The Color of Absence : 12 Stories About Loss and Hope

Virginia Euwer Wolff (Make Lemonade, Bat 6) sums up the essence of the 12 stories in The Color of Absence: "One of the things that interests me most about loss is that often, while we are being swept away by losing something, we are gaining something else that totally surprises us." A dozen young adult authors look at this paradox in all its guises as it touches young lives, in this collection of short fictional pieces edited by James Howe. Two of the stories are extraordinary--Wolff's own "Chair," which dramatizes the heartbreaking descent into Alzheimer's over three visits between an old man and his great-grandson, and Annette Curtis Klause's delicate and astonishingly moving tale of a vampire who rediscovers love through the affection and death of a small cat. Knowledgeable fans of young adult literature will be intrigued by the unlikely collaboration of Jacqueline Woodson and Chris Lynch in "The Rialto," an excerpt from a novel in progress. Walter Dean Myers, Avi, Angela Johnson, Norma Fox Mazer, Naomi Shihab Nye, and other authors explore losses ranging from a stolen bicycle to a father dying of AIDS. Young readers of a variety of ages and temperaments are sure to find at least a couple of stories here to touch their hearts. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell