Love & Profanity Special Edition

January 19, 2015
More than 40 brief true stories from Pete Hautman, Alison McGhee, Adam Rex, Jon Scieszka and others address a vast range of experiences and emotions that will be painfully familiar to teens or anyone who ever was one. Several stories, like Rachael Hanel’s “Best Friends,” describe moments of defining heartbreak (“Jenni’s break from me was so clean and fast that it left me spinning”), while Natalie Singer-Velush’s “A Ghost in the Mall” captures that perennial feeling of not belonging: “I know the prerequisites for fitting into the world around me.... But I don’t have the key to get in.” Ali Catt (“Polypropylene”) and Clint Edwards (“I Don’t Believe You”) recount moments of excruciating public humiliation, Melodie Heide (“First Gear”) recalls the intoxicating freedom of driving, and Carrie Mesrobian (“Why Is It Wet Here?”) and Steve Brezenoff (“Weightless”) share stories of parties, “to which everyone on God’s green earth is welcome because the parents are out of town.” Hilarity, heartache, terror, regret, shame, and self-awakening can all be found in this collection of finely wrought moments in time. Ages 14–up.

February 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-Short yet powerful autobiographical stories comprise this collection of consistently excellent, vivid writing. The 43 authors from various backgrounds include a few YA well-knowns-John Scieszka, Joseph Bruchac, Carrie Mesrobian, Will Weaver-and many new and upcoming names. The stories reflect the writers' adolescent experiences with conflict, bullying, family, school, friendship, unrequited love, sex, and more. They offer appeal mostly for high school teens and even adults, though there are several that would be appropriate for upper middle schoolers. Love, or the abysmal lack of it, is central to many of the stories, while profanity is primarily reflected in situations rather than word choice (though the language is occasionally graphic). The stories are, by turns, edgy, nostalgic, poignant, sad, and humorous, with some offering a combination of these qualities. Each selection is heartfelt and thought-provoking and could be a catalyst for intensive discussion. VERDICT Readers of Break These Rules: 35 YA Authors on Speaking up, Standing out, and Being Yourself edited by Luke Reynolds (Chicago Review, 2013) and Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves edited by E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally (Zest, 2012), may appreciate this compilation.-Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, CO

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2014
Each of these 40-plus very short stories unveils a memory of being a teenager that is important to its respective writer.Markedly brief offerings from authors both well-known and less familiar make for an unusual and interesting read that is enormously successful in illustrating how different the lives of teens are from one another. For example, though they seem to involve a similar event, Geoff Herbach's ultimately haunting tale of being mistaken for a girl's tormentor after he ditches empty beer bottles left in his car in the wrong spot couldn't be more different from Carrie Mesrobian's wryly funny recollection of her panic at finding a spent party ball stashed in her family's board-game cupboard weeks after an illicit party at her house. Such issues as body image, cliques, family strife, economic status and popularity are recurring themes throughout and will resonate with teen readers. Less likely to do so are details such as listening to music on Discmans and watching MTV with VHS tapes at the ready to record a favorite video or playing pinball and drinking vodka-spiked Fresca. Teens who enjoy slice-of-life vignettes that evoke a specific time and place and adults who thrill to nostalgia will find a lot to like about these pithy, honestly awkward and poignant minimemoirs. (Memoir. 14 & up)

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February 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 Friendship, love, family, school life, and coming-of-age: this collection of micromemoirs, edited by Healy (It Takes You Over, 2012), attempts to illustrate the entirety of the teenage experience. Dozens of authors, including Pete Hautman, Da Chen, Kwame Alexander, and Jon Sciezka, contribute stories that span decades and cross continents with predictably hit-or-miss results, as each relates a specific experience of their own teenage years. Hautman's story recalls an evening spent drinking with a Vietnam vet in Minnesota. Scieszka recounts a near miss with a horse while speeding around a blind corner on a gravel road. The collection is organized into four sections, and each entry, many never before published, is concise and punchy. Though as a whole this collection doesn't quite meet the lofty goal of capturing in its totality what it means to be a teenager, the brevity of the stories, the honesty of their authors, and their tidy organization lend themselves well to browsing, increasing the likelihood that teen readers will find something they connect with.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)