From first breakups and romantic vampire encounters to last band performances and the deadly end of a friendship, Firsts and Lasts is an anthology that is just as unpredictable as being a teenager. While each of these stories span different genres and styles, they all perfectly capture the big emotions—confusion, joy, uneasiness, and anticipation—that many teens experience as they grow up.
Whether you are hopelessly in love and not sure how to tell your crush, going through loss and can't fully process it, or just trying to figure out where you belong in the world, this collection of sixteen stories has something for every reader.
Stories written by: Adi Alsaid, Keah Brown, Monica Gomez-Hira, Kika Hatzopoulou, Shaun David Hutchinson, Amanda Joy, Loan Le, Joy McCullough, Yamile Saied Méndez, Anna Meriano, Nina Moreno, Tess Sharpe, Laura Silverman, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Diana Urban, and Julian Winters.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 26, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593523100
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593523100
- File size: 3700 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 800
- Text Difficulty: 3-4
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Reviews
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Kirkus
July 1, 2023
Multigenre short stories penned by a wide range of YA authors focus on pivotal teenage firsts and lasts. From a first date with a vampire to a teen's last breath, this collection of 16 stories (eight firsts and eight lasts) runs the gamut of styles and life experiences. In the "Firsts" section, chapter titles signal the usual suspects--such as Nina Moreno's "The First Kiss" and Yamile Saied M�ndez's "The First Job"--alongside more unusual milestones, such as Tess Sharpe's "The First Time We Buried a Body." The "Lasts" section is less general, yet no less relatable, with titles like "The (Hopefully) Last Demon Summoning" by Kika Hatzopoulou and "The Last Purity Ball" by Joy McCullough. Each story flows nicely into the next, almost like new friends swapping stories. Many are set near the end of high school or beginning of college, heightening the overall sense of liminality. The contributors include newer and more established voices who mirror the diversity of the characters' identities. Alongside each milestone's potential universality, each short story revels in specificity to create glimpses of fully realized characters. Many characters are LGBTQ+. The entries that are rooted in trauma or sadness, especially, demonstrate the fictional adolescents' incredible resilience and maturity as they process these novel experiences. Content warnings helpfully flag individual stories before the table of contents. Beautifully sentimental and utterly relatable. (author bios) (Anthology. 14-18)COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Formats
- OverDrive Read
- EPUB ebook
Languages
- English
Levels
- Lexile® Measure:800
- Text Difficulty:3-4
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