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August 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Families come in many varieties, and this collection of short stories explores the theme of adoption. Well-known YA authors, including Adi Alsaid, Mindy McGinnis, C.J. Redwine, and William Ritter, and many lesser-known authors across a variety of genres share stories that range from the fantastical to gritty, but all will touch readers' hearts (and cause a few to shed some tears). Each entry fits the theme of the collection well and is strong enough to stand alone. Characters are developed as well as they can be in just a few pages. While representing a variety of genres and authors, the language and writing style in each tale is strong, and the pieces have touching and heartrending conclusions. Some of the selections touch upon sensitive topics, such as child abuse, and others contain graphic language, but these elements don't affect the overall quality of the narratives. VERDICT Recommended for high school libraries.-Terri Lent, Patrick Henry High School, Ashland, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2017
This wide-ranging anthology features adoptees, foster-care veterans, trauma survivors, young birth mothers, adoptive parents, and those whose lives they touch. Contemporary realism, science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction: these 29 stories cover complicated territory. In adoption, happiness is inextricably bound to sorrow, even when birth parents put their child's welfare ahead of their own, even when adoptee and adoptive parents form a loving bond. In Caela Carter's luminous story, an African-American teen, a gifted student and athlete, must tell her beloved mother, whom she visits in prison, that her track coach and foster mother wants to adopt her; being gifted a life her mother couldn't provide is a bitter joy. In Julie Leung's "Ink Drips Black," the bond connecting a Chinese grandmother and her American-adopted granddaughter, Stacy, is sacrifice. The high price paid for Stacy's future is loss of family and culture. Elsewhere, a veteran of multiple placements dreads removal from the warm, welcoming foster family she's bonded with; an adoptive family invites the young birth mother who made their family possible to remain part of it. Too many less-impressive stories offer a conventional outsider's view of adoption--adoption by generous, loving parents as the happy ending to years of birthparent abuse or neglect. The best, however, reflect the bittersweet truths that adoptive families differ profoundly from biological ones and that coming to terms with these differences is a lifelong process. Skip this uneven collection's slighter offerings; its best are worth finding. (Short stories. 12-16)

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September 1, 2017
Grades 8-12 This anthology of adoption-themed short stories features works by 29 authors, many with personal adoptive connections. The stories are diverse in terms of settings, characters, and genres; all focus on adopted or fostered teens struggling to fit into a family as they near adulthood. Selections range from sci-fi (Adi Alsaid's Carlos and the Fifteen-Year-Old Heart, about a boy whose parents are stuck in 1985) to fantasy (Karen Atkins' Strong Enough, which depicts a girl learning to control her superstrength) to realism (Caela Carter's Up by a Million, featuring a teen accepting a forthcoming adoption by her foster mother while her birth mother remains incarcerated). Some will terrify (Libby Cudmore's Mama's Eyes, in which a teen is kidnapped by her birth mother), others will summon tears (Jenny Kaczorowski's Twenty-Seven Days, about a girl who hopes against hope that her foster placement can become permanent), and still others (Lauren Morrill's Invited ) are recounted from the birth mother's perspective. The stories are uniformly strong, ensuring that teens and discussion leaders alike will find ample choices in this thoughtful collection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)