Twelve incandescent short stories work as guaranteed attention-getters for older adolescents. Featuring some of the best YA writers in the business, this collection concentrates on the fleeting moments of first love. Some protagonists win and some lose, but all learn new lessons about life. Most of the stories deal with sex, although readers will find nothing pornographic here. Ellen Wittlinger begins with an insightful portrayal of an innocent girl confronting the death of a boy she loved from afar, leading her to understand the difference between real love and adolescent fantasies. Nancy Garden, Jacqueline Woodson, and Emma Donoghue supply gay and lesbian entries, all sensitively done. The rest, by such luminaries as Norma Fox Mazer and Victor Martinez, explore the often-fumbling attempts at heterosexual love of boys and girls trying to be men and women. Among the subjects are a young poet who loses his first real chance for sex, a fat girl who loses weight and finally confronts the years of insecurity it has caused her, and a girl who escapes her awful home life with a boy who matches her love of offbeat music. Simply put, these stories are stunners. Deep, bold, and tender, they touch the reality of adolescence. Young readers will find subject matter they crave, and more. (Fiction. YA)
