Leaving Their Stamp on History.
The number and nature of female images on stamps thus has become an excellent way to measure the status of women. This exhibit will chronicle the first seventy-five years of the history of American women on stamps – as best as can be done at this point. Like much of women’s history, consistent records are not easily accessible, as even Post Office sources are contradictory. We can say, however, that at least two hundred women have been honored on stamps, with most occurring since the revival of feminism in the 1970s. In recent decades, women have been especially likely to be featured in stamp series that honor a category of achievers, such as aviators or musicians or sports figures.

--see it at the website of the National Women's History Museum.

ALA Personal Members will qualify for:

•20% off all in-store purchases, excluding café purchases
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Throughout the year as you’re shopping for your library ALA Organizational Members are able to use a library purchase order to place an order online, via phone by contacting Books-A Million’s Business 2 Business Department at 1-800-201-3550 x 3 or via email at business@booksamillion.com and B.A.M. offers a quote service at no charge.

Sayers, Joey Alison. Just So You Know. Autobiographical Comics Ser. #1. Oakland, 2009. softcover. [36] pages. $5.00.

Cartoonist Joey Alison Sayers has the talent—critical in comic art—for getting to a point quickly and making a sharply perceptive observation.

Just So You Know #1 gathers together two years of strips about Sayers' transition from male to female. Hormones, social acceptance, getting a new ID, and coming out to herself and her parents are all dissected on Sayers' drawing pad. The most poignant strip may be "Freaking Out the Parents." At a particularly illuminating point in a conversation with her parents, Sayers explains, "I've been horribly depressed for as long as I can remember and for a bunch of years I was getting drunk and using drugs as a coping mechanism." Her parents listen to everything in silence, wearing twin expressions of concern. Their response comes in the last panel: "Wait?! You did drugs?!!" It's a bittersweet moment.

They aren't hurling invective, which is good, but they can't acknowledge what their child is really sharing, and only react to a side issue. Additionally, Sayers slips in some basic facts about the MTF transition process, which is helpful for any library collection. The final page even includes a small glossary to help readers understand, for example, the difference between transgender and transsexual.

Just So You Know #1 is recommended for public and high school libraries. It's available online through Sayers' website. Payment is through PayPal.

Reviewed by Ruth Ann Jones
Special Collections Cataloger
Michigan State University Libraries

Alan, Kage. Andy Stevenson vs. The Lord of the Loins. Austin, TX: Zumaya Boundless, 2008. $14.99. ISBN 9781934841006.

Andy returns to college in a small town in western Michigan. The first semester goes by without his secret slipping out—not that he doesn't hint to his friends, just that they are oblivious. Then, Andy's first date since Jordan turns out to be less than he's hoped for. Andy wants a soul mate; instead, he ends up in a one-night-stand with Tristan, the "Lord of the Loins" of the book's title. When Tristan determines that the reason Andy wants nothing more to do with him is because Andy is still too closeted, he outs Andy to the whole campus—just as Andy has started getting serious with Alan, a cute, but domineering Asian who insists on a discreet relationship.

Andy Stevenson vs. Lord of the Loins has the same slapstick sensibility as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Sexual Orientation, but Andy is now more mature. His tongue does get the better of him at times—particularly when dealing with Tristan—but his ease with himself allows him to first escape a trap Tristan set for him, then to exact revenge and end Tristan's manipulations for good.

Unbound Books first published A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Sexual Orientation in 2003, but the press went out of business in 2006. Zumaya Boundless republished it in 2008 when they released Andy Stevenson vs. Lord of the Loins. Kage Alan is working on the third volume, which will also be published by Zumaya, and is expected in 2010.

Both books in this series are strongly recommended for all public and academic libraries. They are acceptable for high school libraries also, but the characters are college age and older.

Reviewed by John Bradford
Head, Automation & Technical Services
Villa Park (IL) Public Library