Short Stuff

April 1, 2020
Happiness and hope weave four stories into a feel-good collection. These authors skip teen troubles and tropes and, instead of heartaches, deliver four tales of romance where flirtations go right. Only happy endings are found in this set of unrelated shorts. Mixed messages and miscommunications launch the first tale, "I Ate the Whole World To Find You," by Tom Wilinsky and Jen Sternick, as two teen boys, an Olympic hopeful and an aspiring chef find stability with each other. Next, in "The August Sands" by Jude Sierra, two young men on the verge of college have life-defining beach encounters. Kate Fierro's "Love in the Time of Coffee" involves two girls sipping their way toward intimacy in a series of coffee dates. The final story, Julia Ember's fantasy "Gilded Scales," has no distressed damsels but rather a defiant, would-be warrior who questions rigid gender roles and befriends a dragon girl. Light on complexity and barely addressing aspects of identity beyond sexual orientation, these optimistic stories center on finding love and awakening desire and on characters learning to follow and trust their hearts. While social differences are present, racial and other identity issues are not strong textual elements. Throughout, characters face coming-of-age challenges like worry about leaving home, risking friendships for love, and struggles to fit in. The collection goes well beyond LGBTQ problem stories and handily centers budding relationships. Breezy tales of first crushes and kisses. (Fiction. 13-18)

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May 4, 2020
Two gay and two lesbian stories coalesce around a theme of first love in this anthology. Kicking off with an Olympian prospect and the aspiring chef who steals his heart, Tom Wilinsky and Jen Sternick’s “I Ate the Whole World to Find You” alternates perspectives between Basil, an intensely focused swimmer preparing for Olympic trials, and Will, the pool’s snack bar cook. Conversely, Tommy, in Jude Sierra’s “The August Sands,” doesn’t know who he wants to be outside of caring for his younger siblings and playing things safe, so when he meets Chase on a family vacation, their attraction signifies a first step into adulthood. Kate Fierro’s “Love in the Time of Coffee” is the opposite, tracing the lives of two longtime best friends, Gemma and Anya, with landmark moments accented by various coffee drinks. “Gilded Scales” by Julia Ember breaks with the contemporary tales, taking place in a fantasy setting wherein the heroine, Fenn, volunteers to slay a dragon and finds a girl and a curse instead. Though the final story feels out of place, the rest offer a fresh taste of sweet beginnings and hopeful endings. Ages 12–up.

June 1, 2020

Gr 8 Up-Four short stories comprise a volume that celebrates the idea of the "meet-cute," even while acknowledging in the introduction that this descriptor is sometimes a stretch. Indeed, Julia Ember's "Gilded Scales" may not exactly be a love story at all, and qualifies as cute only if the term can be squared with the story's frequent mentions of stepping on and smelling rotten corpses. Weird can be engaging, and in this case it is; fans of Noelle Stevenson's Nimona may like encountering this beastly embodiment of female power. The collection's three other stories stick to more expected locales, with mostly enjoyable results. Jude Sierra's "The August Sands" is a bit too faithful-with a slow pace and studied setting-in replicating the cyclical thoughts and insecurities of a college-bound teenage boy experiencing his first romance on a family beach trip, but the emotions will strike a chord with readers. Katie Fierro's "Love in the Time of Coffee" and Tom Wilinsky and Jen Sternick's "I Ate the Whole World to Find You" have the broadest appeal. Fierro's story, despite its brevity, convincingly spans several years and builds investment in the central romance. It is the only entry to venture into any steaminess or explicit descriptions at all and will speak to fans of Becky Albertalli's Leah on the Offbeat. Comparable in comic tone to books by Tim Federle, "I Ate the Whole World to Find You" is a snappy take on the enemies-to-lovers romantic trope. An Olympic hopeful swimmer is wooed by an aspiring chef at his training pool's snack bar and plausibility is beside the point when a fun premise is realized so well. VERDICT A short and appealing LGBTQ+ anthology in a still too-narrow field, this a worthwhile addition to most YA collections.-Miriam DesHarnais, Towson Univ., MD

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June 1, 2020
Grades 7-10 A quartet of genial love stories featuring queer teens is in the offing here. In one, two boys?an Olympics-bound swimmer and a gifted grill cook?after a rocky beginning, fall in love over platters of delicious food. In another, coffee is a constant as a girl falls in love not only with the beverage but also with her lifelong best friend, who is straight?or is she? A bittersweet third?the best story in the book?finds two boys on a sun-kissed summer vacation who meet cute and fall head over heels in love, although they know they'll have to part at vacation's end. The fourth is a fantasy that finds a wannabe warrior girl falling for a dragon (you have to be there). All the stories are, in their various ways, pleasantly appealing and have?spoiler alert?at least the hopeful promise of a happy ending. There are no great emotions here, no Sturm und Drang, just love sweet love that is sure to captivate romantic readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)