Heretics Anonymous

YA fiction 

     "And eviler than all the other plaid things is the monstrosity I'm staring at from across my bedroom like it's a tartan rattlesnake.  'It's a tie,' Mom said after I opened the package from the school uniform supplier last week and threatened to test out how flame retardant the polyester fabric really was.  'You've worn them before.'"

     When we first meet Michael, narrator of Katie Henry's Heretics Anonymous, he's about to start a new school 🏫 about a month into his junior year of high school.  It's his fourth new school in ten years.  His father uproots his family every time he moves a step up the corporate ladder.  Worse yet, Michael will be attending a strict Catholic school even though he's never believed in God.  How will he ever fit in?

     Luckily in history class a very attractive classmate, Lucy, engages in prolonged debate with the dour nun who teaches the class, a woman who warns her that she's getting "very close to blasphemy" and writes a detention slip.  Much to Michael's surprise, Lucy is a devout Catholic who is also a feminist.  She yearns to become a priest.  The other members of Heretics Anonymous are Jewish ✡️ Avi, pagan Eden, and Max who wears cloaks in defiance of the school's dress code.  They meet in a secret underground room to offer support to each other.

     One day Michael decides that just sitting around complaining about the school is a waste of time.  It doesn't fix the problems with the school.  It doesn't help other students who don't fit in realize they're not alone.  They need to go public.

     The first HA project is altering a sex education film that will be shown at a school assembly.  Soon they're taking on the dress code.  Only as they start to rock the boat divisions start to widen.  Even people who like each other are arguing.  Some innocent people are suffering unintended consequences.  So should they press on or dial their activism back?

     And how can Michael persuade his father that the next move--this time all the way to Belgium--is not in the family's best interests?

On a purrrsonal note, last week I found myself thanking Laurie for not giving me a job at Orono Public Library years ago.  Back then it felt like the end of the world 🌎, especially since I got the news on my birthday.  My epiphany is that it's the best gift she could have given me.  I would have been too comfortable and stopped growing.  I never would have discovered my dream program or all the talents and skills that were in me just waiting to be developed.  I am so much more amazing now than I ever could have imagined back then.  (Jules)

Better believe it!!!  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to Laurie.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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