Coming of Age in the 21st Century: Growing Up in America Today
The third in New Press’ Coming of Age series (earlier volumes are Coming of Age in America and Coming of Age around the World), this collection of previously published short stories and excerpts from book-length works is clearly targeted at young-adult readers. The 21 selections are arranged into four thematic sections—“Families Are Not All Alike,” “Between School and Home,” “Crisis,” and “Discovering Relationships”—and many explore aspects of the multicultural experience in the context of tween, teen, and young-adult lives. The selections are uniformly good, and some—in particular, those by Sherman Alexie, Seth Kantner, Louise Erdrich, and Lois-Ann Yamanaka—are superb. While teachers will welcome the glossary and the editor’s critical analysis that accompany each selection, general readers may find them annoyingly didactic. --Michael Cart