Because all the cool kids are doing it
My Top Five YA Crushes In No Particular Order (Formerly seen here and here and in a bunch of other places)
1. Sorenson Carlisle from Margaret Mahy's The Changeover
This is partly nostalgic because, my God, did I have the biggest crush on him when I was sixteen? I love his stutter and his romance novel reading and the fact that Laura doesn't put up with any of his crap.
2. Gilbert Blythe from L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables
Everyone has him on their list and no wonder. He continues the persevere with Anne, in the face of all obstacles. He is adorable and practical and has a good sense of humour (which I love particularly in reaction to the scrapes his children go through). I think my favourite moment is when Anne is imagining her life in her castle in the sky with her dark and mysterious stranger and Gilbert keeps showing up to help move the furniture and wallpaper the rooms and she just can't understand why.
Gilbert Blythe is also a thoroughly decent human being and a character who I would like to be best friends with in real life.
3. Howl from Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle
Howl is one of the most fascinating, charming and contrary characters created. Howl fascinates me because he is literally heartless, yet so very loveable - and he seems to care so much about the people he isn't trying to seduce, although he'd never admit it. His relationships with Michael and Calcifer and Sophie are multifaceted and interesting and, despite everything, he has a sense of morality.
Also, he is entirely comprised of faults, which Sophie lists off in The Castle in the Air, which I find very endearing.
4. Thomas MacKee from Melina Marchetta's Saving Francesca
Melina Marchetta writes good male characters. Will Trombal is the romantic hero in this novel, and I like him, I really do, but Thomas is the character that tears my heart to little shreds. He's such a dickhead. Like, he objectifies girls and has a fondness for fart jokes and can be really vicious. Like, Francesca thinks that they're maybe getting somewhere and could have a conversation about real issues and be best friends and then he points of some girls' tits and she thinks again.
And as the novel goes on he becomes closer to the girls and we find out more about him and his sense of humour and his decency and social conscience and his love of music. This is the boy who will dance to 'I'm Your Venus' in drama class and who learns all of Francesca's Lady Macbeth Monologues because he's bitter that he has to be Banquo and say 'Fly Fleance Fly!' Plus, he is wicked funny and has a total crush on Tara, the girl who fights for any and all causes in a way that is so hysterical at the same time as she has a valid point to make.
I think my favourite Thomas moment has got to be this scene:
Thomas Mackee packs up his stuff and stands up. "You chicks give me the shits," he says.
"You, on the other hand, brighten up our day," I tell him. "We all regard you as a god."
"You know what we all call you? Bitch Spice, Butch Spice, Slut Spice and Stupid Spice."
And then the four girls spend hours dissecting this information. This is my father's favourite moment in literature.
5. Calvin O'Keefe from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time
Calvin is lovely. He's a tall, redheaded, basketball player. And he's sensitive and tries to keep people happy and together. And he falls for Meg, even when she thinks she's repulsive.
Honourable Mentions: Will Trombal (the adorable hero) and Jimmy Hailler (for the Sound of Music jokes and Sci-fi/fantasy obsession) from Saving Francesca, Simon from the Mortal Instruments series, Ron Weasley, Derek from Kelley Armstrong's The Summoning, and Spencer from Maureen Johnson's Suite Scarlett.
I should also point out that every single one of these YA males has an at least equally awesome female counterpart, who should definitely be acknowledged. I could not like these YA males without their awesome female counterparts. People, write more kickass females for me to read and enjoy.
1. Laura Chant (for scaring Sorry and turning the world upside down to save her baby brother)
2. Anne Shirley (who breaks a slate over a small boy's head for a perceived insult and holds the mother of all grudges)
3. Sophie Hatter (who spends most of the novel as an old woman and still manages to kick Howl's ass)
4. Tara Finke (and all the girls in Saving Francesca who make this novel the most awesome novel in the universe - especially Justine)
5. Meg Murry (for rocking at science and saving the day with love, in the least lame way possible)
*
Also, thing I have discovered today. I can do the Vulcan Salute with my right hand but not with my left. I'm a left hander in a big way. As in, when I was in Kapa Haka for three weeks and I tried to do the finger-wavey move (look at my cultural sensitivity), I could not do it with my right hand. I cannot throw a ball with my right hand. I cannot write decipherably with my right hand. I cannot do makeup with my right hand (I mean, I can't with my left either, but my right is worse).
My right hand is the nerdy hand that would be picked last for gym, so I guess it stands to reason that the only thing it's good for is symbols of pure nerdery.
