Sixteen: Stories about That Sweet and Bitter Birthday

by Megan McCafferty (Editor, Contributor)

An incredible anthology of 16 short-stories by award winning & critically acclaimed young-adult authors, inspired by all the angst, melodrama, and wonderment of being sixteen. These hilarious, poignant, and touching tales capture all the emotions and milestones of this age ranging from first love to establishing one's own identity. A perfect read for anyone about to reach this pivotal age, or those who want reminisce about their "sweetest" year.

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, Sarah Mlynowski, Sonya Sones, Zoe Trope, Ned Vizzini, and Joseph Weisberg.

Genres: Short Stories, Young Adult, Fiction, Anthologies, Teen, Realistic Fiction, Chick Lit

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Megan McCafferty writes fiction for tweens, teens and teens-at-heart of all ages. The author of twelve novels, she’s best known for SLOPPY FIRSTS and four more sequels in the New York Times bestselling Jessica Darling series--available throughout 2021 in updated 20th anniversary editions. She published two new books in 2020: TRUE TO YOUR SELFIE (MG, Scholastic) and THE MALL (YA, Wednesday Books). Described in her first review as “Judy Blume meets Dorothy Parker” (Wall Street Journal), she’s been trying to live up to that high standard ever since.

Reviews

[Sunhi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I spotted this sweet little polka-dotted book at the used bookstore the other day. I noted the title, the editor (she wrote my beloved books Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings), and the copy included the words "hilarious and poignant". What a lie. If this book were more honest it would be "Well-written stories that will make you sad for the rest of the night and you'll lie on your bed and weep and despair through several of them."

Some of the stories, including Sarah Dessen's and Megan McCafferty's are actually quite good (and helped pulled the average of this book up from a 2). They ring reminiscent of my sixteenth year when everything was overly melodramatic and you spent a great deal of time thinking about driving, sex, school, and friendships. Others, like Sonya Sones's free verse story and Hidier's story of an Indian girl who falls in love with her best friend are interesting and contain both sad and happy elements. They ring true to life for people in difficult or odd situations while containing an element of hope or love. And, frankly, Sarah Mlynowski's "The Perfect Kiss" made me cheer for the heroine.

But, you'll notice I just listed fix stories I liked out of sixteen. The other eleven just made me want to curl up and give up. Woodson's story "Nebraska 99", in particular, left me feeling hopeless and out of sorts and miserable. This does speak to the power of the writing, but it doesn't particularly leave me wanting more.

Again, I can't give this book too low a score. It contains many well-written stories. It contains several stories that I loved. It dealt very well with a range of teens by including different characters of different ethnicity, genders, and sexuality. But, and this is a big but, I just couldn't enjoy the book. It was like kale. I know I'm supposed to like kale because it is some kind of super food that is good for me and I admire it in principle, but I hate to actually eat it. I know this book is good, but I hate to read it.

Reviewed at: http://sunhibooks.blogspot.com/2011/0...

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average Star Rating: 3.25 out of 5
OVERALL OPINION: Overall, the voices were captured well, the plots were well-constructed, and the character personalities were well-developed. That being said I had two major issues.

1. Despite the addition of homosexual characters (a good thing!) the inclusion of minority characters was very small. There was one explicitly non-white character, one character who may have had autism or not and one character who had a mental breakdown do to physical illness rather than a mental illness. Almost all had two-parents families that included mom-dad dynamics. All appeared to be cis-gender and middle to upper class. Where was the diversity?! Which brings me and blends into point two…

2. Deep down, most of the themes were largely revolving around one or more the same three issues: physical intimacy (kissing or sex were the only two mentioned), driving, and the sweet 16 party. Since when are these experiences the norm? Where was the budding drug addict, the poor kid, the black families, the interracial families, the transgender, the asexual, the pansexual, the kids with no parents living in rotating foster care or with their grandparents, the extremely wealthy kid, the mentally ill kid who has to juggle medicine with everything else, etc.etc.etc.? Since when did the 16th birthday party become the end-all be-all of teen existence? Is that even a thing anymore beyond driving privileges? The teen experience is WAY more than a license, sex, and kissing. It is the most stressful experience a person can face, and I think this anthology over-simplified things.

