About

(Photo courtesy of Sonya Sones)
This is a little blog from a guy who loves books and wants to share them with the world. As well as writing this blog, I have had the pleasure of serving on a number of awards committees over the years including the Stonewall Book Award (2011-2012), the TD Canadian Children's Literature Book Prize (2014-2015), the Sheila Egoff Children's Literature Book Prize (2011), the Newbery Medal Committee (2013-2014), the Michael L. Printz Committee (2015-2016), and the Rainbow Booklist (2017-2018).

 If you have any trouble with a review for some reason, or if you just want to chat or recommend a title, please feel free to contact me through the form on the main page of the blog. You can also find out more information about me through my profile at Simon Fraser University where I completed my PhD  in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies in 2017, with an emphasis on transgender youth and literature. I also have an Academia.edu page.

 I am also available for sensitivity reading and consultations about LGBT themes and representation. You can get in touch with me at any time through the comments section of the blog, or email me at r.bittner@rocketmail.com.

 Thanks for reading!
Beta Reading / Sensitivity Reading Testimonials:

"Rob Bittner’s work as a sensitivity reader for my forthcoming novel Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story was invaluable. He offered constructive, expert comments that helped me shape the character of Jaya." 
      -Sonia Patel, author of Morris Award Finalist Rani Patel in Full Effect (2016)


"I hired Rob to do a sensitivity read on a middle grade novel. His thoughtful and thorough advice was invaluable, and I highly recommend his services. He was extremely flexible with timing and quick to deliver, which was a life-saver on a pending deadline!"
      -Karen Rivers, author of love, ish (2017), and other novels for young readers

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The Living - Matt De La Peña

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The Living  recently received an Honor from the Pura Belpré committee. The award recognizes of a work which best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth. As I was at the awards announcements, and having known people who served on the committee in the past, I was intrigued. I had read the winning title and the other honor titles, and was impressed with the choices. So here's my review of The Living : The novel begins with Shy, a young guy working for a snazzy cruise line, offering water to people on the Lido Deck of the ship to combat the heat. Everything is going pretty well until an older gentleman comes out and starts spouting of weird, disconcerting phrases: "You have seen the face of evil."Shy doesn't quite know what to think, so he moves on to a couple of ladies on the other side of the deck. Just as he's handing them their water bottles, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and realizes the old guy h...
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The Music of What Happens - Bill Konigsberg

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Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever. Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart. Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk -- to get the thing they want the most. This is a phenomenal book, in my humble opinion. There aren't too many books dealing with male sexual abuse, particularly in YA. Sex and sexuality are messy parts of young adulthood, but what this book does really well is discuss consent and the ways in which physical cues can be misinte...
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Girls Like Us - Gail Giles

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I have now gone out and made sure that I have all of the books longlisted for the National Book Award. I read and reviewed a number of these previously, so now I have five left to read and review. This is one of those five (but would I expect anything less from the fabulous team at Candlewick?) Girls Like Us  is a unique novel in a number of respects, most notably in the fact that both protagonists are identified (and self-identified) as mentally disabled in some way. Biddy has a learning disability that she was born with, while Quincy is a young girl who is disabled due to the fact that her mother's boyfriend hit her in the head with a brick, disfiguring her and damaging her brain. Once the two girls graduate from school, they move into a house together, becoming caregivers for both each other and an older woman, Elizabeth. The two must rely on each other for comfort, knowledge, and emotional strength, and Elizabeth manages to help them along the way. While I had moments of wo...
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