Like Wallpaper: New Zealand Short Stories for Teenagers

by Barbara Else (Editor)

Like Wallpaper is an anthology of New Zealand short stories especially for teenagers. Being a teenager is arguably the most intense time in anybody's life. It's a powerful, highly concentrated time when small things can seem insuperable but huge things are often accomplished without effort. The writers of the twenty stories gathered in this anthology have all been there, done that. One is in fact still there, going through the teenage years herself. Each story here reflects an aspect of what it is to be a teenager in New Zealand. The settings are New Zealand homes and flats, local schools and roads, beaches, rivers, cities. But in another sense each piece is universal. Issues addressed in the stories range across aspects of peer pressure and friendship. Parents and family relationships feature as do young romance, sexuality, and death. There is a mixture of tone, voice, and form. The writers include Jane Westaway, David Hill and Fleur Beale as well as some stunning newcomers like Natasha Lewis and Samantha Stanley. This book isn't just for people from thirteen to nineteen years old. It offers twenty ways to understand and relive those very particular times of exuberance, turmoil and adventure.

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2005

About the author

Barbara Else is a playwright and fiction writer, and has also worked as a literary agent, editor and fiction consultant. Else won the Victoria University Writer’s Fellowship in 1999, and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in 2005.

Reviews

[Emy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first short stories book, I've read in a longtime and I thought it was nice that the stories were short and there were 20 different ones in the one book. I would recommend this for teenagers for both boys and girls

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourite short story in this book was 'Its like, like...' because it drew my attention and i loved the concept of it. Also this was different than the other short stories in the book.

[Melo · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's OK. I only liked a few of the short stories e.g. Like Wallpaper, It's Like, Like... It was interesting though to see how the stories linked to New Zealand