Overall: I was disappointed in the lack of cultural and theme diversity.


Sarah Dessen “Infinity”
Star Rating: 3/5
Summary: 16 year old gets her driver’s license and refuses to be peer-pressured into sex by her creepy, pushy boyfriend. Funny, short, and creepiness isn’t tolerated. Triggers include heavy traffic and creepy bf pressuring for sex.

Zoe Trope “Relent/Persist”
Star Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: Two teen girls meet online and fall in love through a series of letters, IM’s, and emails. Yay for representation, but the story was overall boring and had poor typing skills. Triggers include the word Fag and depression.

Julianna Baggott “The Future Lives of Emily Milty”
Star Rating: 3/5
Summary: A kleptomaniac, a virgin obsessed with her own name, has her life flipped around when her sister returns home. It includes some great lines and truly awesome characterizations, but the story could be shorter.

Ned Vizzini “Rutford Becomes a Man”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: Rutford, a sullen and naïve boy in 1897, is given a visit to a brothel for his 16th birthday by his parents to make him “normal.” As a reader, I suspect Rutford might have Asperger’s. An overall humorous narrative. Triggers include racism, corporal punishment, and drugs.

Emma Forrest “The Grief Diet”
Star Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: A girl who loses her father as a child becomes anorexic in her grief. She falls in love with a rich girl who doesn’t love her back. There is a good narrative voice. Triggers include anorexia, molestation of the protagonist of her friend, underage sex between the protagonist and the friend’s father, and drug references.

Carolyn Mackler “Mona Lisa, Jesus, Chad, and Me”
Star Rating: 3/5
Summary: Over the school year, a girl’s best summer friend found Jesus while the girl found drinking and sex. Their summer expectations for each other clash. Boring, but sad and realistic parting of friends. Triggers include religion (mentions of hell), underage drinking, sex.

David Levithan “The Alumni Interview”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: A very out gay teen has an alumni interview with his closeted-bf’s homophobic father. Humorous with a good voice and a lovely twist at the end. Captures anxiety well. Triggers include homophobia and closeted relationships.

Sonya Sones “Cat Got Your Tongue?”
Star Rating: 3/5
Summary: A girl hits a cat on her first drive with her license, falls in love with her new cousin-by-marriage, and finds her victim might be his new cat. Very good voice and characterizations, cheeky title. Story in verse. Triggers include cat-death, cousin-lovin’.

Steve Almond “The Day I Turned Chickenhearted”
Star Rating: 0/5
Summary: No idea—could not finish due to extremely boring premise and being apparently all telling. Something about a male protagonist dating a girl.

Cat Bauer “Venetian Fan”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: American girl gets sent to Venice for her 16th and gets her first kiss from the dangerous mayor of the city. Triggers include inappropriate kiss of a minor, lying about age

Joseph Weisberg “Kissing Lessons”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: A friendless boy in the dramatic arts makes a friend (whom he crushes on) that slowly branches out his peer-group to more than her. Triggers include depression, bullying, aloneness, unrequited feelings.

Jacqueline Woodson “Nebraska 99”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: A group of cheerleaders all get pregnant around the same time and form a support group called the Dead Girls to get through their dream-dropped lives as teen mothers. Triggers include teen pregnancy, unprotected sex with a minor.

Sarah Mlynowski “The Perfect Kiss”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: A girl with the worst birthday luck gets mono over her birthday, cheated on then dumped by her boyfriend, and gets a bike instead of a promised car. When her boyfriend tries to get back together by forcing a kiss on her, she gets her indirect revenge by giving him mono. Triggers include forced kiss and infidelity.

