Second Sight : Stories for a New Millennium [Hardcover]

Various (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 1999 | Age Level: 10 and up

What lies on the other side of tomorrow? What if tomorrow was actually a doorway to another age--a new millennium? What does the world have in store for us? Or perhaps more important: What do we have in store for the world? As seen through the eyes of teens, here are eight stories that attempt to answer those questions. Offering their insight through humor, fantasy, and realism, today's most important writers for young adults play the role of visionaries in a collection you won't want to miss. Includes original stories by: Madeleine L'Engle, Richard Peck, Avi, Natalie Babbitt, Rita Williams-Garcia, Janet Taylor Lisle, Nancy Springer, and Michael Cadnum.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Madeleine L'Engle, Richard Peck and other favorite authors transit eight characters into the 21st century. These stories, mostly slices of realism with a hint of the supernatural, introduce universal teens with familiar conflicts. Not so coincidentally, most protagonists experience epiphanies on or around New Year's Eve. In Janet Taylor Lisle's tale, shortly before a girl rings in the year 2000 in Mexico with her family, she has a run-in with a teenage gang amongst Mayan ruins, which turns into a transformative experience. On the same evening, miles away, in Nancy Springer's selection, Mike plans to spend an uneventful night as disc jockey for a local radio stationAuntil spectators in Times Square claim to have seen Jesus in the sky, and an accident seriously injures both a co-worker and his father. While the millennium theme lurks perhaps too conspicuously in the shadows of many stories, at least two authors manage to gracefully broaden it. Natalie Babbitt's timeless fantasy shows how a father, obsessed with glimpsing tomorrow, goes to absurd lengths to find out what the future has in store. Rita Williams-Garcia's lyrical tale, with its folkloric quality, mourns the loss of age-old traditions as modern concerns obscure the importance of family roots ("Gone is the simple need to shake off the world and be among the familiar"). Ages 10-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Grade 6-9-A collection of short stories by eight top young adult authors. The selections are largely compelling and reflect all of the uncertainty, dread, and anticipation that surround this momentous milestone. The book opens with "Oswin's Millennium," Avi's haunting tale of an abused stable boy set in the first millennium, and closes with "The Three-Century Woman," Richard Peck's hilarious story of an elderly woman who beats a TV interviewer at his own game. In between, stories by Janet Taylor Lisle, Rita Williams-Garcia, Nancy Springer, and Michael Cadnum examine people's responses to the millennium, while Madeleine L'Engle gives a brief glimpse of the Austin family as it reacts to Rob's belief that a real millennium bug (an enormous beetle) might exist. However, it is Natalie Babbitt who defines the most basic question about the millennium in her story "Tomorrow." Mr. Rummage is convinced that people want to know what will happen tomorrow and he devises numerous ways, including a balloon trip, to try and find out. But it is an old man in the park who gets to the heart of the matter when he says, "Who cares what kind of a day it's going to be? What matters is, if there's even going to be a day." And when the dawn colors streak the sky, both the old man and Mr. Rummage know the truth, and so do readers.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (September 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399234586
• ISBN-13: 978-0399234583
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,473,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection Of Tales For Teens!, October 2, 2004

By 

Portianay "portianay" (KY, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Second Sight : Stories for a New Millennium (Hardcover)

This is *not* an outdated collection, though published in 1999; many readers will actually delight in recalling "how we felt" as the old century/millenium ticked away. Written by an assortment of the finest writers for young adults today, no serious collection for teens should be without it. Just the stories by L'Engle and Peck make it worth the read.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars proofreader should be fired, July 9, 2010

By 

Manola Sommerfeld (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Second Sight : Stories for a New Millennium (Hardcover)

I expect printed and hard-bound matter to have pristine grammar. Twice in the book I found one of the hugest mistakes in the English language:

Page 26
"Her mother likes it that way, though it makes Shelley look even younger than she is, more innocent, vulnerable before life's darker truths, IT'S evils..."

Page 46:
"We note IT'S odd markings..."

The caps are mine, but the mistakes are not. How embarrassing. I just couldn't keep reading. What makes matters worse is that this is a young adult book. Way to go, editors!