Can a person’s life change in the course of a night? How about merely their view of the world? Six authors come together to tell different tales of acceptance, difficulty, understanding and epiphany. In “Phase 2,” Abrahams tells a story of two kids hoodwinking their mother for the greater good. Libba Bray’s “Not Just for Breakfast Anymore” navigates the tricky territory between a teen and her newly outed father. David Levithan takes a seemingly simple question—“What's up?”—and arrives at shockingly honest answers in “The Vulnerable Hours,” while Patricia McCormick’s “Orange Alert” features a teen who learns the connection between risk and power. Finally, Sarah Weeks’s “Superman is Dead” brings a boy closer to his little brother thanks to a dying rodent, and Gene Luen Yang’s “The Motherless One” presents a motherless monkey and gives him a very personal quest. The range and scope of these tales complement one another without a weak link in the chain. This collection will keep teens reading long into the deep, dark night. (Fiction. 13-18)
