Island Boyz

April 1, 2002
In You Are Here This Is Now: The Best Young Writers and Artists in America, ed. by David Levithan, contemporary teens weigh in with 60 short stories, poems and essays plus photographs and paintings. The contributors, middle- and high school students, are winners of the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. A color insert is included.

Starred review from March 1, 2002
Gr 8 Up-An outstanding collection of short stories set in Hawaii, five of which have appeared in other anthologies. Boyz is a mix of first-person narratives that are rich in local vernacular, drawing readers into a variety of island-life experiences. Two stories worth noting are "The Doi Store Monkey" and "Waiting for the War." The first is a psychologically arresting story that exposes the cruelty that darkens prep-school life. A physically handicapped boy and a caged monkey are the easy marks for a band of boys on a mean spree. Only when it's too late does the narrator take a measured look at the pain he's helped inflict. "Waiting for the War" is set two years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On the surface it is about two boys and an ornery horse. It is rife with humor as the protagonists are pitted against a wise and exasperatingly evasive animal. When the boys meet a serviceman from Texas who has the know-how to manage the animal, they indirectly gain a respect for the thousands of military men who inhabit their island. On a deeper level, the story speaks of the multitude of ways in which war touches people. The beauty of Island Boyz is that it covers a wide spectrum of situations and emotions, from the effects of war on small-town life to the irrepressible adventure of deep-sea fishing. Its power is in the creative and credible narrative voices. Salisbury has artfully crafted difficult situations into recognizable facts of life in this terrific contribution to short-story collections.-Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY

Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2002
Gr. 7-12. In the first story of this memorable collection, 15-year-old Vinny weighs the risks of a dangerous jump and the pressure of his friends. His decision, quiet and irreversible, transforms him. The following stories, all set in Hawaii and many taking place in the mid-twentieth century, follow teenage boys through similarly pivotal moments--choices complicated by fear, shame, confusion, cultural identity, bullies, war, desire, and new ideas of masculinity. In "Mrs. Noonan," a boarding-school student turns his obsession with a faculty wife into unexpected revenge; in "Hat of Clouds," a boy tries to help his brother who has lost a leg in Vietnam. Salisbury's characters are fully formed, distinct but familiar, and he writes about the tropical setting with vivid, tangible details that electrify each boy's drama with constant reminders of wildness: a lava flow's scorching heat; the sudden violence of storms; the "cool earth smells of mud and iron." Many of these stories have appeared in previous anthologies. But collected together, they gain new life. Preceding and cementing them together is a nostalgic free-verse poem about what it meant to be one of the "boyz": "talking low / feeling tall / dreaming of girls / of love."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)