Weetzie Bat
Front cover of unknown edition
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| Author | Francesca Lia Block |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Suza Scalora |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dangerous Angels |
| Genre | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Harper Collins |
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Publication date
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1989 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 109 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 55874309 |
| Followed by | Witch Baby |
Weetzie Bat is the debut novel of Francesca Lia Block, published by HarperCollins in 1989. It inaugurated her Dangerous Angels series for young adults.
The narrative follows the adventures of the eponymous character Weetzie and her best friend Dirk, as well as their friends and relations. After being granted three wishes by a genie, Weetzie discovers that there are unexpected ramifications.
The story is set in an almost dream-like, heightened version of Los Angeles, aptly referred to as "Shangri-L.A.", in an indefinite time period evoking both the 1980s punk craze and the sophisticated glamor of 1950s Hollywood. Block describes issues such as blended families, premarital sex, homosexuality, and AIDS.
Weetzie Bat won the 2009 Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association as the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published twenty years earlier. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, to suggest the book's rise from obscurity.
Criticism of Weetzie Bat focuses primarily on the appropriateness of the subject matter for the young adult reader. Weetzie Bat describes gay marriage, children out of wedlock, abortion, common-law marriage, and the AIDS epidemic, in language that makes it accessible to the pre-teen and early teen reader. Michael Cart states "Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat (HarperCollins) is not only a classic of gay fiction but also one of the most memorable of all young adult novels."
Weetzie Bat was put on the banned book list by one group because they did not approve of Block's "ideas and views on a variety of issues surrounding alternative lifestyles" according to the B.G. Censorship Watch of American Libraries.
Critics counter that censorship has a long history in the U.S., and that books like Weetzie Bat can provide a vital resource for lesbian, gay, transgender, and HIV-positive teens growing up in what is still largely a homophobic society. Critics such as Rebecca Platzner offer that, while the material is suggestive, the dialogue that it establishes about these depictions is vital to a developing young adult’s perspectives on difficult social issues. Platzer offers this as explanation:
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