Tanuja Desai Hidier “Cowgirls & Indie Boys”
Star Rating: 3/5
Summary: Two girls (Indian-American and British-American) become close friends as children and almost lose each others’ friendship in high school before they realize all they ever romantically wanted was each other. Overall, the story was too long. Triggers include losing a friend, 1st kiss blind setup.

M.T. Anderson “The Mud and Fever Dialogues”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: The logical boy in a group of friends falls deathly ill and experiences strong hallucinations. The experience makes him doubt everything in existence, which leads to many harmful incidents. Triggers include self-harm, extreme illness, attempted suicide, masochism, violence (line between murder and physical abuse).

Megan McCafferty “Fifteen Going On…”
Star Rating: 4/5
Summary: Right before her 16th birthday, a girl’s BFF moves away. Sad, funny, and overall well-written. Triggers: mentions of the following: bulimia, teen sex, underage drinking, abortion; slut-shaming.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The depth and breadth of the stories in this anthology is remarkable. The one that sticks with me the most is "The Alumni Interview", although they are all excellent. I enjoyed reading about sixteen from so many different perspectives. It also made me think back to my own teenage years and all of the things that I leaned along the way. Some of the stories also made me miss the people I hung out with then. Although I still see some of them, I haven't heard from others in years. Aaahhhh, nostalgia. :-)

[Meredith]

Looks amazing! I love it when authors come together and write books!

[Ashley Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was rather strange...

[Brad]

I checked this out specifically to read Ned Vizzini's piece "Rutford Becomes a Man."* Unlike the other literary compilations I've read containing his short works (21 Proms, The Girl Who Was on Fire, Not Like I'm Jealous of Anything and Vizzini's collection of teenage essays Teen Angst? Naaah...), this piece was fiction. Being fiction, this short story had a looseness to it that has been missing in the other collections, which can feel at times like Vizzini is as much apologizing for himself as he is finding the humor in his missteps. Chronologically, this collection was released before Be More Chill. I give "Rutford Becomes a Man" four stars.

The events in the story are as follows: When age eight, William Rutherford's family relocated from England to Texas following some gambling-related threats to the father's safety. Now it is 1897 and on the occasion of Rutford's (William's Texas nickname) sixteenth birthday, his parents decide the most fitting birthday present is a trip to the local brothel. Indignant and disgusted, Rutford is opposed, even though sex is a mystery to him. In the brothel, the eager Asian prostitute takes time to get to know the anxious Rutford, coming to the conclusion that he is too worked up to get her job done. (Imagine if a hybrid of Ignatius J. Reilly and Holden Caulfeld was taken to see a prostitute. Not exactly like that, but similar.) She leaves the room and returns with a pipe. Getting high with the prostitute finally puts Rutford's overactive, judgmental brain at ease. The story ends there, leaving the reader to wonder what happened next and if the coming-of-age moment was intended all along to be Rutford getting high, not the possible loss of his virginity.

Reading this, I can't help but think of how It's Kind of a Funny Story starts with Vizzini's narrator pinpointing the depressive shift in his brain to when he started getting high. But I digress.

As clever as the premise is, the best part is undoubtedly the voice Vizzini has chosen to narrate the story. Rutford is indignant with feelings of superiority, but these are so clearly self-protective measures for the character's vulnerabilities: shame of being in uneducated oil boom Texas instead of England, isolation of being the black sheep in his family, anxiety at feeling inadequately prepared for new experiences, embarrassment of not truly being the know-it-all he presents himself as being. As a result the narration has an elevated sense of language that is more droll than flashy.

In context with the body of Vizzini's work, this piece is a solid reminder of what a great writer he was, especially at how his stories were told vs. what happens in them. While later work like The Other Normals and House of Secrets reveled more in action, to me the author's gift was his characters' headspace. It's Kind of a Funny Story was so enduring because it matched this gift with the author's other gift of writing from his own life, something that may have been improved upon with the distance allowed by fictionalizing the experience. For someone interested in Ned Vizzini's body of work, the story here in Sixteen is definitely worth exploring.

