Finding Cassidy

Finding Cassidy
by Laura Langston
Language: English
Toronto : HarperTrophyCanada, ©2006.
237 p. ; 22 cm. 
ISBN: 0002553163; 9780002553162
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Cassidy's world is turned upside-down when she learns that her father has been diagnosed with a fatal disease. She is further devastated to learn that he isn't her biological father.
Reviews: Canadian Children's Book Review
http://lauralangston.com/

Call me Mimi: The World's Ugliest Beauty Queen

Call Me Mimi: The World's Ugliest Beauty Queen
by Francis Chalifour
Language: English
Toronto : Tundra Books, ©2008.
178 p. ; 20 cm.
ISBN: 0887768237; 9780887768231

Reading level: Young Adult

Protagonist: girl, 17

LOC Summary: Seventeen-year-old Mimi, overweight, heads to Toronto to find her sperm donor father after things go awry at her prom. 
My review: Overweight, seventeen-year-old Mimi has always known that her mother conceived her via anonymous sperm donation and Mimi has spent her entire life looking for this phantom father who she has never met in this young adult novel from Canada.  Her favorite pastimes are Céline Dion, history, and a game she often plays with herself when she is walking down the street: looking at men and wondering: "Is that man with the briefcase my father? What about the one with the folded La Presse? Or the one looking at his reflection and picking his teeth, God forbid?" Mimi likes to stare at every man she passes, "men in jogging shorts, men in ragged jeans, men in chinos ... Could any of them be my father? ... When I'm on the subway, or when I walk down the street, and I see a man, there's always this thought that maybe it's him." 


Finally, after years of the anguish of not knowing who she really is, she decides to take a trip to Toronto after high school graduation, to the sperm bank her mother used in order to have her. The problem is, her mother refuses to let her go on her own, even though she is about to start college in the fall. "I don't understand. Why is finding him so important to you?" her mother asks. But Mimi does not have an immediate answer, only that she believes it will help her to find herself in her "quest for the truth" and to "put myself in order."  But Mimi does make it to Toronto and Mimi does know what she is looking for, as she confides in a friend she later meets there, "I need to know where I come from. It would be nice to know about his genetic background, like if he has cancer, or heart disease, or Alzheimer's in his family. It's always useful to know." But, she confesses to herself, "that's not what I was looking for. I wanted to find my roots. If I knew him, perhaps I would know myself better. I also wanted the love of a father." And, "to let him know that I exist." As her quest continues, Mimi becomes even more clear to herself what she is looking for when she finally makes her way to the sperm bank and is asked why she came. "My primary goal is to learn more about his family history, looks, talents, and interests. I would also like to have some sort of medical history and an idea of how many pregnancies were conceived from this donor." And also if she has any brothers and sisters. Mimi is however crushed to learn what many sperm donor children often learn, that the information on her donor dad is kept "strictly confidential." "The sperm donors are guaranteed that their names will not be released." The sperm bank does however release some public bits of information about him, that he is: "Caucasian. Red hair. Blue eyes. 5 foot 9. 140 lbs. Blood group, O positive," and that his interests include history. Mimi is ecstatic with this information.

Reviews: School Library Journal

http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/ten_questions_with_francis_chalifour

Between Mom and Jo

Between Mom and Jo
by Julie Anne Peters
Language: English 
New York : Little, Brown, 2006.
232 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0316067105; 9780316067102
Reading level: Young Adult
Protagonist: 14
Summary: Fourteen-year-old Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky 2, some pet fish, and two mothers, whose relationship complicates his entire life as they face prejudice, work problems, alcoholism, cancer, and finally separation.
Reviews: Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Horn Book

Awards: Lambda Literary Award 2007

http://www.julieannepeters.com/

In Your Room

In Your Room
by Jordanna Fraiberg
Language: English 
New York : Razorbill, 2008.
202 p. ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 1595141936; 9781595141934
Readling level: Young Adult
Summary: Teens Molly and Charlie connect through email when their complicated families exchange houses for the summer, but a misunderstanding threatens the emerging relationship just when the two are about to secretly meet.
Reviews: Booklist, Kliatt

http://jordannafraiberg.com/

Headlock by Joyce Sweeney

Headlock
by Joyce Sweeney
Language: English 
New York : Henry Holt, 2006.
214 p. ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 080508018X; 9780805080186
Reading level: Young Adult
Protagonist: 18
Summary: High school senior Kyle is determined to become a professional wrestler but his dream is threatened by a loved one’s illness and the dramatic reappearance of a long-absent relative.
Reviews: Voice of Youth Advocates, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

http://joycesweeney.net/index.htm

Demons at My Doorstep: The Search for My Donor Father by Greg Wiatt and Katherine Marsh

