One Hot Second Book

Cathy Young, author of the brassy, bold Favorite Teenage Angstbooks Web zine has finally made her mark on the paper publishing scene as the editor of this stellar collection of teen cravings created to make you blush. In "Someone Bold," Sarah Dessen writes about a former fat girl who learns she deserves better than the first sweet-talking boy who comes along post-poundage. Victor Martinez writes poignantly about how desire can quickly be tempered by divisions of race and class in "The County Fair," and Jacqueline Woodson's story of two girls who loved and lost because of death and drugs won't make you blush so much as weep. And in a genuinely funny turn, Jennifer Armstrong's short riff about a girl whose love object isn't another person, but rather something with four wheels and a gearshift will leave teens helpless with laughter. And that's not all--Norma Fox Mazer, Rich Wallace, Ellen Wittlinger, Nancy Garden, Rachel Vail, Emma Donoghue, and Angela Johnson have also contributed their two cents about pounding hearts and sweaty hands, and the results are a truly strong chain of stories with no weak links. The sexy cover, high-caliber writing, and bite-sized reading pieces guarantee that teens will gobble up One Hot Second in about one hot minute. Like Michael Cart's similarly wise and provocative collection, Love and Sex, this is one book that won't linger on the shelf long before teens discover the tantalizing and oh-so-true words that lie within and compulsively share it (pertinent pages tabbed down) with all their friends. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer HubertRead More