Up All Night

Read:
Not Just for Breakfast Anymore by Libba Bray- These stories are longer than the other collections I've been looking through. This story was slightly excruciating, but in the end I liked it. It's 1980 in Texas, and four girls act stupid, go to a concert, get high and drunk, and think they can sneak into the hotel where the band is staying to hang out with the famous guys. It's all so stupid that you feel embarrassed for the girls, but it's kind of funny and believable too. The sub-plot is the interesting part. One of the girls has recently discovered that her dad is gay, and he and her mother got divorced. Her friends don't know that he's gay, and she's trying to hide it from them. The story is about people not being who they are show more pretending to be, and although the theme is heavy-handed, I really liked the main character and how the story ended up.

Orange Alert by Patricia McCormick - When I saw the title of this one, I thought of her novel, Purple Heart, and hoped it was another great story about the Iraq War. It turned out to be totally different. It's the story of a teenage girl who's living with her mother and her mom's new husband, who is a miserable, creepy guy that threatens the girl sexually when her mom isn't around. Just when I was bracing myself for something horrible to happen, the girl did something to threaten him back. I would have preferred to see her tell her mom and have her mom take her away, but what the girl decides to do in the meantime is pretty great.

The Motherless One by Gene Luan Yang - In this graphic-novel-style short story, a monkey realizes he wasn't birthed by a monkey, but sprang into existence on top of a mountain. He goes looking for meaning to his existence. show less

This had a great mixture of stories. I was a wee bit disappointed, because I thought there would be some supernatural/paranormal situations in it, but there really weren't. Otherwise, the stories were good, a series of different situations teenagers may face.

Reviewed by Jennifer Rummel for TeensReadToo.com

Six stories relate to the darkness and the wonder of staying up all night.

Libba Bray writes about four best friends going to a concert and looking for the band's after party. When they need a place to crash, they spend the night at one girl's father's new apartment, almost exposing a huge family secret.

The family in Peter Abraham's story attempt to move on after the death of a loved one, but can they reach him from beyond the grave before they let go?

David Levithan explores one girl's search to let go of social politeness and to find herself in the darkness of the night.

These six stories (the remaining written by Patricia McCormick, Sarah Weeks, and Gene Luen Yang) will make readers think show more of the nighttime and all of the secrets and power it possesses.

Read these tales after dark. show less

Contains six short stories revolving around young people staying up through the night. Peter Abrahams writes about a family’s struggle to deal with a dead father through a medium. Libba Bray details a girl’s unhappy concert experience and coming to terms with a recently outed father. David Levithan chronicles the confessions and loneliness of a town that opens up all at once one evening. Patricia McCormick details a teen’s struggles with an abusive step-father and midnight driving lessons. Sarah Weeks writes about a young teen’s vigil for his little brother’s pet mouse and coping with his parent’s divorce. Gene Luen Yang’s short comic about the mythical Monkey’s search for his birthplace adds visual humor to the book. show more Explicit language, talk of sexual situations, homosexuality, sexual abuse, drug taking. Ages 14+. show less

Some fairly good a couple dreadful. Short stories have never really been my favorite though.

Each stroy is different from the next except that they all have hidden messages. THe stories were short and kept you hooked. AHS/MR

"People are like mirages, and from a distance they seem to be one thing, a cool spring, a date tree, a comfort zone. But when you get up close, they can turn out to be something you weren't expecting at all." (60 - Bray)