Demons at My Doorstep: The Search for My Donor Father...
By Katherine Marsh, Greg Wiatt
Contributor Greg Wiatt
Published by iUniverse, 2004
ISBN 0595320007, 9780595320004
260 pages

Brave new Wanda : a novel

Brave new Wanda : a novel 
by Lynda Rutledge 
Language: English 
La Porte, Ind. : WordFarm, ©2004. 
189 p. ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 0974342750; 9780974342757
Reading level: Adult/Young Adult
Protagonist: 13

http://www.wordfarm.net/books/9780974342757/author.php

The sperm donor's daughter & other tales of modern family

The sperm donor's daughter & other tales of modern family 
by Kathryn Trueblood 
Language: English 
Sag Harbor, NY : Permanent Press, ©1998. 
166 p. ; 23 cm.
ISBN: 157962006X; 9781579620066

Reading level: Young Adult/Adult

Protagonist: 20

Reviews: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews

http://www.kathryntrueblood.com/

Feathered

Feathered
by Laura Kasischke
Language: English 
New York : HarperTeen, ©2008.
261 p. ; 19 cm.
ISBN: 0060813180; 9780060813185

Reading level: 18+

Protagonist: girl, 18
LOC Summary: While on Spring Break in Cancun, Mexico, high-school seniors and best friends Anne and Michelle accept the wrong ride and Michelle is lost--seemingly forever.
My review: Narrated by her friend, Anne, this is the story of 18-year-old Michelle, and of the trouble she gets into on vacation in Mexico with her two best friends. Michelle is the product of sperm donation and this has caused Michelle a life-long ache for a father. As Anne writes, "Once, I asked her if she was sad about not having a father, or not knowing who her father was. She just said, 'I'm always looking,' and I knew she meant that the looking was the bad part. Not the not having, but the blank space always waiting to be filled." Michelle has always known about her origins as her mother, as described by Anne, has "a policy about being open about everything," leaving "nothing left to the imagination at all," and this of course includes having been honest with Michelle from the beginning. Michelle, however, wishes her mother could have been just a little more sensitive on the subject of fathers. One day, after Doughnuts for Dads day at school, Michelle comes home and tells her mother, "I want a daddy." "You'll never have one," is her mother's blunt reply. But no matter how insensitive her mom is on the subject of fathers, Michelle's longing and curiosity can not be steeped.  "You can never shake it," she tells Anne. "Every man you see, you think, maybe that's my sperm. I mean, father. It's like the whole world's full of sperms, walking around, crossing the street, buying burgers at McDonald's." Michelle's mom is not at all attuned to Michelle's feelings on the subject, and Michelle thinks her mom might just as well not have been so honest with her. "She should have told me that she'd had a one-night stand, and he was dead," as it is this very knowledge of her sperm donor origins that leads Michelle into trouble.

Michelle is particularly attuned to men with blue-green eyes who play the cello and have curly dark hair as those were the attributes of the sperm, her mom had told her, that she had selected. While in Mexico, Anne and Michelle meet a man with these very attributes and accept his offer of a ride to the Mayan ruins several hours away from their hotel. Michelle is convinced that the ride is safe because she thinks the man could be her father, and in fact, is her father. What happens to Michelle after that trip to the Mayan ruins is the plot of the novel and it is intimated by the author that because of Michelle's yearning to connect with her biological father, she has poor judgment in a situation that leaves her in an intensely exposed and vulnerable situation. This book is recommended for mature teens only.

Reviews: Voice of Youth Advocates, Booklist, School Library Journal, Horn Book, Kirkus Review, Kliatt

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/grad/mfa/mfaFacDetail.asp?ID=964

My so-called family

My so-called family 
by Courtney Sheinmel 
Language: English 
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008. 
194 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 1416957855; 9781416957850

Recommended for ages: 9-12

Protagonist: 13
Summary: Leah, who was conceived through a donor bank, decides that even though she loves her mother, stepfather, and stepbrother, she wants to find out if she has any other siblings, and sets out to investigate without telling anyone what she is doing.

