Help Wanted: Stories

by Gary Soto

With real wit and heart, Gary Soto takes readers into the lives of young people in ten funny, heartbreaking tales.

Meet Carolina, who writes to Miss Manners for help not just with etiquette but with bigger messes in her life; Javier, who knows the stories his friend Veronica tells him are lies, but can't find a way to prove it--and many other kids, each caught up in the difficulties of figuring out what it means to be alive.

Genres: Short Stories, Childrens, Young Adult

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Gary Soto is the author of eleven poetry collections for adults, most notably New and Selected Poems, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly, Poetry International, and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in the interview series Poets in Person. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. For ITVS, he produced the film “The Pool Party,” which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Film Excellence. In 1997, because of his advocacy for reading, he was featured as NBC’s Person-of-the-Week. In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes. He divides his time between Berkeley, California and his hometown of Fresno.

Reviews

[Keegan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a couple of kids where they have messed up their life and right now they are trying to fix it. And some other kids are not trying to with their problems because it could mess up their life to. But instead some kids help and are at risk. If I had to choose I wouldn’t help because I don’t want my life to get messed up.

What I enjoyed is how it has different story parts in the book. I also like how the author writes too. He doesn't focus on just one thing right away. Like talk about one main thing in the story. Instead he puts many different problems so the book is more interesting.

One thing I don’t like is he talks about some story with 3-6 pages. I think he should at least make them 5-8. Also trying to hook you in the middle of the book more.

A type of person who might like to read this genre like books that are brave and gutsy. To me that's what most of this book is about and that's why I think those people who reads those kinds of books will like this one.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked many of these short stories and given four stars except that they felt unfinished. Most felt like just the first chapter of a good book. I think short stories should have some kind of conclusion instead of just stopping in the middle of a mystery, or the author should have woven them together sometime so the main character in one becomes a supporting character in the next.

[Squeaky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of short stories that don't have some sort of conclusion. It's just me. The last story, "Raider Nation", was my favorite, even though I don't care much for professional sports.

Note to publishers: Kindly list the glossary in the table of contents!!

[Jenny Apiag · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish the stories had connected more.

[Rebecca]

I'm not rating this because I didn't finish it. I read two of the stories, which I've summarized below, but I didn't really like either one, and felt they were both unfinished--what was accomplished? After reading others' reviews, it seems that several other readers felt the same about all the stories, so since I'm reading short stories to have some to recommend to teachers, it didn't seem likely that I would find ones I liked enough to recommend, and there are so many other books to read!

Paintball in the Wild. Seventh grader Miguel is a cadet, like his friend Trung. He is proud To be one of them. Today, he and Trung are going to paintball; it is Miguel‘s first time, and they find themselves paired up with some high schoolers against some Vietnam vets. I wasn’t sure what the point of this story was other than to describe the game of Paintball. There seem to be some potential for development With Trung being Vietnamese and some of the vets being able to speak the language as well, but that didn’t really go anywhere.

Sorry, Wrong Family. Things are rough in Carolina‘s life. Her parents argue, her a little brother is disgusting, and her best friend has started dating a bully who makes fun of Carolina. She constantly writes letters to Miss Manners, in the hopes that someone will understand. This is another story that kind of just petered out, without a conclusion. Nothing got any better, nor was there any hope of it getting better. Depressing, though probably realistic.

[PletcherE · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shows the struggles between multiple young people, but is also very confusing, it ends when there are still multiple questions left unanswered. It is puzzling to try and figure out what happens to them, and most of the time you have to find an ending after the story ends. This book leaves you wondering what happens to the people and deals with some heavy topics.

[Laura Partida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, Inspiring, Young

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good idea

[Clement Yeboah · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book, the author Gary Soto’s purpose for writing this book is to express or to tell the funny, heartbreaking and incredible stories in the lives of few young people presented in the book. The message this book is giving out is that stick to what you believe in no matter the consequences. It’s telling us that the people around us seem to change but we shouldn’t follow their paths if won’t be beneficial. There was a point in the book when Michael didn’t listen to what his friends were saying to him but was still successful at the paintball game. Readers will be able to make decisions for them not needing anyone to tell them how or when they should do it
This book is not a well written book. In my opinion writing a book in short stories doesn’t capture reader’s attention or help them get the point in the book. But as I read on I barely figured the point which was that Javier needed to prove that the stories aren’t lies. Btu as a reader I don’t think it’s a good idea to write in short stories. For example after reading the chapter “Paintball in the wild” which was about Michael, a whole new chapter started which talked about Daniel. Another reason why this book isn’t well written is the way they talked. I think the way they talked in the book sets a bad example for readers because it’s telling them to talk to friends anyhow. For example when Trung said “let’s go Homey” after grabbing the gun.
This book was pretty captivating because it made me think about how someday we would lose our loved ones. For example when Angela said “Mommy’s dead! She don’t care” when she actually cared. I never related to any of the characters. I couldn’t relate to any of the characters because I think my life isn’t that complicated is I see how people’s life is presented in this book. This book was very dramatic because most of the problems happened in homes. For example one of the arguments read that “callate their father cried angrily, turning Angela toward him”. That a very dramatic home situation.
The greatest strength in the book is that of giving readers gook look on how things went out for Angela’s family. Its telling us that the family stuck out for each other. Which also something readers can take from this book. The greatness weakness is the titles for the chapters. Some of the chapters don’t relate to what’s been told. I would not recommend this book to any of my friends. I wouldn’t recommend this book because of the content which is very strong and serves as a bad influence.

[Georgiagirl11 · Rating 1 out of 5]

"HELP WANTED" is a good book.im currently reading this book but have not got a good mental shot at what this book is really about.I think once i get really into the book,it will make more sense and i can better understand what im reading.I already know a little about this book from reading the beginning of this book.By looking at the cover when i first saw it i thought it was going to be pretty much scary fasinating!! But i think once i get towards the end of the book it'll be what i thought when i first saw the cover.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this looking for short stories to share with my ESL teenagers, especially my boys. I liked most of these stories but noticed a thread running through almost every single one - abandonment of the family by the father. In two of the few stories which didn't portray the father as being absent, he was either a complete jerk or a loon. I understand the reality of the single parent household, but I really would like to find some teen literature - preferably in short story format - which shows an example of a strong male role model.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite honestly, I was rather disappointed with this book. It is a compilation of short stories whose protagonists are kids and teens who are minorities. Overall, I think it discusses some poignant issues: death, race, family, friendship, loneliness, acceptance, etc., but I thought it was terribly dull. I'm not a big fan of Soto's writing style so that could have also been the reason why I didn't like the book so much. I thought there were though provoking stories, but for the most part nothing attracted me enough to want to keep reading.

[Austin Richey]

I thought this book was amazing. I liked how the book transformed from one story to another, each story having a different meaning and another interesting story. The assortment of stories was great not to mention the stories them selves were interesting and detailed. The stories seem like something you might see in real life and some even had a twist to them. Overall this book was very good and was very interesting and had those little details that added to the story, I would suggest this book to anyone.

[Clarissa]

i think this does not make sense at ALL!!!!

[Alli Kamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

these short stories would be great as a read aloud in a 5th or 6th grade classroom.

[Teen]

Stories about Middle School youth. Funny and honest. Good writing.

[Pd 1/2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok but it was not the best book Ive ever read.