When I Was Your Age: Volume Two: Original Stories About Growing Up

by Amy Ehrlich

Ten award-winning authors--Norma Fox Mazer, Rita Williams-Garcia, Paul Fleischman, Jane Yolen, Howard Norman, E.L. Konigsburg, Michael J. Rosen, Kyoto Mori, Karen Hesse, and Joseph Bruchac--create a bond of intimacy and excitement as they reach across their own childhoods to those of their readers. The stories, so different in tone, style, and content, have in common the narrative intensity and attention to detail that mark a writer's sensibility at any age.

Genres: Short Stories, Memoir, Nonfiction

187 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Amy Ehrlich is the author of more than thirty books for young readers and is also a winner of The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for her novel Joyride, which was also chosen Booklist Choice Best Book of the Decade. She lives on a farm in Northern Vermont with her husband and a great many domestic and agricultural animals.

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I were teaching secondary students to write personal narratives or memoir, I would definitely use this book and some of the stories in it. The stories, by YA authors about their own lives as kids, reflected varying approaches of memoir writing. A part of the book I really liked was that after each story, the author has a short (1-2 pages)explanation of why he/she picked this story to tell and how, as a writer, he/she went about writing it. Part of Jane Yolen's explanation includes this paragraph: "But all families have stories that change and grow over the years. Stories that start with a kernel of truth and get bigger. My own children stand behind my back when I tell these kind of stories, making their fingers into quotation marks and whispering to anyone who is listening, 'Author Embellishmen.'" I guess, if I were teaching secondary students to write personal narratives or memoir, I would require them to read all the notes from authors. They are interesting insights into the writing process--from how writers choose the story to tell to how they eventually get it portrayed in the final version.

[EmmaB · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading other works by authors I knew, and enjoyed reading their thoughts about writing. The authors aren't well known by young people I know, so perhaps not as relevant? Who will stand the test of time in 10 years? Will Harry Potter become a classic? Will we ask J.K. Rowling to write about writing? I hope so.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book filled with short stories. Definitely a good choice to use in the classroom as a mentor text for writing memoirs or personal narratives. The stories were often deep, serious, and could easily lead to discussions. I cried more than once. The introduction by the editor and the afterwords to the stories by the authors themselves were also meaningful.

[Michaelanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir mentor text for middle school aged students. Stories were well written. The editing of the volume was lousy. “How I lost my station in life” by E L Konigsburg was a favorite. I read it for a unit I am writing on short memories, so it was exactly what I needed.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

ten short stories by ten children's authors about their childhood.

[Araceli]

In this book there are lots of stores In the Blink of an Eye , like of a girl, named Norma, how smoked even though Norma's mom told her to never smoke. Were Norma was in manly in the title In the Blink of an Eye, is in First Street in Glens Falls, New York and in Norma's house a apartment. There is a other one, of a girl named Rita, and her brother that have a pet dog named Rover and the boy and the girl give Rover the main food that Miss. Essie. Were Rita Williams-Gracia and the main place they were in was in the dinner table, the years (1966), high schools, and more.

Norma cry a lot, she cries when she gets in trouble, when people were being mean to her, and even when she smoked she got to her apartment and started crying. But one day she was making up stores and her friend Amy didn't like it, so she left, then Norma went home because her eyes hurt a lot and her mom called the doctor and the doctor said that Norma was going to lose eye site form one eye. In The chapter, Food form the Outside, Rita did like the food and giving it to the dog Rover, they also always gave his the main meal of the day that Miss. Essie made every day. Russell also liked playing with the food like studying them there is a part,"'Tonight we will continue our study on speed and density,' Russell said, holding up his pork chop."

My opinions about the book is that it was interesting that Norma smoked in such a young age and that she lied to her parents and sisters that she didn't do nothing. The thing that I didn't like about that chapter is that she lied to her parents because Norma was following her dads lead and she know that she wasn't allowed to do it. What I like in The chapter Food form the Outside is that they are nice to the dog and they love him showing that they give him food. The thing I don't like about chapter Food from the Outside is that they play with the food and they don't think about the people around the world that don't have the food they are playing with the people can eat it.

[carrietracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was much darker than its predecessor. Lots of the stories deal with hard issues or moral ambiguity. I LOVED the story by Rita Williams Garcia and the one by Kyoko Mori.

[Robert Roder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting stories

Thought the book would be interesting read and I was not disappointed. It was a fast paced and fun to read