Reviews: School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Kirkus Review

http://www.courtneysheinmel.com/

Go Figure By Jo Edwards

Go Figure
by Jo Edwards
Language: English
New York : Simon Pulse ©2007.
x, 271 p. ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 1416924922; 9781416924920

Reading level: Young Adult

Protagonist: 17

Summary: Ever since she was identified as a "fat girl" at cheerleading camp in fifth grade, Ryan's been on a mission to shed more than a few pounds. Lately she's also on the hunt for a new relationship. Now that her ex-boyfriend is a rock star - currently posing on the cover of Rolling Stone - Ryan seriously needs to move on.
Reviews: Publishers Weekly, Voice of Youth Advocates

http://www.joedwardsbooks.com/

Perfect girl

Perfect girl
by Mary Hogan
Language: English
New York : HarperTempest, ©2007.
196 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0060841087; 9780060841089

Reading level: Young Adult

Protagonist: 14
Summary: Ninth-grader Ruthie Bayer realizes that she is in love with her best friend Perry, the boy next door, but when competition appears, Ruthie calls on her glamorous aunt for advice.

Reviews: School Library Journal, Horn Book, Kliatt, Kirkus Review

http://www.maryhogan.com/

The other half of me

The other half of me 
by Emily Franklin 
Language: English 
New York : Delacorte Press, ©2007. 
247 p. ; 22 cm. 
ISBN: 038573445X; 9780385734455

Reading level: Young Adult

Protagonist: 17
Summary: Feeling out of place in her athletic family, artistic sixteen-year-old Jenny Fitzgerald, whose biological father was a sperm donor, finds her half sister through the Sibling Donor Registry and contacts her, hoping that this will finally make her feel complete.

Reviews: Voice of Youth Advocates, School Library Journal, Booklist, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Horn Book, Kliatt

http://www.emilyfranklin.com/

Goddess games

Goddess games 
by Niki Burnham 
Language: English 
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2007. 
282 p. ; 19 cm.
ISBN: 141692700X; 9781416927006

Reading level: Young Adult
Summary: Three high school girls from very different social backgrounds deal with their problems and learn how to get along together while working at a mountain resort for the summer.

Reviews: School Library Journal, Horn Book

http://www.nikiburnham.com/

Donorboy : a novel

Donorboy : a novel 
by Brendan Halpin 
Language: English 
New York : Villard, ©2004. 
209 p. ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 1400062772; 9781400062775

Reading level: Adult/Young Adult

Protagonist: girl, 14

Summary: Rosalind had two mommies. Now, thanks to a tragic accident involving foodstuffs, she has none. And Sean, the sperm donor responsible for half her DNA (and nothing else), is taking custody. Rosalind finds herself adjusting to a new life that seems both hateful and surreal-she's an orphan with a new father, surrounded by friends she is beginning to despise and well-meaning adults who succeed only in annoying her. Sean made a donation fifteen years ago, and his life since has not gone according to plan. Thirty-five, single, and still grieving the loss of his own mother twenty-seven years ago, he decides to take on the overwhelming task of caring for an unhappy teenager he doesn't know. Told entirely through e-mail, instant messaging, journal entries, and other random communications, Donorboy is the comic, compellingly readable novel of how these two people learn to converse, cook, write heavy-metal songs, and nail windows shut on their way to becoming a family. Brendan Halpin has written a universal story of how we laugh, cry, and occasionally punch our way to a new life in the face of tragedy.

Reviews: School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Review
Awards: Alex Award 2005

http://www.brendanhalpin.com/

Singing the Dogstar blues

Singing the Dogstar blues 
by Alison Goodman 
Language: English 
New York : Viking, 2002. 
261 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0670036102; 9780670036103

Reading level: Young Adult

Protagonist: girl, 18
Summary: In a future Australia, the saucy eighteen-year-old daughter of a famous newscaster and a sperm donor teams up with a hermaphrodite from the planet Choria in a time travel adventure that may significantly change both of their lives.

Reviews: Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, Voice of Youth Advocates, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Kirkus Review

http://www.alisongoodman.com.au/stdb.html

Donutheart

Donutheart
by Sue Stauffacher
Language: English 
New York: Random House Children's Books, 2006
199 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0375832750; 9780375832758
Protagonist: boy, 12

Recommended for ages: 9-12
LOC Summary: Usually preoccupied with his own concerns about hygiene and safety and with his crush on Glynnis, sixth-grader Franklin Delano Donuthead finds that he is unaccountably worried about his mother’s feelings and his friend Sarah’s difficult home life.
My review: Sequel to Donuthead. "Sometimes I try to imagine what my own father looks like. We have never met him. He just...well...provided the ingredients. I don't know how to talk about this to people who don't already know. Some people think a child who is the product of a mom and a sperm donor is just plain weird. If only they knew - there are millions of us in schools across America!" So asserts Franklin Delano Donuthead who often wonders about his father, and who feels different from most people, not always because he is the product of sperm donation, but because of his obsession with hygiene, and his one leg which he perceives to be shorter than the other.

