Author Description

The Weetzie Bat series, by acclaimed author Francesca Lia Block, was listed among NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels. This collection brings together the five luminous novels of the series: Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, and Baby Be-Bop. Weetzie Bat is a short novel by Francesca Lia Block that reads like a candied love song for young, artistic misfits. The first in the Dangerous Angels series, it's the kind of book that doesn't quite fit amongst the stacks of action-adventure plots, prim teenage sleuths, and Blume-ian freckled kids in the YA world - much like the protagonist, Weetzie, doesn't quite fit in the superficial, plastic world of her high school. Weetzie and her gay best friend Dirk, who comes out to her in the novel, look for their soul mates (whom they call their "ducks") and ways to have unconventional fun in an 80's-set Los Angeles wonderland (like grabbing burritos at Oki Dog and cruising around in a '55 red Pontiac dressed in 1950s garb). The Weetzie Bat books broke new ground with their stylized, lyrical prose and unflinching look at the inner life of teens.