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Fiction. Literature. Romance. Short Stories. HTML:Dating! Drama! Driving! Remember what it was like to be sixteen? Whether it was the year your teeth were finally free of braces or the year you were discovered by the opposite sex, that magical, mystical age is something you will never forget. Edited by Megan McCafferty, author of the runaway hit novels Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday is a compilation of short stories inspired by all the angst, melodrama, and wonderment of being sixteen. Sarah Dessen�s �Infinity� is about a girl confronting two major milestones: getting her driver�s license and losing her virginity. The Dead Girls in Jacqueline Woodson�s �Nebraska 99� have already decided to �do it� and must now cope with being teenage mothers. And Carolyn Mackler�s �Mona Lisa, Jesus, Chad, and Me� explores whether friendship can survive when partying and prayer clash. Also included is a new Jessica Darling story by Megan McCafferty about the last fifteen minutes Jessica spends�or rather, doesn�t spend�with her best friend, Hope, who is leaving Pineville. Featuring stories by Steve Almond, M. T. Anderson, Julianna Baggott, Cat Bauer, Emma Forrest, Tanuja Desai Hidier, David Levithan, Sonya Sones, Zoe Trope, Ned Vizzini, and Joseph Weisberg, these hilarious, poignant, and touching tales are perfect for both those who have yet to reach that milestone and those who want to reminisce about their �sweetest� year.… (more)
User reviews
The angst filled sixteenth year was something that I avoided. It was actually very anti-climactic. Not to say that nothing of interest didn't happen. It just wasn't very book or movie worthy. I seemed to avoid all of the major drama associated with being sixteen. Does that mean I'm lucky that I didn't get to go through the angst? Or unlucky because being sixteen wasn't extremely memorable to me and I therefore don't have any hilarious antidotes or earth-shattering, wrist slicing, drama to talk about? I don't know. What I do know is that I get to relive my 16th year vicariously through Sixteen.
Not being a fan of short story compilations, I was surprised that I loved Sixteen and raced through it. There's a story in here for everyone. You want something angsty read The Grief Diet. You want something in the vein of all of the other cheesy '80's movies read The Perfect Kiss. You want something that makes you think back at those days when you thought nothing embarrassing could ever happen to you because this is in fact real life and not a movie, read Cat Got Your Tongue?.
Sure there were a couple of stories in here while were not really clunkers, they were not as great as the rest. It's inevitable with a short story compilation. But still, the majority of the these stories were amazing and brought me back to my high school years and the angst that goes along with it(just because my 16th year wasn't that memorable doesn't mean my 17th wasn't...). I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to revisit the feeling you had when you were sixteen or just to laugh at the rest and think "Thank God that didn't happen to me!"