Girls for Breakfast

Nick Park loves girls.

Drumstick legs, cherry-colored lips, dumpling cheeks . . . everything about them he wants to eat up. But hes dateless and has been since he discovered girls in the third grade, and hes convinced himself that this is solely based on the fact that hes the only Korean American teenager in Renfieldthe fifth richest (and WASPiest) town in Connecticut. In Nicks mind, he sticks out like a banana in a wheat field.

And now its time for him to figure it out once and for all. Is it all in his head or are his suspicions that his heritage is keeping him from a triumphant boob fest true?

An excerpt from Girls for Breakfast:

What confused me about involuntarily visualizing Miss Hamilton with no clothes on was that she wasnt even pretty. Her nose was pointy and her frizzy hair always looked sweaty, but I couldnt stop picturing her naked. I also couldnt stop picturing Martha the bus driver naked every time I stepped on the bus. I was a perverted Superman. As the bell rang I silently vowed to stop staring at the Playboys at night in order to get the rest crucial to curing me. I glared at Miss Hamiltons breasts and shook a fist at her bare butt as she faced the chalkboard. I knew in my heart Id beat this disease.

"This often hilarious first novel begins on the morning before narrator Nick Park's high school graduation, when he skips out on rehearsal to reflect on his frequently disastrous life growing up in the only Asian family in Renfield, Conn. For instance, he recalls how, at age eight, he acted on his classmates' prejudices by pretending to be a Kung Fu master, even making up his own moves with names like 'the Triceratops.' Nick is a complicated character, and readers will alternately sympathize with him for his outsider status, and occasionally dislike him for his actions; a Korean girl at church calls him 'a banana... White on the inside, yellow on the outside,' and he endures racial slurs by his peers, but in his quest for popularity-and girls-he does mean and creepy things, too. He 'ditches' his nerdy friend and shows his embarrassment about being seen with the first girl he has sex with when popular kids spy them together. Yoo dots the narrative with 1980s references to bands and songs (Nick talks about 'French-rolling the cuffs' of his jeans), which may not resonate with readers, but they will find themselves laughing at many of his scrapes, and cheer when he marks the 'end of the selfish Nick' and finally begins to care less about what others think. Ages 14-up. " Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Nick Park loves girls. But he's dateless and has been since he discovered girls in the third grade. He's convinced himself that this is solely based on the fact that he's the only Korean-American teenager in WASP-y Renfield, Connecticut. Is it all in his head?

David Yoo is a graduate from Skidmore with an MFA in creative writing from University of Colorado. He resides in Boston without his cat.