Sharyn November

A collection of short stories from authors with books published by Firebird, a YA fantasy imprint. YA fantasy spans a wide range of reader maturity, and that range is evident in this collection. Nancy Springer's sugar-coated, condescendingly stupid "Mariposa" (which I hated, if you can't tell) is apparently directed at five-year-olds, while Garth Nix's awesome, bloody "Hope Chest" wouldn't be out of place in an adult horror collection. With the obvious exception of the Springer story, most of the stories ranged from middling-good (Sherwood Smith's "Beauty") to awesomely great (Nix). I was familiar with most of the authors (which included Lloyd Alexander, Emma Bull, (illustrator) Charles Vess, Diana Wynne Jones, and Patricia A. McKillip), but the anthology has spurred me to find further books by two unfamiliar authors. Megan Whalen Turner's "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box" manages to be funny and sweet without being cloying ("Mariposa," I am looking at you!), and Elizabeth E. Wein's "Chasing the Wind" is a charming story about a teenage girl's 1950 airplane flight across Africa.… (meer)

I had read another anthology in this series, [Firebirds Rising], and liked it very much, so I bought this one, and it sat on my TBR shelf for some time, but I finally got around to reading it. I found the stories more enjoyable than not. There are some big names included (well, big in the field of YA fantasy at least): Megan Whalen Turner, Garth Nix, Diana Wynne Jones . . . Finding a new-to-me DWJ short story is always a treat, and hers was probably my favorite in the book. If you enjoy fantasy and short stories, this is worth a read.… (meer)