AS, I’ll be on the lookout for BOY 21. I love parents in books who are realistic: too eeevvvvillll and I’m a bit distanced by it; too perfect and I want to throw up.

Sarah, thru my early to mid 30s, I’d read teen books and think “well, I could be the parent …. If I started having kids in high school”. A personal joke in my head that I thought was funny. Then, when I read a book where the age was given AND the main character thought “my old parents” AND it was my age? I was all “what. the……” Right now, unless the age “matters” (for Ken Dietz, for example) I prefer books where the age of the parents is omitted. But, I’m not sure, in all honesty, whether teens care or not. I think the general rule of thumb at all times is “old” is ten years older than I am now, “young” is ten years younger.

I guess I don’t notice it as much-maybe because I don’t have kids of my own? But I do find myself always trying to figure out the age of the kids and teens in books, but I never seem to care about the parents age.

I’m probably different than some, though, because I don’t care that my kids think I’m “old.” I remember thinking my parents were ancient at age 40-something. I like being older. It’s a groovy perspective. I’m not really worried about wrinkles, you know?

My most recent read had great adults in it: I really liked the father and grandfather in Mathew Quick’s Boy 21 coming next March. They were warm and realistic, even when not the best role models (in the grandfather’s case sometimes) and throughout the book, I wondered what had happened to them and when I found out, I was so sad and yet relieved because it made so much sense.