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The Mayday Rampage(Ages 14 up)—Lookout Press, 1993 In no other young adult novel to date has AIDS been dealt with as graphically and thoroughly as in this timely book... Besides dramatizing the impact of the AIDS epidemic on a high school population Bess provides facts and statistics which may shock uninformed readers. starred Publishers Weekly Molly and Jess, crusading reporters from the Broder High School Rampage, are determined to inform the student body about AIDS... Their language is explicit, and an uproar ensues... Molly and Jess are endearing and true-to-life characters... starred School Library Journal Clayton Bess is a master at capturing the way teens talk... The text is entirely dialogue, making quick and appealing reading for reluctant readers. The protagonists are extremely funny and ... the storyline is riveting from start to finish, with accurate AIDS information appropriately woven in. This book could be a most effective tool for AIDS education and prevention... It will grab teens and move them profoundly. A definite must-purchase. starred Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide I loved having complete artistic control of the book. The book jacket was created by Jim Silva who said of the three models, “I love those kids. Kids who pick up this book are going to want to go right home and find out all about them.” The models are two student assistants from the Library at California State University Sacramento (Eric Trailer with the basketball and Raul Rodriguez with the stuffed horse) and one of the young actresses I had directed in my play On Daddy's Birthday (Melissa Yearta, with the unicorn). 
The drawings of the horse and unicorn throughout the book, progressing from very young and frisky colts through mature and sadder animals, were created by Dan DiCicco. The horse and unicorn are from a cartoon mentioned in the book, drawn by a minor character for the high school newspaper—The Ram Page—with the caption, “I don’t suppose there’s any chance for us?” The symbol, of course, is that there is no chance for our young lovers Jess and Molly, not in this world. I was extremely pleased by the nomination by the American Library Association. I had a friend on the panel, the now deceased Mike Printz who was simply a wonderful high school librarian. And I made a new friend of another member of the panel, the courageous Ruth Dishnow, who had written one of the very favorable starred reviews for the book. Evidently The Mayday Rampage was a very controversial title on the panel’s list of nominations, as is evidenced by the fact that the panel was divided 8-7 against the book. Since Mike had told me years earlier that Tracks was one of the few books ever in the history of ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults to receive a unanimous vote, I found it a mark of distinction that The Mayday Rampage should provoke exactly the opposite response: a completely divided vote. Ah, controversy: isn’t that what literature should evoke?
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