Title: Recommended Short Stories, Authors, and Story Collections
1Recommended Short Stories Authors and Story
Collections
- Cathy Belben Librarian
- Burlington-Edison High School
2Characteristics of Short Stories
- Focus one main conflict or situation
- Generally take place in short period of time
- Focus on few characters often just one main
character - Usually take place in a single setting
3Story Collections byIndividual Authors
4The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank
- A series of interconnected stories about the
life of Sophie Applebaum whos looking for a
career but lacks a calling and looking for love
but never quite finding it.
5Trouble With Girlsby Marshall Boswell
- Contains ten connected stories which follow
Parker Hayes from his early teens in the 1970s to
his thirties chronicling his attempts to connect
with women.
6The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
- Vignettes focusing on the lives of children and
other members of a Mexican-American neighborhood.
7Woman Hollering Creekby Sandra Cisneros
- A collection of vignettes (very short stories)
focusing on Mexican-Americans and their lives on
both sides of the border.
8 RattleboneBy Maxine Clair
- Stories of the citizens of Rattlebone a
fictional black community north of Kansas City in
the 1950s.
9Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
- A collection of short stories featuring
characters--primarily athletes--from earlier
books by Chris Crutcher.
10The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl
- Thirteen stories that grab you right from the
start and include surprise twist endings. The
collection includes The Great Automatic
Grammatizator Mrs. Bixby and the Colonels
Coat and Vengeance is Mine Inc.
11Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Stories highlighting the changes experienced by
Indian women who emigrate to the United States
and face the many differences between the two
cultures especially in regards to relationships.
12Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
- Five stories set in Southeast Asia and on the
Indian subcontinent narrated by young women who
find themselves face to face with the
circumstances of adult love.
13Truly Grim Talesby Patricia Galloway
- A guilt-ridden prince with a foot fetish seeking
his glass-slippered dance partner and a beauty
contest winner as Snow Whites murderous
stepmother are featured in two of the original
grim plots in this collection loosely based on
eight traditional fairy tales.
14The Circuitby Francisco Jimenez
- These independent but intertwined stories follow
a migrant family through their circuit from
picking cotton and strawberries to topping
carrots-and back again-over a number of years.
15Breaking Throughby Francisco Jimenez
- This moving sequel is a fictionalized memoir of
Jimenezs teenage years in the late
1950s...growing up poor yet he celebrates his
Mexican roots even as he learns to be an American
16Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
- Contains twelve short fiction stories by American
author Lorrie Moore featuring characters dealing
with assorted and often unsettling situations
such as the death of a child a home invasion or
a family game of charades that goes terribly
wrong.
17Bad Haircutby Tom Perrotta
- Interrelated funny short stories follow
Buddys boyhood and adolescent adventures trying
to understand race relations sex and family
dynamics during the 1970s.
18Doing Time Notes from the Undergrad by Rob Thomas
- Ten stories focus on the unexpected consequences
when teens are required to complete volunteer
service as a high school graduation requirement.
19Short Story Anthologies
20Ultimate Sports short stories by outstanding
writers for young adults
21Twelve Shots Outstanding Stories about Guns
edited by Harry Mazer
12 authors explore the emotion-driven world of
guns. Stories include Cocked locked / Chris
Lynch -- Hunting bear / Kevin McColley -- Gods
plan for Wolfie and X-Ray / David Rice -- Custody
/ Frederick Busch -- Shotgun Cheathams last
night above ground / Richard Peck -- The war
chest / Rob Thomas -- Eat your enemy / Nancy
Springer -- War game / Nancy Werlin -- Until the
day he died / Harry Mazer -- Fresh meat / Ron
Koertge -- Chalkman / Rita Williams-Garcia.
22Every Man for Himself Short Stories about Being
a Guy edited by Nancy Mercado
- An anthology of ten original short stories about
such things as family problems sexuality and
courage written by well-known authors. - Stories include The prom prize by Walter Dean
Myers Jump away by René Saldaña Jr. No more
birds will die today by Paul Acampora Shockers
by David Lubar Pig lessons by Edward Averett
Princes by David Levithan Fear / by Terry
Trueman and Its complicated by Ron Koertge.
23One Hot Second Stories about Desireby Cathy
Young
- A collection of eleven stories by award-winning
authors that explore the many varieties of
teenage desire including first crushes first
kisses and first times.