---

Favorite quotes:


"I like to spend time in a blessed half-sleep where I am in touch with and in control of my thoughts but also free to let them roam." (60)

"One can eat sullenly. One can walk sullenly...One can even sleep sullenly, with practice, hating the institution but desiring its release. Sullenness is an attitude, a worldview that I espouse proudly. And I like the way it sounds. It sounds like how it is." (62)

"Down the stairs is a wooden door frame with a hook in it but no door. I touch this hook for good luck even though it has never given me any." (62)

"As for sex, I know what that is. A woman unfurls her ovarian tubes and inserts then into my belly button until a special fluid leaks from me into her belly button. If I want to simulate the experience, I can use a hole in the fence and a stick of butter, apparently, according to the boys in my class. But in order to clarify, I look for intercourse in the dictionary." (71)

"The houses--even the brick ones--sag under the sun." (72)

"Admittedly, I have seen quite a bit of the English sky, which is not really a sky so much as a background for clouds." (73)

"I look up at the blue--no clouds today--and waste time on the stupid wish that I could fall into it when I die and have my own constellation up there, one so bright that it shone even during the day " (73)

"'We are all going to die...And while we are here we suffer idiots who know nothing and cannot comprehend the greatness that lives inside us, and often these idiots are not only our friends and teachers but also our family, our parents, with no expectation for us other than to grow up and breed like animals'" (78)

"I is difficult for me to synthesize and accept that I have disappointed a prostitute. But part of me is very proud." (82)

---


*I read only one other piece in this collection, Zoe Trope's "Relent/Persist," which was perfectly pleasant. It depicted the affection two girls feel toward one another as it grows into romance, a period so difficult to convincingly write that most stories simply gloss over that part. (I'm picturing movies with insipid montages of the two characters laughing while out at dinner before dancing together on a rainy evening.) On the one hand, the characters are perhaps a little too cool, quoting hip song lyrics to one another, but on the other hand, that type of teenage love is real and these two are perfectly matched. A nice small plate of fiction.

[NTE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for CBR6

, milestone birthdays that everyone remembers. Girls get a little bit more mileage out of it, what with the whole sweet sixteen thing, but even for guys, turning 16 tends to mean a certain amount of freedom – there’s the whole license thing, just for a start. Mine wasn’t like that, for various reasons, but I remember the hype. In the book, Sixteen; Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday, edited by Megan McCafferty, sixteen young adult authors tell some of their best stories about what 16 means in their minds, and let us decide if the hype is worth it or not.

There’s a lot to pick from here, as far as favorites go: In terms of authors, SIXTEEN culls from the cream of the crop – Sarah Dessen, MT Anderson, David Leviathan, Sarah Mlynowski. In terms of stories told, you’ve got everything from the horror that is rotaries (here in Massachusetts, I know they are their own special kind of hell); to pursuing your pen-pal; to the universality of having odd relatives (and also the completely unreal feeling of realizing that you are closer in age to the odd relatives than the main characters, but that’s just me, I suppose); to outrageous displays of shocking naivety. You’ve got dangerous strangers and even more dangerous friends; you’ve got religion and philosophy and it’s all approached with a seriousness that I so admire in Young Adult books – that sense that this matters, and we know it matters and we’re not going to patronize you about it.

The book doesn’t idealize or shy away from difficult topics – one of my favorite stories is about having a college interview with your closeted boyfriend’s father, but there are others that deal with things that are pretty heavy too, and this quote from Steve Almond’s piece more than encapsulates that spirit that I was referring to, that brutal honesty that I feel YA fiction is filled with –

“One of the reasons I hate Hollywood so much is that they portray the travails of teen life as so innocuous and fun-loving, some kind of idyll before the mean business of adulthood. People forget how much it all hurts back then. Someone pinches you and you feel it in your bones. They don’t want to face what a bunch of sadists teenagers are, wounded narcissists, killers. All these folks who acted all shocked and outraged about Columbine – where the hell did they go to high school?”