Other than Franklin always knowing that he was the product of sperm donation, his mother doesn't tell him much about his origins, only that she "wanted a healthy guy," and a "normal-dog-loving-athletic sports fan" which Franklin most definitely is not. Franklin understands his origins though by creating the metaphor of his mother having wanted to bake a cake, but not having all the ingredients. But "my mother wanted a baby, not a cake (and) this required sperm, not flour. And since I bear little resemblance to my mother in either looks or personality, she may have grabbed the container that advertised: 'sensitive-intelligent-asymmetrical-immaculate male' in her rush to get the whole business over with." This is what Mom got instead, as Franklin defends when he says, "I can hardly be held responsible for my own genes, now can I?"

Franklin is a well-developed and hysterically funny character who has a friend at the CDC who he checks in with regularly because he is so tormented by germs, so much so that he has to sing the entire "Happy Birthday" song all the way through while washing his hands or he feels his hands have not spent a sufficient amount of time in contact with soap and water. Franklin's being the product of sperm donation is not the main plot of the book. His friendship with the disshelved new girl in his class is. But the author has done a good job creating a credible back story for Franklin and of bringing up some of the legitimate concerns that may have a bearing on some sperm donor children. At one point, wondering whether a certain male teacher could be his father because he too has one leg shorter than the other, has the same build, hair and eye color, as well as an obsession with cleanliness, leads Franklin to wonder whether discovering who his "real, true, flesh-and-blood father" is would be a disappointment, and "would, in fact, be worse than not knowing." This is however a funny book and not a heavy one, and children of sperm donors may enjoy meeting a funny character who shares the same origins. This book was published in 2003 and happens to be the very first young adult book with a donor offspring character.
Reviews: School Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Horn Book

http://www.suestauffacher.com/

Donuthead

Donuthead
by Sue Stauffacher
Language: English 
New York: Random House, 2003
144 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0375824685; 9780375824685

Recommended for ages: 9-12

Protagonist: boy, 11
LOC Summary: Franklin Delano Donuthead, a fifth-grader obsessed with hygiene and safety, finds an unlikely friend and protector in Sarah Kervick, the tough new student who lives in a dirty trailer, bonds with his mother, and is as "irregular" as he is.
My review: "Sometimes I try to imagine what my own father looks like. We have never met him. He just...well...provided the ingredients. I don't know how to talk about this to people who don't already know. Some people think a child who is the product of a mom and a sperm donor is just plain weird. If only they knew - there are millions of us in schools across America!" So asserts Franklin Delano Donuthead who often wonders about his father, and who feels different from most people, not always because he is the product of sperm donation, but because of his obsession with hygiene, and his one leg which he perceives to be shorter than the other.

Other than Franklin always knowing that he was the product of sperm donation, his mother doesn't tell him much about his origins, only that she "wanted a healthy guy," and a "normal-dog-loving-athletic sports fan" which Franklin most definitely is not. Franklin understands his origins though by creating the metaphor of his mother having wanted to bake a cake, but not having all the ingredients. But "my mother wanted a baby, not a cake (and) this required sperm, not flour. And since I bear little resemblance to my mother in either looks or personality, she may have grabbed the container that advertised: 'sensitive-intelligent-asymmetrical-immaculate male' in her rush to get the whole business over with." This is what Mom got instead, as Franklin defends when he says, "I can hardly be held responsible for my own genes, now can I?"

Franklin is a well-developed and hysterically funny character who has a friend at the CDC who he checks in with regularly because he is so tormented by germs, so much so that he has to sing the entire "Happy Birthday" song all the way through while washing his hands or he feels his hands have not spent a sufficient amount of time in contact with soap and water. Franklin's being the product of sperm donation is not the main plot of the book. His friendship with the disshelved new girl in his class is. But the author has done a good job creating a credible back story for Franklin and of bringing up some of the legitimate concerns that may have a bearing on some sperm donor children.  At one point, wondering whether a certain male teacher could be his father because he too has one leg shorter than the other, has the same build, hair and eye color, as well as an obsession with cleanliness, leads Franklin to wonder whether discovering who his "real, true, flesh-and-blood father" is would be a disappointment, and "would, in fact, be worse than not knowing." This is however a funny book and not a heavy one, and children of sperm donors may enjoy meeting a funny character who shares the same origins. This book was published in 2003 and happens to be the very first young adult book with a donor offspring character.
Book Reviews: Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Horn Book

Awards: Nene Award, (nominated) Prairie Pasque Award 2006, (nominated), Rhode Island Children's Book Award 2005, (nominated) William Allen White Children's Book Award 2006, (won) Bluegrass Award 2006, (nomiated), Sequoyah Book Award 2006, (nominated), Maud Hart Lovelace Award (nominated)

http://www.suestauffacher.com/