Francesca Lia Block and Carmen Staton

Judy Blume wrote books about teenagers who felt like freaks in their changing bodies; Francesca Lia Block writes about the kids who truly are freaks, and proud of it. Block writes for adults with the same hazy sense of unreality and suspension of propriety as she did in Weetzie Bat, her story of an adventurous girl and her gay sidekick in Los Angeles. In Ruby, the title character comes from an abusive home but has a sixth sense that allows her to be at one with nature and to know her own destiny (her namesake jewel is believed to ward off evil spirits). Ruby travels to England to meet the actor she knows will be her soul mate, but struggles with escaping her past and surviving life’s obstacles.