Exactly. Being a teenager isn’t any less painful then being a grown-up, we just sometimes remember it that way. But YA authors – or at least, good YA authors – seem to be able to clear away that nostalgic cobweb and write the truth of being 16: good, bad, painful, funny, heartbreaking, horrible, happy – you’re a whole person at 16, just like you are however old you are at this moment.

“I am not the person I have always known” a character exclaims in Juliana Baggott’s story, and it’s this mental reshuffling of the pieces, this new self-evaluation that being 16 requires of you that makes this book, & these stories, so great. But here’s a thing I didn’t know at 16 that I do now (at freaking 35) – those feelings, that mental reshuffling and re-evaluation? Never stops. Your brain doesn’t settle on a new thing that you are, instead it’s just a continuum of new things that you are/want to be/might be/don’t want to be, and you keep working for or against them, consciously or unconsciously. So when Emily Milty says “I am still a wool coat and grey soup and Sears carpeting, but not as much as I was just that morning when I woke up.” well that’s a feeling just about everybody can understand, no matter how far from 16 they may be.

I was glad that there was to see so many male characters represented (and well represented: w/author like Ned Vizzini, David Leviathan, & Steve Almond, that’s a given, but still) because I feel like guys totally get the shaft when it comes to the whole sweet sixteen thing, and I’m glad the book didn’t leave them behind. In fact, I don’t feel like it left anybody behind. There were stories of outsiders (and who doesn’t feel like an outsider, at 16), and the quiet kid, and the theater kid, and straight kids and gay kids and “please don’t call me a kid anymore because I am 16 years old now” kids.

There were stories of discovery and desperation; stories of finding love and finding yourself; stories about just waking up and making it through yet another day. There were those summers that changed friendships, and friendships that changed your life, and lives that wound up mattering more than they originally thought.

Short, and not necessarily sweet, Sixteen somehow managed to hit a lot of the right notes. (There were only one or two stories that didn’t do it for me, and out of sixteen, that’s a pretty good batting average.)

[Alisha Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently a girl's sixteenth birthday is supposed to be the be all to end all of all birthdays. It's supposed to be the year when your life begins. When everything of interest starts to happen to you. The cute guy right by your locker will finally notice you and your kick-ass boobs. The meanest girl in school will finally bow to your awesomeness and you'll get the chance to be a total bitch to her. It's supposed to be the year you look back at and think "Man, those were the days. The sneaking out, the making out, the doing of drugs...God, how I miss those days!!!" Of course, then you have the other scenario. The year in which you get your heart broken for the first time. The year you realize that actually getting your license and getting a car means paying gas. The year you realize life sometimes just blows no matter how old you are. My sixteenth year....was nothing like either of these scenarios.

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!"

[Melissa Pilakowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a dearth of short stories exists in the YA genre that I was tickled to see that Megan McCafferty put together a collection of short stories from the likes of Sarah Dessen, Jacqueline Woodsen, David Leviathan, and others.

And some of the stories are quite strong. Dessen opens the collection with the story "Infinity," putting forth perhaps the best writing I've seen from her yet. Jacqueline Woodsen's "Nebraska 99" stands out as the strongest voice and perhaps strongest story of all, portraying the life of four teenage girls who still hope and dream of a promising future although they're mothers. David Leviathan and McCafferty herself also deliver in this collection. Steve Almond, unknown to me until now, also presents a solid story--"The Day I Turned Chickenhearted"--that will propel me to seek more of his writing in the future.

Others fell short of the bar. Carolyn Mackler, Ned Vezzini and Sarah Mlynowski show promise in their stories, albeit they feel a little heavy-handed at times, as if they're catering to the stereotypically dense teen reader. Vezzini's is creative--a boy earns an undesired trip to a brothel for his sixteenth birthday--yet feels ungrounded in the beginning.

As a whole, the collection isn't consistently strong. Pick and choose the stories carefully.

