Module 15: Geography Club

Amazon. (2016). Geography club.
Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/
Geography-Club-Brent-Hartinger/dp/
0060012234

Book Summary: Russel is a closeted gay; high school is where he must wear his disguise of straight teenager. However, he is a frequent visitor to an online chat room that is a safe space for LGBT-identifying people. It’s there, that he finds out someone else in his town (!!!), who goes to his school (!!!!!), in his grade (!!!!!!!!!) is gay! They meet, and, lo and behold, it’s Mr. Popular Jock, Kevin, who is this other gay guy at his school. Turns out there are some others, too: Russel’s friend Min and her girlfriend, Therese, and Ike. They form a support group, but disguise it as a “Geography Club” so as to prevent other students from joining them. Of course, teenage drama ensues as Russel and Kevin start dating, Russel’s friend Gunnar convinces him to double-date with Trish and Kimberly and peer pressure and sex and a gay guy do not make a good combination, bullying at school, and potential outing and resulting ostracization all happen. In the end, though, the Geography Club is dissolved and a true and authentic Gay-Straight-Bisexual Alliance is formed.

APA Reference:

Hartinger, B. (2003). Geography club. New York City: HarperTempest.

Impressions: High-school me needed this book because, like Brian Bund, I often sat by myself at lunch and had no friends. Any book that supports outcasts banding together is an important read. Like Belinda and Min champion before the Geography Club is disbanded, those who feel like they can’t relate to the “norm” can find support from one another; they need that support. This, in conjunction with the positive LGBTQIA+ message makes Geography Club an important book to include in a collection. However, I can imagine how when it was first published in 2003 Geography Club made waves in libraries. Hopefully, more than ten years later, things are getting better for LGBTQIA+ teens.

Professional Review:

Rochman. H. (2003, April 1). Geography club [review of Geography Club]. Booklist, 99(15), 1387. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/

Gr. 7-12. Russel is gay, and he knows he better keep it secret, or he’ll be a total outcast in his small-town high school. But then he discovers that there are others like him--including Min, his longtime best friend, and her lesbian lover, as well as gorgeous, popular jock star Kevin. Seven of them form a support group (the “Geography Club ” is their cover-up name), and for a short time, life is blissful. Russel has friends with whom he can be himself, and he also makes love with Kevin. Then things fall apart. Russel refuses to have sex with a girl, and word gets out that he’s gay. Kevin can’t come out, so he and Russel break up. Things are settled a little too neatly in the end, but there’s no sermonizing. With honest talk of love and cruelty, friendship and betrayal, it’s Russel’s realistic, funny, contemporary narrative that makes this first novel special. The dialogue is right on; so is the high-school cafeteria; so is the prejudice. Booktalk this.

Library Use: Include Geography Club in a GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Start-Up Pack, along with links like GSA Network (https://gsanetwork.org/), GLSEN’s start-up kit (http://www.glsen.org/jumpstart), True Colors GSA Curriculum Guide (http://www.ourtruecolors.org/Programs/GSA-Youth-Leadership/PDF/GSA-Curriculum.pdf), The Trevor Project (http://www.thetrevorproject.org/), and It Gets Better Project (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/). Other books to be included are What We Left Behind by Robin Talley, The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth, Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen by Jazz Jennings, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, and I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson.  

Lakeside Middle School. (2016). GSA club.
Retrieved from http://lakeside.valverde.
edu/for_students/g_s_a_club