Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets [Hardcover]

Lisa Rowe Fraustino (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

You never know when a long buried secret might come to the surface...

There are secrets in every family, some that stay hidden for years, and some that bring peace only when brought out in the open. In this collection of 11 original short stories, top YA writers such as Chris Crutcher, Rita Williams-Garcia, M.E. Kerr, Graham Salisbury and Bruce Coville explore the many facets of family secrets -- some haunting, some funny, and some genuinely unexpected. No matter the tale, each will touch the reader in a place close to home, offering insight into even the most "ordinary" of families...and the secrets that are hidden there.

A portion of the royalties of this book are being donated to the National Coalition Against Censorship.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What family doesn't have secrets? The Dirty Laundry collection, edited by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (author of Ash), explores this universal fact of life via 11 original short stories penned by acclaimed young adult writers. Graham Salisbury shines with "Something Like ... Love," his story about a Hawaiian boy who befriends a Caribbean man of mystery and in the process learns a little about what matters in life. In "Popeye the Sailor," Chris Crutcher uses the cycle of child abuse to reveal that secrets tend to rear their hideous heads--no matter how firmly they are pushed aside. M.E. Kerr artfully explores the haunting of a teenage girl by her dead adoptive brother in "I Will Not Think of Maine," and in "Passport," Laurie Halse Anderson takes an amusing look at a young person torn between divorced parents and struggling to create a reality all his own. Diverse as they are, the stories share the quality of compelling, solid writing, as well as the message that no matter how normal or perfect a family appears, secrets are sure to lurk just beneath the surface. --Brangien Davis

From Publishers Weekly

Fraustino's (Grass and Sky; Ash) provocative title and subject matter are enough to reel readers into this eclectic collection of original stories. Here 11 popular YA authors portray young people discovering, hiding, exposing or coping with disturbing truths. For example, in Fraustino's own contribution, "FRESh PAINt," a high school senior stumbles onto the hidden history of her great-grandmother while befriending an elderly patient at a local mental institution. Randy, the hero of Bruce Coville's "The Secret of Life, According to Aunt Gladys," learns about a closely guarded family secret when his never-before-mentioned Uncle George, a transvestite undergoing sex-change surgery, arrives for an extended visit. Other entries convey the burden of carrying a secret. Harboring guilt for abusing his little brother and his infant daughter, the protagonist of Chris Crutcher's "Popeye the Sailor," mistakenly thinks he can bury the past by devoting his future to aiding victimized children. Not all stories are realistic: both Richard Peck and M.E. Kerr serve up flavorful ghost stories. Offering both escapism and insight into the long-range effects of deception, these stories will satisfy a wide range of tastes. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670879118
• ISBN-13: 978-0670879113
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,985,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dian Curtis Regan is the author of more than 50 books for young readers.

She is a former "Member of the Year" of the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators, has been inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers' Hall of Fame, and has received a "Distinguished Medal of Service in Children's Literature" from the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. Also, a library in South America has been dedicated to her.

Dian was born in Colorado Springs, graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and taught school in Denver. She is a frequent speaker at writing conferences and schools.

She has lived in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Venezuela, and Kansas.
Websites: www.diancurtisregan.com www.princessnevermore.com www.rockycavekids.com
princessnevermorefansite.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unhappy Secrets, May 5, 2004

By 

babydoh - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets (Hardcover)

"Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets" is a well compiled and, for the most part, well written anthology of stories. Each revolves around a long-concealed secret, and most are entertaining, though the overall tone of the book does tend to lean toward the morbid - or at least unpleasant.

The book was edited by author Lisa Rowe Frautino, who also penned its well-written but sometimes very disturbing story, "FRESh PAINt". A couple other stories of note are "The Secret of Life, According to Aunt Gladys" by Bruce Coville ("Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher"), "I Will Not Think of Maine" by M.E. Kerr, and "Rice Pudding Days" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

To sum up: I personally am not a fan of unhappy stories, especially so many in one place, but this is still a high-quality book which makes for interesting and often mysterious reading. Still, I would not recommend it to anyone under 14 or so -- for a younger person looking for a short story anthology, I would recommend "13: Thirteen stories that celebrate the agony and ecstasy of being thirteen" (which incidentally also features an entertaining story by the aforementioned Coville).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed almost every story tremendously, November 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets (Hardcover)

As a grad school student who had to read a book on controversy in literature for class, I stumbled across this book in the library and was more than pleasantly surprised. The stories are sometimes touching, sometimes humorous and very different from one another. I think this book helps people understand that no family is truly "normal". I especially liked "Rice Pudding Days", "Passport" and "Popeye the Sailor"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dirty Laundry, but Decent Literature, July 14, 2001

By 

E. Konieczny - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets (Hardcover)

I wasn't overly impressed with this collection of short stories. The first story "The Secret Life, According to Aunt Gladys" by Bruce Coville started the book off in a great place (although the book sleeve ruined an early shock) especially with its haunting last line. Then the stories of Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Dian Curtis Regan, Anna Grossnickle Hines, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Richard Peck all suffered from predictability and a been-there-read-that mentality. The stories were okay, and some even better than that, but reading one after the other was just too much.

The next story, although entertaining, was too science fiction for me. Yes, "I Will Not Think of Maine" by M.E. Kerr dealt with a family secret, but you have to beleive in the supernatural to fully except the story. Currently, I'm reading for reality. I'm looking for stories that can be used to help some of the kids that I'm working for. This story is not one of them.

Then came a diamond in the rough. "FRESh PAINt" by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (the editor) was a awesome and moving story. I can't beleive that none of the other reviewers to this date (July 14, 2001) have mentioned it. This short story was one of the longest in the book (and I hate LONG SHORT stories) but I flew through it. "FRESh PAINt" has a strong mystery, a strong family secrets, and a painful moment that brought me to tears. Anyone who has read the story knows what I am talking about.

The rest of the stories also were pretty good and seem to be favorites of other reviewers. "Passport" bt Laurie Halse Anderson has a creative and sharp-tongued style that made it a joy to read. "Something Like... Love" by Graham Salisbury was a nice story, but its family secret was probably the weakest of the collection. "Popeye the Sailor" by Chris Crutcher was definitely the correct story to end the book with. Its conclusion seems to put an okay book to rest. The style of the story (it opens as a play before turning to narrative) is gripping. The story shocks you into beleiving and it ends before we know everything, but we know enough. It's a wonderful story.

Overall, the book is decent. The long stretch of predictablity to supernatural from Campbell Bartoletti's "Rice Pudding Days" to Kerr's "I Will Not Think of Maine" makes the book hard to finish, but with Rowe Fraustino and Crutcher, there is light at the end of the tunnel.