It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since John Donovan's teen novel, "I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip," was published. The book was groundbreaking -- the first young-adult novel to deal openly with homosexuality, and it did it so in a believable, touching way. It was praised by the New York Times, School Library Journal and Horn Book, partly for the lively and endearing character of the narrator, Davy.

And then it ... just went out of print. For 20 years.

Now, Flux, the young-adult division of Llewellyn publishing in Woodbury, has come out with a 40th-anniversary edition, featuring essays on the book's place in the history of publishing, and a tender, intimate foreword by the author's niece.

The book will be available in September, for $9.95 in paperback.

Also ...

• "Hamster Magic," by Lynne Jonell, will be published in late September by Random House. Jonell lives in Plymouth and is the author of "The Secret of Zoom," which you might remember as the book that President Obama purchased for his daughters last spring in Iowa City.

• "In Utopia: Six Kinds of Eden and the Search for a Better Paradise," by J.C. Hallman, has been published by St. Martin's Press. Hallman, of St. Paul, also wrote "The Hospital for Bad Poets." His new book explores six modern utopian projects.

• Wy Spano, co-author of "Minnesota Politics and Government," has a new book coming out about the Franken-Coleman election. "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Senate: Franken vs. Coleman and the Decline of Civilized Politics" will be published by Zenith Press in October.

• "Suspect," a young adult novel by Kristin Wolden Nitz, has been published by Peachtree Publishers. Nitz, who now lives in Michigan, grew up in Duluth.

• "1+1=5 and Other Unlikely Additions," a picture book by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Brenda Sexton, will be published in September by Sterling Children's Books. LaRochelle is the author of many other picture books and lives in White Bear Lake.