Outstanding Writers for Young Adults

¶ … Outstanding Writers for Young Adults This particular book, Sixteen: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults, by Donald Gallo, is allegedly designed for individuals that are in their middle-teenage years, but yet many of the stories are actually for younger children in some ways. However, it is not just the words in the stories that are important, but the deeper meaning that many of the stories have.

In other words, on the surface a story might not seem to say that much, but actually there is a hidden meaning in the story that is extremely important for someone of a specific age group, if he or she is willing to be receptive to that idea. It is for this reason that the book is still very important and relevant to many teenagers today. Even though it was published in 1985 much of what has been seen in it still holds true for many young people today.

Within the confines of this paper it would be virtually impossible to discuss each story and the deeper meaning behind it. In addition to that, the meaning that one person gets from the story may not be the same that another person would get, depending on their circumstances and other issues. Even two people of a similar age and with similar circumstances might not have the same reaction to a particular story and might feel very differently about what they read.

Because of this, the 'meaning' of each one of the stories will not be specifically stated, but some of what is read in the book will be discussed so that readers can have an understanding of what kinds of meanings might be present in the stories that are found in the book and what kinds of issues the characters in the stories and the readers of those stories might be facing.

This issue is very important to many young people, and they often do not realize that there are others that are going through the same trials that they are dealing with themselves. Helping them to realize this is what the book is basically about. Body of the Book The body of the book consists of short stories, and some of these are very short stories. However, this does not take away from their credibility. Sometimes, something can be said with brevity and there is no reason to drag it out.

Other times, more plot and character development is needed in order for the story to make sense, become clear, and otherwise work well for the reader. This is a small book containing an introduction and 10 stories. The first three deal with friendships, the next four address problems and turmoil, and the last three deal with love. All of these issues are highly significant when it comes to individuals that are sixteen or around sixteen years old.

There are many specific concerns that people in their middle teenage years must face, deal with, and make it through. Because of this, it is important for them to understand that they are not alone, which is evidenced within this book. The first three stories, those that deal with friendship, are a very strong opening theme for the book. Friendship and peer relationships are highly important for the middle teenager. Some of them rebel and say that they want to be loners and do not need or want friends.

However, barring a teen with a mental or emotional difficulty or problem, all teenagers desperately want to be accepted by their peers. It is usually of utmost importance to them, and if they say they do not care they are generally lying. In this book, the friendship issue is explored through various ideals of what friendship is, what friends do for each other, and variations on that theme.

This was by far the best theme that could have been chosen for the opening of this book, because of the seriousness of friendship in the teen years. Often later in life, many teenagers think back very fondly on the friendships that they had in high school. However, many of them also remember trials and tribulations that they went through when they were young.

The concerns that they faced likely will have faded from the memories of some of them as they have gotten older, but there are still many people that remember very clearly the problems that they had when they were teenagers. Grandparents would have gotten old and passed away, a friend might have been killed in a car accident, perhaps another friend or a classmate killed himself or herself, or attempted it.

These kinds of issues remain in the hearts and the minds of many of these people, and sometimes they come back to them when they are older to remind them of how far they have come and everything they have gone through. When bad things happen to very young people, it often imprints on their minds and it changes who they are and how they feel about themselves as they grow up.

This is important and significant for an understanding of the issues that they face and the way that they adapt to their changing circumstances as they begin to grow up. The importance of this is something that is often ignored or misunderstood, but those that are truly aware of adolescent and teenage psychology will be able to point it out and discuss the significance that it has.

With the stories in this book, much of that information and adaptation comes through in the sense that there are so many changes that these characters experience in the short time that the reader knows them that it makes these readers understand the seriousness of the characters problems and the (sometimes) insignificance of their own.

If the problems that these readers have are large, however, it can help to show them that they are not completely alone in the pain that they are going through and the suffering that they face. Even knowing that they are not alone with their circumstances is often enough to make people feel better about what they are facing. Not all trials and pains that are faced in life can be easily fixed, and these stories are aware of that.

While there are many stories out there for younger people and they discuss trials and problems that the youth of today face, many of them do not deal with the more serious issues such as the ones presented in these stories. Death and other serious sadness issues are often not addressed by books for young people because it is believed that either they will not take them seriously, or they will become depressed about issues that really do not affect them.

However, society has changed a great deal and there are many painful issues that teenagers are affected by in this day and age. Gangs, drugs, and violence have always been around, but school shootings and other concerns were not nearly as prevalent several years ago as they are today, and this is putting a larger strain on the youth of today.

This is causing problems with depression, anxiety, suicide, and substance abuse, among others, and these are the kinds of issues that must be addressed for teenagers to feel as though they are really being understood. Talking about problems that happened in the 1950s will not make the teenagers of today feel as though their problems are understood.

This book is one of the best for addressing the problems that were being seen in the 1980s but also carrying over to the problems that are being seen today, which helps it to remain relevant. The last three stories in the book are about love. In the teenage years is when love often blossoms for the first time, but it is often not the carefree 'puppy love' that many books and stories portray.

There are so many books and movies that make it appear as though teenage love is so happy and innocent. Realistically, however, this is not the case, and there are many issues such as teen pregnancy and date rape that are not dealt with. This particular book, however, is more realistic in what it shows teenagers going through and the problems that love can bring as well.

However, it also shows the beauty of love that can be seen in many relationships that start out in the teenage years and continue well into the 'real life' of college, jobs, and families. Not many of these teenage love stories continue into adulthood, but some of them do, and they are often very strong partnerships. For those that do not continue into the adult world, however, this does not mean that there is no significance to them or that they have not learned anything from them.

What people learn from their first teenage love often carries over into what they know about 'real' love when they are adults, and therefore the significance of it affects not only them but their future partners as well. In this way, the lives of many different people can be affected or changed because of one particular individual, and this particular individual's life can be affected by the individual that he or she loved when he or she was a teenager.

People are tied to other people and people need other people, even if they think that they do not, and it is important for teenagers to be aware of the lessons that they can learn from this.

While the various lessons that are learned in this book are not always easy to deal with, and some that are not looking for the deeper meaning of the book will feel as though they are not really learning anything from the book because of the triteness of some of the actual stories, there is much that can be learned from the book and much that can be discovered by coming to a greater understanding of.