The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016

September 12, 2016
This eclectic compilation, guest-edited by novelist Kushner (The Flamethrowers), is selected by high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area and Ann Arbor, Mich., from a variety of national publications (e.g., the New Yorker, the New York Times) and literary journals (e.g., Granta, the Iowa Review). The offerings include nonfiction, short stories, a book review, poetry, and even narrative cartoons. These are clearly very discerning high school students: the majority of the choices are first-rate, though some of the poems are obscure and Marilynne Robinson's "An Interview with President Obama" is superficial. The pieces generally try to engage the reader quickly, with first sentences that are either punchy ("In the fourth week of drought... the elephant keeled over dead," from "The Miracle at Little Fork" by Rebecca Makai) or intentionally vague ("At first all the mothers were going into town," from "Shadehill" by Mark Hitz). Sometimes that opacity is intriguing, but the fiction pieces do start to show similarities, with the recurring theme of characters on the fringes of society dealing with extreme circumstances. Some of the selections will not be to everyone's taste ("Brown vs. Ferguson," from the discussion group behind the theoretical journal Endnotes, is timely but dry), but there are many engaging, beautifully written choices that will surprise and delight.

Starred review from December 1, 2016

Kudos to the youth editorial board who selected the 25 unique entries for the 15th annual publication that includes an interview with the president of the United States, a book review, Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalism, as well as poetry, stories, and essays. While the chosen pieces stand on their own, the reward for readers is amplified with the understanding that high school students brandished their passion for reading and writing to comb through literary journals and magazines to identify the pieces that best illustrate modern history. Michele Scott's "How I Became a Prison Gardener" reveals how she studied, observed, and tended to plants while in a California women's correctional facility. The excerpt from Adrian Tomine's graphic novel Killing and Dying demonstrates a student's introduction to stand-up comedy. Molly Brodak's "Bandit" tells of a young girl's relationship with her father who robs banks. Rebecca Makkai's "The Miracle Years of Little Fork" details the death of a circus elephant. VERDICT This exceptional collection shines for two reasons: the quality of the selections and the insight of the students of 826 National, a nonprofit organization that helps youth ages six through 18 pursue their creative and expository writing skills.--Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2016
In her introduction to this year's collection of the best stories, comics, poetry, and whatever-else its high-school-student selectors didn't have to read for homework, editor Kushner (author ofThe Flamethrowers, 2013) notes that this year, especially, the committee knew it was necessary to choose works that would encompass some of the critical themes and events of the past year. In Brown v. Ferguson, international journal Endnotes gives historical context to the Black Lives Matter movement. Kyle Boelte's dissection of his weeks-long jury service teaches him that, comforting or not, as citizens we are creating our democracy, even as we inherit it. The Marshall Project's How I Became a Prison Gardener gives stunning voice to Michele Scott, a woman serving a life sentence without parole. Fiction features, too: in Anthony Marra's collection opener, a Chechen curator paints his wife and son into the painting he already values above all others. In an interview with Marilynne Robinson, President Obama reveals some of most important lessons he's learnedfrom novels. This is, as always, a wide-ranging collection of civic-minded, literary, entertaining reads.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)