Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Gr 10 Up—In this latest anthology and follow-up to 2014's My True Love Gave to Me, Perkins returns with an enthralling collection of steamy summer love stories penned by an all-star cast, which includes Lev Grossman, Veronica Roth, and Libba Bray. The stories are by turns bittersweet, unexpected, and unapologetically hopeful, and themes of endurance, bravery, and determination emerge as the teens navigate issues such as broken families, ending relationships, life after high school, and identity. Standouts include Brandy Colbert's "Good Luck and Farewell," a realistic look at two Chicago teens who have lost family members, one to South Side violence, the other to depression, and Grossman's "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things," the story of two teens who live the same day repeatedly, which enables them to create the titular item. Francesca Lia Block offers up a gloomy look at love lost, but the vast majority of the selections end on a hopeful, if not an altogether happy, note. Fantasy, soft horror, science fiction, and paranormal all take their place beside the prevalent realistic pieces, and it seems that the authors took the call for diversity to heart, providing not only racial but sexual and developmental diversity as well. There is a fair amount of cursing and sexually charged language, Block's story presents a matter-of-fact sexual encounter, and not all tales will appeal to all readers, but there is something for everyone here.