I cut my reading teeth on The Babysitters’ Club books by Ann M. Martin, R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series, Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High books (which I understand are supposed to be getting a makeover— no, the Wakefields are still assholes, but HEY! They’re slimming down from a size 6 to a size 4! Schyeah, ’cause they were so fat before. Anorexia is sexy!), and the awesome teen paranormal romance books by Annette Curtis Klause. I abandoned those books in favor of Jayne Ann Krentz, Linda Howard, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips when I turned 13. Oddly enough, it wasn’t until I turned twenty-something that I re-discovered my love for Young Adult books. I mean, have y’all read Melissa Marr, the House of Night books by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, Stephanie Meyer, and Libba Bray? These kids are reading heavy-duty quality stuff! A Great and Terrible Beauty was frickin’ brilliant! The teens in these stories are definitely not worrying about what flavor lip gloss to use, who Logan Bruno— BMOC, natch— is taking to the winter formal, or how to effectively pop zits… they’re having to face real world issues like a father dying in Iraq, mini existential crises, drugs, being sexually harassed by a step-parent… awesome real stuff… and six of these stories are compiled in this very entertaining anthology by some of my favorite writers, the motiff of which is staying up all night, when you’re supposed to be in bed, dreaming about Logan Bruno.

Phase 2 by Peter Abraham features a family anxiously anticipating the arrival of the father from the war. Phase 2 refers to the BIG PLAN of the family to move to the suburbs and live dull, but nevertheless safe lives as soon as the father returns from a dangerous mission. All of that changes when Dad’s plane is shot down and he dies, leaving Lara to deal with her all-too-serious brother, hysterically grieving mother, and the fact that she’s never going to see her father ever again. What’s most worrisome for Lara, however, is the way her mother seems to be dealing with her father’s death: she becomes obsessed with contacting her dead husband through a psychic. When Lara and her little brother discover that the psychic is a fake, Lara has to figure out how to tell her emotionally fragile mother about it when it seems to be the only thing that’s holding her mother together. It is definitely a loss-of-innocence story, but there’s a bit of magic in it too. I enjoyed the relationship between Lara and her little brother and even though it’s a short story, I really got a sense of who these people are and how they work together as a family unit. The little twist at the end gave me goosebumps, too!

Not Just for Breakfast Anymore by Libba Bray is definitely my favorite story of the bunch. It starts out easily enough— Maggie and her friends are hanging out in the parking lot of a shopping center in city, looking for someone they can trick into buying them alcohol so they can have more fun at the Cheap Trick concert they’re going to attend (it’s the 80’s, kids. I Want You to Want Me…). This scene rang especially true for me because I remember listening to Cheap Trick on a tape I made by holding up my recorder to the radio, while sipping a noxious concoction (a thermos filled with a little bit of every single bottle of liquor in my father’s cabinet— a little bit here, a little bit there, he won’t notice) with my friends. As the story progresses, it is revealed that Maggie’s parents had recently divorced and Maggie’s mother is having a tough time dealing with it. Her brother, with whom she was especially close, doesn’t visit or even call much anymore and her father seems to have moved on with his life, having a gay old time. When the plan to meet Cheap Trick at their hotel goes bust (it turned out they were staying at another hotel), Maggie is stuck with her friends in a strange town with no way of getting home because everybody is too messed up to drive. But the town ain’t so strange after all because Maggie’s father lives there, only she’s reluctant to call him because she doesn’t want her friends to find out her family’s deep, dark secret. It’s the little things that did it for me here: Maggie’s habit of making up commercials for products that don’t exist but should, her fear that her friends will turn away from her when they find out the truth about her parents’ divorce, and most especially, her friend using her budding sexuality to trick a horny store clerk into selling them alcohol. This story is really about perception: how things can irreversibly change the moment you start looking at it from a different perspective. It’s also being forced to deal with things you don’t necessarily understand and discovering that your parents don’t have it all figured out, either. And sometimes the only thing you can do to shake it off is to cannonball-dive into a swimming pool and stay underneath the water until you can’t breathe anymore. As soon as you resurface, you just might realize that things aren’t as bad as you thought they would be…

