Shelf Life: Stories by the Book

This is a collection of short stories for middle readers that benefits the ProLiteracy nonprofit. The intro indirectly nudges the reader: what if you could not read? How would your life be different? It is such a fundamental skill and one that has consumed so much of my life, that it's akin to asking What if you could not breathe? It's something I take for granted on a basic level. That's what ProLiteracy is seeking to address. Gary Paulsen has rallied 10 contemporary authors to contribute a short story in this fundraiser. Clearly all value reading as much as writing. Each story has a book that figures prominently in all sort of creative ways, from a missing ship's log to a girl's good deed reading to a blind woman to a means of making show more amends, to an escape from a a challenging reality. One of the contributors, Ellen Whittlinger says of reading: "Books were the window through which I glimpsed a larger world, and eventually the door through which I entered it." show less

As always, an anthology is difficult to rate. This anthology is centered around the idea of books (naturally), but some of them were so tentatively tied to that idea that I wonder they were included at all. Though there was nothing wrong with the stories themselves, it made the overall theme less impressive, particularly when put against such gems as Gregory Maguire's fantastic, "Tea Party Ends in Bloody Massacre, Film at 11", which tells the story of a little girl who hides her love for somewhat trashy horror fiction in order to win over a pair of snooty, prim ladies her mother wants to impress.

The other stand-out from the collection was "Barcarole for Paper and Bones" by M.T. Anderson, an author I wasn't familiar with before. The show more story is a haunting story of a ship afloat at sea with only one person who knows the truth of what happened.

Unfortunately, those were the two that stood out most in my mind, the rest - even those by authors who I know and love - were almost forgettable. One thing was that this was a very short book, and the stories in it were often no more than five or six pages. While there are some authors who work well within such tight constraints, the authors featured were probably not the best choices.

Still, it is for a good cause - promoting adult literacy - and for those two stories alone by Maguire and Anderson, it's definitely worth a read. show less

Some quite moving short stories, almost all with reading involved in one way or another. Pro-literacy charity profits. I have a hard time imagining anyone being against literacy but then it's probably an issue of other activities having higher priorities probably due to poverty or budgets.

selected short stories from one of America's greatest living authors; Gary Paulsen. Various genres and themes make it a great read for all tastes.