Weetzie Bat (Indiebound | Amazon) first came out in 1989, but something about it sticks in my consciousness like it was published last week -- and I know I’m not alone in this. It’s not an easy book to explain to the uninitiated, but mention the series to believers, and no matter how long it’s been since they read the book, they’ll reply with a certain reverence usually reserved for cathedrals, Paris, coffee, or…

Previous installments of the series can be found here. Most recently: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. For most of my life, when I heard someone talk about Weetzie Bat, I assumed it was a book about an actual bat. I imagined something like an anthropomorphic fruit bat: small, cute, not something that’s going to want to suck your blood. Maybe this cute bat goes to high school? I think I spent a…