STAY TRUE

Eleven well-known authors—all women—use humor, pathos, and fantasy in a skillfully wrought panoply of short stories that resound with a “you go girl” attitude toward life. From pieces that focus on learning to look beyond surface appearances, to vignettes about being your own person, each story can be enjoyed for its entertainment value alone. However, discerning readers searching for appealing female role models will find numerous insights from writers such as M.E. Kerr, Jennifer Armstrong, Anne Mazer, and Rita Williams-Garcia about what it takes to develop a strong and unique personality. One girl takes pity on the man auditioning to become her stepfather, another dispenses with the whole Cinderella/fairy godmother routine in the name of accomplishing her life, her way—without enchantment. In every story, the heroine faces her problems head on, outwilling a willful grandmother over a summer job or deciding to live large, counting the cost of staying true as a life lesson everyone must learn. It’s an unambitious, often charming sampler, sure to make readers smile, think, and dream. (Fiction. 12-15)