Far from Xanadu
Publisher
Little, Brown
Publication Year
2005
ISBN
9780316158817
Pages
288 pages
Genre
realism
Format
novel
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
In this fresh, poignant novel Mike is struggling to come to terms with her father's suicide and her mother's detachment from her family. Mike (real name Mary Elizabeth) is gay and likes to pump iron, play softball and fix plumbing. When a glamorous new girl, Xanadu, arrives in Mike's small Kansas town, she falls in love at first sight. Xanadu is everything that Mike is not - cool, confident, feminine, sexy and - straight! No matter how close their growing friendship is, Mike is always going to be 'far from Xanadu'.
Grade Level
6-8; 9-12
Lexile Measure
460L
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Family member death; Gay/Lesbian; death of a father; lesbian; lesbian teenager
Main Character
female teenager
Race/Ethnicities
White
Family Formation
single mother
LGBTQ+
lesbian female
Awards
Booklist Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth, 2005
Booklist Top 10 Youth Romances, 2005
Choices, 2006 Fiction Young Adult
Core Collection: Sports Fiction for Girls, 2007
Rainbow List, 2008 Young Adult Fiction
Senior High School Library Catalog, Sixteenth Edition, 2006 Supplement, 2006
Keywords
suicide; softball; plumbing; exercise; high school; small town; Kansas; new girl
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Peters, Julie Anne, "Far from Xanadu" (2005). Diverse Families. 1976.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1976