VVMBookBlog

First Crossings: Stories about Teen Immigrants
edited by Donal R. Gallo

Short story books are wonderful because one can read the stories they choose. First Crossings has a wonderful introduction which explains the collection. Each story is unique in its perspective. One story is about getting in trouble at school and the problems with translation. A story talks about football and the prejudices of some people. A Minnesota author, Marie G. Lee, also has a story in this collection. These stories talk about the difficulties of being a teen in a new country.

Don’t Read This! And Other Tales of the Unnatural by various authors

Don’t Read This is a collections of short stories. Three stories stand out as particularly entertaining although they all are tales to be read. In one story a boy kills his grandmother in order to inherit her money and go to a private school. Another story talks of a boy moving to a new house only to find a ghost his own age. A third story talks about a girl being pulled into a mirror. These stories are scary, creepy, and a bit odd.

Readers who have enjoyed the Scary Story books will like this collection of short stories.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

This is two stories which seem to alternate, but come together magically at the end. A calico cat meets a hound dog and an unusual friendship begins. When Sabine and Puck are born to the calico cat, the four become an odd family. Gar Face is the owner of Ranger, the dog, is mean and causes tragedy to the new family. In the other story, a shape-shifting water serpent has been asleep in the Piney Woods mystical forest and is coming to life again. Although it seems like a typical animal story or a good versus evil story, it is more.

The cover is not fitting of the book. Keep in mind the old saying, “Don’t judge the book by it’s cover.”

Suck It Up by Brian Meehl

There are two types of Vampires, Loners and Leaguers. Morning McCobb is a leaguer which means he doesn’t need to subsist on human blood. He is graduating from the IVLeague which is the International Vampire League. Since he is a vampire, he will remain sixteen forever which means his life will be moving from city to city and high school to high school (the only place for a sixteen year old). Birnam has another idea. His idea is for the leaguers to “come out” and let the world know they’re vampires. He wants to use Morning as an experiment. This is how morning becomes involved with Penny, his new PR (public relations) person and her daughter Portia (coincidentally a teenager like Morning). Penny, and Portia, take Morning to various talk shows and let’s Morning prove himself as a vampire. This is when the troubles begin. Is Morning able to keep from drinking human blood and stick to his Blood Lite (protein type blood drink)? Is the country ready to acknowledge there are vampires living amongst the public? Will the Loners appreciate the Leaguers trying to “come out”?

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman

Honor doesn’t fit in with the other ‘H’ kids in her class. Part of the reason is because her name doesn’t start with the ‘H’ sound. This is not the only reason she doesn’t fit in. Her parents have had a second child which is not OK in this new community. The corporation has taken over this community and made life better by protecting people from the changes in weather. Although Honor doesn’t fit in, she does conform and is learning what the corporation wants her to learn in school. When she meets a boy Helix, she soon realizes his parents are nonconformists like hers, but his parents are taken away making him an orphan. What will happen to Honor and her little brother?

This book is recommended to those who liked City of Ember and/or The Giver. It is a futuristic novel.