You've surely seen redacted documents, the ones with significant words blacked out. Ness uses this practice in his new, illustrated novella about four boys who have been friends forever: Ant, the narrator; Charlie, his homophobic best friend; Jack, who is gay; and sweet-spirited, football-playing Josh. In a meta way the four are aware that certain words in their conversations are being censored. "What are these [redacted] black boxes?" Charlie asks. "I shrug," Ant writes. "It's that kind of story." A story, that is, about sex and losing one's virginity. "Are there degrees of virginity?" Ant ponders after listing five increasingly intimate acts that he has done secretly with Charlie--Charlie who writes it all off as practice for having sex with girls and who draws the line at kissing Ant "because that would make us gay." Does that sort of denial erase the acts themselves? If so, is Ant still a virgin? Ness superbly blends Ant's philosophical musings with realistically voiced teen thoughts and dialogue, where expletives and sexual content are curtained by heavy black rectangles yet blatantly present. The near-melancholy tone is beautifully matched by Bendix's inspired artwork, composed of smudged pencil sketches and digital collage. Within this beautifully crafted package lies a poignant story of a boy reaching out in loneliness to another boy and grasping unvarnished truth.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Ness counts two Carnegie Medals among his many awards, and his name always draws a crowd. Order up!

Ness (Burn) cheekily utilizes fourth wall--breaking meta-humor and redacted curse words, derogatory language, and descriptions of sexual acts to craft an affecting novella that explores sexuality and toxic masculinity. Fifteen-year-old Ant Stevenson and his best friend Charlie Shepton have been "goofing around" sexually. Though their mutual arrangement is meant to help them blow off steam, Ant is left wondering why he so desperately wants to kiss Charlie, despite it being against their agreed upon rules, which state that kissing "would make us gay." When a new classroom setup seats Ant and Charlie with drama kid Jack, who everyone assumes is queer, Ant wrestles with complex affections for Charlie and fledgling romantic feelings for Jack. Ant is an immediately likable protagonist, whose efforts to sort out his desires while maintaining relationships with classmates is admirable and empathetic. Ness delivers an authentic-feeling story that interrogates the idea that teens are "too young to read about the stuff we actually do." Black-and-white pencil illustrations by Bendix provide an expressive complement to concise, sensitive, and thought-provoking text in this un-put-downable, easily devoured read. Characters are assumed white. Ages 14--up. (Mar.)

Ness's postmodern short story (a version of which was previously published in an anthology), intermittently illustrated with Bendix's striking pencil drawings and digital collage, candidly depicts the relationships among several teenage boys in eastern Washington. Narrator Ant's frank, earnest musings on masculinity, companionship, and the degree of his own virginity are tempered by his self-censorship, with literal black bars concealing nearly all instances of cursing and sexual activity (though homophobic slurs aren't censored -- a decision meta-commented on by the characters themselves). A key flashback reveals the clandestine sexual relationship between Ant and his friend Charlie, who publicly projects a homophobic persona and denies Ant the intimacy of a kiss. Conflict erupts after a joke from Jack, the subject of Charlie's homophobic bullying, inadvertently uncovers Ant and Charlie's secret, which leads to a violent outburst from an emotionally broken Charlie (illustrated across a double-page spread in monstrous detail). The lean narrative moves briskly with a focus on dialogue, dry humor, and Ant's wonderings -- feeling much like a stage play composed of only a handful of scenes. Ant's conclusion is uncertain and hopeful, neither storybook nor tragic. An honest, profound kiss from Jack ends up meaning more to Ant than anything he ever did with Charlie, leading Ant to accept that his virginity is not defined by others' rules and expectations, but rather "I think I'm the one who says." (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Four friends grapple with their identities. This is a brief story about [blank], [blanks], and [blanking]. In a bold move that may irritate censorious adults, Ness puts what readers can only imagine are all kinds of curse words, slurs, and descriptions of sexual acts behind black boxes in the text that, in a fourth wall--bending move, all the characters are aware of. Ant Stephenson and his friend Charlie Shepton have been experimenting sexually for a long time, under the guise of just needing some release because neither of them have girlfriends yet, but Ant finds himself wanting to kiss his friend, something that is definitely against the rules--after all, wouldn't that mean they are gay? Meanwhile, when Mr. Bacon, their cool AP history teacher, reconfigures the classroom setup, seating Ant and Charlie together with genial football player Josh Smith and the boys' former friend, Jack Taylor, now a drama kid, the foursome have to deal with the fact that Jack is obviously gay, threatening Ant and Charlie's secret. Rough pencil sketches add to the heightened emotion, reflecting the jagged, difficult emotional realities of the apparently White boys who know that while queerness is technically OK, especially for certain girls and in more liberal cities, it's as taboo as it's ever been among the traditionally masculine boys of eastern Washington. The brevity of this story adds to its power, distilling the plot to its most necessary, brutal, loving elements. [Blanking] masterful. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.