1. Sorenson Carlisle from Margaret Mahy's The Changeover
This is partly nostalgic because, my God, did I have the biggest crush on him when I was sixteen? I love his stutter and his romance novel reading and the fact that Laura doesn't put up with any of his crap.
2. Gilbert Blythe from L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables
Everyone has him on their list and no wonder. He continues the persevere with Anne, in the face of all obstacles. He is adorable and practical and has a good sense of humour (which I love particularly in reaction to the scrapes his children go through). I think my favourite moment is when Anne is imagining her life in her castle in the sky with her dark and mysterious stranger and Gilbert keeps showing up to help move the furniture and wallpaper the rooms and she just can't understand why.
Gilbert Blythe is also a thoroughly decent human being and a character who I would like to be best friends with in real life.
3. Howl from Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle
Howl is one of the most fascinating, charming and contrary characters created. Howl fascinates me because he is literally heartless, yet so very loveable - and he seems to care so much about the people he isn't trying to seduce, although he'd never admit it. His relationships with Michael and Calcifer and Sophie are multifaceted and interesting and, despite everything, he has a sense of morality.
Also, he is entirely comprised of faults, which Sophie lists off in The Castle in the Air, which I find very endearing.
4. Thomas MacKee from Melina Marchetta's Saving Francesca
Melina Marchetta writes good male characters. Will Trombal is the romantic hero in this novel, and I like him, I really do, but Thomas is the character that tears my heart to little shreds. He's such a dickhead. Like, he objectifies girls and has a fondness for fart jokes and can be really vicious. Like, Francesca thinks that they're maybe getting somewhere and could have a conversation about real issues and be best friends and then he points of some girls' tits and she thinks again.
And as the novel goes on he becomes closer to the girls and we find out more about him and his sense of humour and his decency and social conscience and his love of music. This is the boy who will dance to 'I'm Your Venus' in drama class and who learns all of Francesca's Lady Macbeth Monologues because he's bitter that he has to be Banquo and say 'Fly Fleance Fly!' Plus, he is wicked funny and has a total crush on Tara, the girl who fights for any and all causes in a way that is so hysterical at the same time as she has a valid point to make.
I think my favourite Thomas moment has got to be this scene:
Thomas Mackee packs up his stuff and stands up. "You chicks give me the shits," he says.
"You, on the other hand, brighten up our day," I tell him. "We all regard you as a god."
"You know what we all call you? Bitch Spice, Butch Spice, Slut Spice and Stupid Spice."
And then the four girls spend hours dissecting this information. This is my father's favourite moment in literature.
5. Calvin O'Keefe from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time
Calvin is lovely. He's a tall, redheaded, basketball player. And he's sensitive and tries to keep people happy and together. And he falls for Meg, even when she thinks she's repulsive.
Honourable Mentions: Will Trombal (the adorable hero) and Jimmy Hailler (for the Sound of Music jokes and Sci-fi/fantasy obsession) from Saving Francesca, Simon from the Mortal Instruments series, Ron Weasley, Derek from Kelley Armstrong's The Summoning, and Spencer from Maureen Johnson's Suite Scarlett.
I should also point out that every single one of these YA males has an at least equally awesome female counterpart, who should definitely be acknowledged. I could not like these YA males without their awesome female counterparts. People, write more kickass females for me to read and enjoy.
1. Laura Chant (for scaring Sorry and turning the world upside down to save her baby brother)
2. Anne Shirley (who breaks a slate over a small boy's head for a perceived insult and holds the mother of all grudges)
3. Sophie Hatter (who spends most of the novel as an old woman and still manages to kick Howl's ass)
4. Tara Finke (and all the girls in Saving Francesca who make this novel the most awesome novel in the universe - especially Justine)
5. Meg Murry (for rocking at science and saving the day with love, in the least lame way possible)
*
Also, thing I have discovered today. I can do the Vulcan Salute with my right hand but not with my left. I'm a left hander in a big way. As in, when I was in Kapa Haka for three weeks and I tried to do the finger-wavey move (look at my cultural sensitivity), I could not do it with my right hand. I cannot throw a ball with my right hand. I cannot write decipherably with my right hand. I cannot do makeup with my right hand (I mean, I can't with my left either, but my right is worse).
My right hand is the nerdy hand that would be picked last for gym, so I guess it stands to reason that the only thing it's good for is symbols of pure nerdery.