I have such incredibly high standards for the contemporary YA I read. 

Please please read it. It's awesome and you won't regret it. 

Happy Valentine's Day!