Music from Another World

Tammy Larson has learned to keep her sexuality hidden in a conservative Southern California community where her family and church promote anti-gay campaigns. In San Francisco, Sharon Hawkins also lives around secrets, including those she keeps to protect her gay brother. A pen-pal assignment connects the two girls in the summer of 1977. Shared music and letters gradually become a place to discuss things neither can say comfortably at home. As punk culture and the gay-rights movement reshape their surroundings, their correspondence asks more honesty of them. Robin Talley’s historical YA novel follows queer self-discovery through distance, family loyalties and the friendship that gives two teenagers room to question their worlds.