Notes Across the Aisle

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

The product of the second National Young Adult Short Story competition
sponsored by Saskatoon’s Thistledown Press, this attractively packaged
anthology contains 17 stories for teens. The book’s contributors range
from well-known YA authors like Budge Wilson, Karleen Bradford, and
Alison Lohans to newcomers like Karin Galldin, an Ottawa high-school
student.

The anthology’s first two stories are the contest’s winner and
runner-up. Linda Holeman’s “How to Tell Renata” concerns a
15-year-old girl who agonizes about revealing to her mother that she is
being sexually harassed by her mother’s boyfriend. Jacqueline
Pinto’s “Bulat Kisses” features a reluctant Sri Lankan girl who is
being considered a potential bride for a rich doctor’s young son.
While most of the stories deal with serious themes involving
relationships, one, “Over the Moon,” injects some comic relief by
providing the source of the “Hey Diddle, Diddle” children’s rhyme.


The textbook-like format of this collection may be off-putting to less
committed short-story readers. Recommended.