Description: Nine top YA authors, including Chris Barton, Ellen Hopkins, and Will Weaver, present nine interconnected stories on how the life of one teenage boy elicits other kids' first experiencesNeven after he dies at the age of 19.
Review Quotes: The authors included are all well-known young adult writers, such as Ellen Hopkins, Rita Williams-Garcia, and A. S. King, and it is clear that they know and understand their audience. Despite the differing perspectives and characters, the writing is remarkably consistent in tone. The vignette feel of each section may appeal to reluctant readers who can manage a narrative in small chunks without losing the arc of the story itself. More enthusiastic readers will devour it whole.
--School Library Journal
--Kirkus Reviews Rita Williams-Garcia's fantastic opener introduces Morris, a blank-minded boy working at his uncle's mortuary the day Kevin's corpse arrives. Both Ellen Hopkins and A. S. King look at sexual and romantic relationships; Torrey Maldonado examines one of the young men in Kevin's thrall; and so on. ... Fascinating.
--Booklist The talents of the writers, including Rita Garcia-Williams, Ellen Hopkins, A. S. King, Will Weaver, and Nora Raleigh Baskin, keep the stories consistently moving and authentically voiced... Useful as a model for a group creative-writing exercise, this would also make for therapeutic reading and discussion in the aftermath of a tragedy.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books There are plenty of dots to connect and introspection from adolescents on the precipice of something new and unknown.
--Publishers Weekly