[Navi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book two weeks ago with eager intent to review it.

And then I forgot about it.

This is a book with a Chinese prostitute drawing China on her breasts, and I forgot about it.

That's how boring these stories are.

Now, not all of them are horrible, a few are, but not all of them. I can only think of two standouts; Sarah Dessan's story at the very beginning and the aforementioned one with the prostitutes, which was actually a decently written history piece, as well.

But really, there was nothing else that stood out to me. Nothing that made me say 'Wow, this is really good'.

Most of them fall flat as soon as they begin, and most of them talk about sex. And this is what troubles me about books like these; there's no variance. There is a lot about being sixteen that has nothing to do with sex. Not every girl turns sixteen, springs off the couch, and goes to find something to have sex with.

Now, if you did, that's fine, more power to you, but that's not EVERYONE. This book makes it seem that way. To a teenager it *might* sound that way in real life, but never that extreme.

I dunno, this book is just really boring. Maybe if you enjoy a bunch of short stories about teenagers struggling with the decision to have sex, but eh. Even then I couldn't truly recommend it. Most of these stories don't stand out in that regard, either.

2 out of 5 stars.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I Came To Read This Book: I believe Danielle gave it to me as a birthday or Christmas gift.

The Plot: The book is a compilation of sixteen short stories surrounding sweet sixteens - whether birthdays or events closely related to that treasured bday year (like learning to drive or embarking on a first solo trip sans parents), including a 'countdown' story of the last sixteen minutes Jessica Darling ever spent with her bff Hope of Megan McCafferty's actual regular series.

The Good or Bad: Nearly every one of these stories was awesome. In my memory I can't recall all of them - I know I didn't like one that was set in Ancient (Plato-era) Greece, and I remember enjoying a funny one where a girl thought she accidentally killed a potential new bf's cat on the way over to his house. I think at times the book was a bit too serious/downer given its subject matter, but for the most part the authors hit the nail on the head when constructing the emotions and world of a sixteen year old.

Anything Memorable?: I remember reading the last story before I owned the book by squatting at Chapters one afternoon.

Bottom Line: A great series of short stories for teens or people looking back at that time in their lives.

50 Book Challenge?: Book #1 in 2007

[Hannah Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the variety in the anthology–from Ned Vizzini’s story about a boy from the old west coming of age via a brothel visit with dad to Carolyn Mackler’s story about two girls–one who has found religion and one who has just had sex. Most seemed to be really from the point of view of the modern teen except…I annotated one of the stories called Infinity, which, when I annotated it, I really liked–at least the use of symbols. She uses the metaphor of mastering a rotary as a symbol of mastering decisions about sex. However, when I look at the actual story now, it seems like a rather 1950s view of sex and teenagers. Dessen seemed to portray the men in the story, the boyfriend and father, as strong and capable drivers while her mother was timid and scared. I take that as men are powerful and able to make decisions about sex while sex is bad and dangerous for women and that they couldn’t possible even think about such a terrible thing.

[Chrissy Ziccarelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mother bought this for me at a time not even near my 16th birthday. I can't remember if it was before or after, but there are so many stories that have stuck with me from this volume. There are probably many reasons for this; it was the beginning of my love affair with short story collections, each story is from a different author so they remain fresh, and (most obvious of all) I read it at a time when I could most relate to tales of learning to drive, starting to shave, and discovering love isn't what you thought it would be.

I would probably not recommend it to anyone right now, seeing as it may all seem silly or childish, but maybe I'm wrong and it deserves a second look. If you have any younger sisters, though, THIS is the book for them.

[P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ignore the terrible cover design and the fact that it says "Dating! Driving! Drama!" on the back over the copy.

Like any short story compilation there were standouts and non-starters, but it's worth picking up for the M.T. Anderson one alone (The Fever and Mud Dialogues). It prompted me to browse ancient Greek philosophers in the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (available online!)

