Flying Lessons

Flying Lessons and Other Stories
Edited by Ellen Oh
(Cofounder of We Need Diverse Books)

This is a fabulous book of short stories, by a group of very diverse authors. One of the great things about reading short stories is that they can introduce you to a new author, someone who may have other books you'd want to check out; another thing about short story collections is that you don't have to read them all, or even read them in any particular order...and they may be different styles and genres. Some you may like more than others.

I love the variety of the stories in this collection. Basketball, crushes, dreams, new neighborhoods, family craziness, school stuff...a little something for everyone!

The Mildenhall Treasure

The Mildenhall Treasure
By Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Since I love all stories by Roald Dahl, I was curious when I found this on our library's shelves; I had never heard of it before. This true, short story is amazingly and beautifully illustrated, so it's really a picture book--and quite a great one!
Inspired by a news story from a newspaper he read in 1945, Roald Dahl interviewed an English farmer named Gordon Butcher who had accidentally uncovered a Roman treasure while working in the fields one day. Little did Mr. Butcher know he had stumbled upon an incredible, rare fortune, buried for over a thousand years...and then he was cheated out of it by a greedy neighboring farmer who knew what the treasure was really worth.

Here is an account of the of the same story and photos of the treasure from the British Museum, where it is kept to this day:
https://blog.britishmuseum.org/2012/03/29/roald-dahl-and-the-mildenhall-treasure/

The Sleeper and the Spindle

The Sleeper and the Spindle

By Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Chris Riddell

I love other books by Neil Gaiman that I've read--Coraline, The Graveyard Book--so I was intrigued by this slender, new book with incredibly detailed and beautiful illustrations by Chris Riddell.
It is a fairy tale...of sorts! Or perhaps a few different fairy tales you may recognize, but twisted together, distorted, and combined in a surprising way--with a little dark magic thrown in.
Who says Snow White has to wear a dress? Who says it must be a man who kisses Sleeping Beauty? Who says any given princess is even good?
Read this book and be challenged in what you've heard of princesses who go to sleep for a hundred years, and the heroes who rescue them...

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: 14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
By Chris Van Allsburg
AND Lemony Snicket, Tabitha King, Jon Scieszka, Sherman Alexie, Gregory Maguire, Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Linda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo, M.T. Anderson, and Louis Sachar

 An "esteemed collection of highly decorated authors" have written short stories to accompany Chris Van Allsburg's intriguing and bizarre pictures from the original Mysteries of Harris Burdick...and the stories are just as intriguing and bizarre!
If you were ever inspired by Harris Burdick to think of your own stories to accompany those black-and-white drawings, you will probably enjoy this collection. The stories range from strange to funny to creepy, and beyond...

Guys Read: Funny Business

Guys Read: Funny Business
By Jon Scieszka

This is a great collection of short stories from some of the best writers around--Jeff Kinney, Eoin Colfer, Jack Gantos, Christopher Paul Curtis, and many others. There's something for everyone, really, and all of the stories are funny, or crazy, or witty, or something. Granted, I'm not a guy, and sometimes I didn't get the humor...but I still enjoyed the book!
Check out Jon Scieszka's awesome website for recommendations especially for guys: guysread.com

Strudel Stories

I found this little book in the library when I was putting One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street back on the shelf (see previous post), and it was a real treat to read another of Joanne Rocklin's books.

Strudel Stories
By Joanne Rocklin

If you love stories and you love to bake (like me!) you will probably enjoy this sweet collection of tales of a Jewish family, short stories that are baked into the layers of generations of homemade apple strudel and passed down orally from one relative to another.
Some of the stories are humorous, some sad...they cover ghosts, the brutalities of war and persecution, and the hardships of immigrating to a new country. But all of the stories, however bittersweet, are testaments to the strong and enduring human spirit.

Tales from Outer Suburbia

Tales from Outer Suburbia
By Shaun Tan

Review from www.arthuralevinebooks.com :

You thought you knew suburbia.
Then you meet an exchange student from another world, discover a secret room that lets you escape to a place of perfect beauty, find a neighborhood where brightly painted missiles decorate every yard, and wait for a blind reindeer who demands a very special offering. . . . These are the odd, magical details of everyday suburban life that might forever go unnoticed, were they not finally brought to light by Shaun Tan, author and illustrator of award-winning New York Times bestseller The Arrival.
Outer Suburbia.
It's closer than you think.

Necessary Noise

Necessary Noise;  Stories About Our Families As They Really Are
Edited by Michael Cart

A collection of short stories by Nikki Grimes, Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers, Joyce Carol Thomas, and many other excellent young adult authors.  Sometimes troubled, sometimes in serious situations, all of the characters in these stories explore their relationship to family.  One young man visits his dad on death row, a pair of teen sisters take their little brother to the hospital after a drug overdose, and a teenage son tries to make sense of his two moms' relationship...many different kinds of families are described in stories and poetry.  Five stars.      
(ISBN: 0-06-027-500-6)

Athletic Shorts

Athletic Shorts;  Six Short Stories
By Chris Crutcher

It's fun to read short stories sometimes.  Especially good ones.  You don't have to read them in order, you don't even have to finish the book (though you'll want to with this one), and it's just not as big of a commitment as picking up a novel.  Almost all of the stories in this book feature characters from other novels by Chris Crutcher--so if you're familiar with his books, you'll probably recognize some names.  But you don't need to read the other books to enjoy this one.
The teenage boys in these six short stories are all dealing with different issues;  one boy lost his parents and little brother in a drunk boating accident, another puts up with teasing about his gay parents, yet another is afraid of humiliation when he has to wrestle a girl during a tournament.  There are loving fathers and abusive fathers and absent fathers and racist fathers within these beautifully written stories.  What all the teenagers have in common is a love of sports--wrestling and swimming, especially.  For them, being athletes is the way they release anger, sadness, joy, and playing sports allows them to feel like part of a team.
Chris Crutcher tackles real-life problems.  I kept thinking about the characters even after I finished reading--because they seemed real.  I wondered how they were going to overcome certain things, and felt sort of proud of the way they got through hard situations.  Mostly I admire how the author is not afraid to write about serious, hard-to-hear-about subjects like racism (one story is told from the point of view of a white boy who has always been racist, but starts to question his own perspective).  For those readers who enjoy(ed) Matt Christopher's books but want something more challenging and complex, try reading Chris Crutcher.
(ISBN: 978-0-06-050-783-1)