Anthologies

Connections : a combination of seventeen short stories by today's most popular writers for young adults, portraying encounters and clashes among teenagers, as well as some surprises and insights into the world of young adults. These original stories blend and interact to reveal a splendid array of talent.

Fifteen of the most distinguished and award-winning authors for young adults draw upon their own experiences to create fictional stories that explore adolescence: everything from dating and love, the meaning and boundaries of friendship, fitting in, and measuring up to finding the courage to believe in oneself. Each story was specially commissioned for this collection, and includes an introductory essay by the author explaining the story's origin in the author's life--and its significance.

"What effect does [the climate of censorship] have on a writer?....It's chilling. It's easy to become discouraged, to second-guess everything you write. There seemed to be no one to stand up to the censors....so I began to speak out about my experiences. And once I did, I found that I wasn't as alone as I'd thought." -- from Judy Blume's introduction to Places I Never Meant to Be Judy Blume is not alone: Many of today's most distinguished authors of books for young people have found their work censored or challenged. Eleven of them have contributed original stories to this collection. Along with a story written by the late Norma Klein when she was a student at Barnard College, they comprise a stunning literary achievement as well as a battle cry against censorship. Contributors David Klass Norma Klein Julius Lester Chris Lynch Harry Mazer Norma Fox Mazer Walter Dean Myers Katherine Paterson Susan Beth Pfeffer Rachel Vail Jacqueline Woodson Paul Zindel

If the melt-down, flood, plague, the third World War, new Ice Age, Rapture, alien invasion, clamp-down, meteor, or something else entirely hit today, what would tomorrow look like? Some of the biggest names in YA and adult literature answer that very question in this short story anthology, each story exploring the lives of teen protagonists raised in catastrophe's wake—whether set in the days after the change, or decades far in the future. New York Times bestselling authors Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis, and Jane Yolen are among the many popular and award-winning storytellers lending their talents to this original and spellbinding anthology.