
Chris Moning also notes Wittlinger's ability to write teenagers that are "deftly layered and textured, . . . uncommonly well-drawn" in a review for Children's Literature of Razzle, which was designated a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and won the Patterson Prize for Books for Young People in 2002. Alex Sanchez, who wrote Rainbow Boys and Rainbow High, says that high school girls love his books and all of the main characters are males in nontraditional relationships. Emert: I think that's part of the brilliance of the book-that relationship-because it does turn upside down what we think of as a stereotypical relationship between a gay man and a straight woman. Dr. Emert began his teaching career at Bayside Middle School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he taught Seventh Grade English and Drama I, and has since worked for the University of Texas, Longwood College, the University of Virginia, and Kennesaw State University.