Join In : Multiethnic Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults

Seventeen original short stories by award-winning writers about young adults from diverse ethnic backgrounds illustrate their concerns about friendship and prejudice, expectations and disappointments, connections and confrontations, and other similar issues.

Grade 7 Up-This anthology focuses on the American experiences of ethnic teens. The hero of one funny story is a half-Japanese, half-Polish rapper; another features a budding Vietnamese pitcher with the unfortunate name Ngo Huynh Phuong (No Win Fong). These selections cover the full range of teenage concerns, from finding friends to doing well on the SATs to troubles with romance and parents. Gallo solicited stories by foreign-born authors, and much of their work has an autobiographical ring and conveys real feelings. Other pieces were written by authors whose previous novels have treated ethnic minorities sensitively, most notably Linda Crew's story of a Cambodian girl's struggle with the idea of an arranged marriage. Several of the entries, while affecting, are awkwardly written or didactic, but overall the quality is very good.
Kathy Fritts, Jesuit High School, Portland, OR
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gallo weighs in with his cross-cultural anthology: 17 never- before-published tales from the likes of Julius Lester, Linda Crew, Brenda Wilkinson, Jean Davies Okimoto, and Rita Williams-Garcia. The teenagers here may be Asian, Chicano, First American, African- American, or even (in Elsa Marston's ``Rima's Song'') Lebanese and Palestinian, but their experiences are universal. Dupree is outraged when he sees the deductions from his very first paycheck (``Mutha FICA!''); Lucinda, a lonely Cuban refugee, finds both a stray dog and a friend; Maria is dazzled--but not too dazzled to say no--when luscious Frankie Galvan takes her for a ride. Many break stereotypes (to new student Ngo Huynh Phuong: ``Hey, you speak pretty good English.'' ``I don't see why not--I was born in Los Angeles'') or struggle with conflicts between traditional and new American values; others face, or fall before, challenges, from young motherhood and drug addiction to saving a beached whale or coping with a smothering godmother. Gallo opens with an essay on whether authors can or should write about cultures other than their own and appends a thumbnail biography to each story. Diverse, thought-provoking, and consistently well-written. (Short Stories. 11-18) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 7-12. Teachers and librarians searching for multicultural materials for young adults will want this. Many books are available about teenagers in their native lands; fewer address the problems that contemporary teens of other ethnic backgrounds have living in the U.S. Using his now familiar formula (prominent YA authors are asked to write a story for a themed collection), editor Gallo has produced another appealing work. Many of the writers here are members of the ethnic group they have written about; four were immigrants to the U.S.; and three--Linda Crew, Alden Carter, and Elsa Marston--have close ties to the groups they're concerned with in their stories. The 17 stories cross the boundaries of race and culture and probe the universal themes of belonging, acceptance, family, and friendship. All are good, but Crew's "Bride Price," featuring Sundara and her aunt from the novel Children of the River, T. Ernesto Bethancourt's "Blues for Bob E. Brown," Minfong Ho's "Winter Hibiscus," and Rita Williams-Garcia's "Into the Game" are particularly provocative. Chris Sherman