From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up. This collection of short stories grew from an expressed need of the teachers of adolescent literature and creative writing for material to show students how to write from their own experience. Fifteen of today's best writers for young adults have penned original short stories based on events in their own lives. Jay Bennett tells of a pro-football star who asks his younger brother to lie for him after he runs over a man and flees the scene; the teenager in Joan Bauer's "The Truth About Sharks" is falsely accused of shoplifting. Richard Peck offers a chilling ghost story. Other contributors include Avi, Suzanne Fisher Staples, Walter Dean Myers, Richard Peck, and Gordon Korman. Each selection comes with an introductory essay by the author, explaining the origin and significance of the event. The talent of these authors is clear, no matter how short a story it is. Ideas abound for those interested in writing their own stories. Libraries looking for prime collections of short stories with great YA appeal or those with budding author groups would be well served by this book.?Tracy Taylor, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Gr. 6^-12. Coming from a desire to help teachers motivate their students to find inspiration in ordinary, everyday events, this collection of 15 original stories contains work from some of the best and best-known YA authors. The idea was to have authors use an experience that had some personal impact as the seed for a piece of fiction. The result is a mixed bag, both in terms of quality and subject, with the selections ranging from a ghost yarn to a story about a boy whose friend is suicidal to a short play, complete with lines for a chorus. Each story is prefaced by an author's note explaining the circumstance or emotion at the heart of the piece: Susan Fisher Staples recalls being deeply embarrassed by her mother; Walter Dean Myers remembers his meeting a Brazilian girl who worked as an exotic dancer; Gordon Korman harks back to a weird news story he read as a child. For students investigating the writing process, these introductions demonstrate how authors spin out stories by using imaginative details. Teens who simply want to read for pleasure would do best to skip the headnotes, as they take some of the drama and surprise out of the stories. This is a good bet for teachers, but teens who want recreational reading might be happier with Gallo's recent
No Easy Answers.
Stephanie Zvirin
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