Carolyn Mackler, & Ned Vizzini's were also quite good, and from the Megan McCafferty story I will be bumping up the Jessica Darling series on my mental to-read list. I think the problem with writing for an anthology on a certain topic is that it's hard to avoid writing for the topic instead of writing a stand-alone short story.

[Sandra]

I read this a while back so i don't really remember much about it but i do know that there is a story in there that is about Jessica Darling's sweet 16. I treated my sweet 16 as any other birthday. I just don't see the importance of making my 16th birthday sweeter or celebrating the new privileges i have.There are some sad stories in there such as the pregnant mothers. There are so many point of views and experiences on 16 year old girls and the book really sums up what being 16 in this era is all about.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really a superfan of short stories, but this collection was a fun read. There were only two stories I out and out didn't like. These stories aren't really about being sixteen, though. A handful of the narrators had very adult voices. I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this collection, but whatever it was, it didn't get delivered. I don't feel like I wasted my time reading this, but I won't read it again.

[Jennifer :P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Umm I don't know about how the book start but yet again it was interesting. There were surprises and really bad disappointments. I like how this book actually had the main character to drive instead others who have been driven, walk, or either ride bikes. Being sixteen can lead to emotions, drama, and also depressing. Reading the point of view of a sixteen year old girl, makes me wonder if everyone is like this.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Infinity - I really liked this one. Potentially a good choice for how a story can have multiple stories working together. Growing up in a town with a rotary, I especailly enjoyed that aspect.

Relent/Persist - This one is told through letters, emails, and instant messages. I enjoyed how it was very realistic. Particularly, there were bits that could have been based on notes between my high school friends.

[Rowan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the short stories in here were really good, others were mediocre. I actually think I may have read this book before because a few were very familiar. The fact that I don't remember that is testimony that the book wasn't the best thing I've read. It was entertaining enough but I doubt I'll re-read it.

[Kirsten Schlewitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I just didn't get it. Was it because my sixteenth year did not leave a significant impact on my life? Who knows. But it feels like some of these stories were really reaching to be something different, something more complex, when they really didn't need to be. Some of the stories were great though, like the prelude to Sloppy Firsts.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

would have been better if i was reading closer to my 16th birthday. short stories usually arent my thing, they just leave me hungry for more. put those two together and you get my lame rating. because its my rating, not because its a bad book, just sometimes its all about reading it at the right time and such...which for me its 15 years too late.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Argh! So many good authors, people I enjoy reading. Yet, overwhelming, a bunch of crappy stories. Of course, some were better than others, but none were "good" in my opinion. I wish I had read the reviews first and saved my self the heartache and time. Since there were sixteen stories by sixteen different people, I kept reading on, kept giving everyone a chance. Yuck.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that impressed, but there were some standout stories: Sarah Dessen's "Infinity", Carolyn Mackler's "Mona Lisa, Jesus, Chad, and Me", David Levithan's "The Alumni Interview", and Sarah Mlynowski's "The Perfect Kiss" were all very good.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't say that I loved each story equally. I didn't. But the big surprise for me was that the authors I expected to love were merely liked, but the others were loved more than I could have imagined.

[chanceofbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great little collection. Several of the stories were very well-done, and I think there is something for every variety of YA reader here. I really appreciated the exposure to so many different YA authors at one time.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best. There were only a few stories that I actually enjoyed. One of the only redeeming points in this collection was the brand new short story that tied into Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty much everything about turning sixteen. Each story is heartfelt and emotional changing in one way or another, but I always felt they cut off the stories at the best parts. So I thought it was okay, but the book could have been better.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book solely for Sarah Dessen's "Infinity" which I had wanted to read for a while - and is the entire reason behind the three star marking. Otherwise, it probably would have been a one.

There were a few other good ones, but I was glad that it started out with Dessen's.

[Valerie]

i know i read a few of the short stories, but i never finished. think i got bored.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays on what it is like to be 16. Some were amazing, some really dragged. Overall a good read.