Is there ever a moment in your day when you stop and start asking yourself what it is you’re doing or why things are the way they are? This is what David Levithan’s The Vulnerable Hours is all about. We are introduced to a girl named Sarah, a girl who usually enjoys going to parties with her twitty friends. In the middle of the party, Sarah realizes she doesn’t quite belong there and ends up locking herself in the bathroom and is found by Lindsay, the hostess of the party. When Lindsay asks Sarah what is wrong, Sarah ends up unburdening herself to this girl and the two of them end up spending the party in the bathroom, just talking. On the other side of town, a boy named Phil is hanging out at a park with his friends when all of a sudden, he is overcome with a mind-blowing existential question: how come when you ask somebody what’s up, the response is almost always “Not much.” Phil decides to go around the park, asking everyone “what’s up” and sure enough, receives the usual “not much” until people start really thinking about it and reveal their own vulnerabilities. Suddenly, “what’s up” becomes a very loaded question. Meanwhile, Sarah eventually wanders away from the party and Phil, realizing that the park is nearly empty, begins wandering too. The two of them, both a little lost and seeking answers in their own way, meet in the middle and make a connection. This story is poignant, stark, and definitely thought-provoking. Sarah and Phil really illustrate what it’s like to be a teenager, struck with debilitating questions like, “What am I supposed to do now?” and “Where do I belong?” Frickin’ fantastic.

Orange Alert by Patricia McCormick is about a fifteen year old girl who sees a driver’s license as a path to independence and strength. Our heroine is desperate to learn how to drive a car, even though her skeezy step-dad (who is a little bit too touchy) thinks she’s too young and her mother is all too willing to let her step-dad make all the decisions for the family. Desperate to get away and convinced that a driver’s license would help her do just that, our heroine begins sneaking out in the middle of the night so she can teach herself how to drive. This one really creeped me out because I was afraid for the girl whose step-dad is leering bohunk pervert and her mother seems oblivious— no, deliberately obtuse to what’s going on, perhaps in fear she will never find another man who’ll “love” her and take care of her. This is in direct contrast to our heroine who believes she can escape and stand on her own two feet, if only she could learn how to drive. The ending is definitely very satisfying and had me rooting for our girl. Down with skeezy men who think they can take advantage of you just because you’re smaller and supposedly weaker! A kickass story all around.

Superman is Dead by Sarah Weeks features Brian, an aspiring writer forced to take care of his little brother by himself because his mother has to work and his father is gone, living his new life with a new wife and new baby. The Superman in this story is a little mouse that belongs to Brian’s little brother and the story begins with Brian reading out loud his English homework to a friend on the phone when his little brother Joe barges in crying because there is something wrong with Superman. Brian is definitely dealing with things beyond his maturity level: having to care for a little brother, parental neglect, a dying pet— when all he wants to do is finish the short story he’s writing for class. The story Brian is writing, which is seamlessly woven into our main storyline, reveals a lot about Brian’s state of mind: the adulterous husband kills his wife as directed by his mistress who is pregnant with his baby. Brian is a prime example of a teenager who grows up too soon because his parents are too busy fighting to take care of him and his brother; the theme is really the loss of innocence, as evidenced in the story that Brian is writing: he changes the ending to reflect what is happening in his own life. Good stuff. I’m inspired to buy more books by this author.

The Motherless One by Gene Luen Yang might be a little too deep for my dumb ass, because frankly, I had no idea what the hell it’s all about. It’s a comic about a monkey looking for his mom and this elder monkey tells him he doesn’t have a mother because he was actually hatched out of a rock. The rock is on top of a mountain guarded by a man-eating tiger. I think. *head-scratch* According to the intro:

In Gene Luen Yang’s The Motherless One, the age-old question, “Why was I born?” becomes the Monkey’s quest and obsession, ironically causing the legendary character to ignore the signposts nature offers all around him and come dangerously close to losing the very life he is seeking to understand.

I’m pretty sure it’s a metaphor for missing out on the important things in life if you spend all of it wondering about your existence and why you’re alive… which, now that I think about it, is pretty goddamn funny especially since five of the stories in this book is really about finding the answers to those questions. Heh. On second thought, maybe I do like the last story after all.

All and all, this is a really satisfying collection of short stories, a great read for the young and old alike. Each tale is short, sweet, and packs its own powerful punch. Highly recommended. Go get it. I’m giving it a B+ because I’m taking off points for the last story making me feel stupid. It’s not the author’s fault I’m a dummy, but GRRRR! *shaking fist* I’m thinking of the kids, damn it; I’m sure they won’t get it either. *snicker* Buy it for your kids, buy it for yourself.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 9:15 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Young Adult, Reviews by Ai! Grabe.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.