Title: Cornered: 14 Stories of Bullying and Defiance
Editor: Rhoda Belleza
Author(s): Kirsten Miller, Mayra Lazara Dole, Matthue Roth, Sheba Karim, Kate Ellison, Jennifer Brown, Brendan Halpin, Jamie Adoff, Elizabeth Miles, David Yoo, James Lecesne, Josh Berk, Lish McBride, and Zetta Elliott
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Supernatural Fiction, Anthologies
Elements: Shapeshifters, Ghosts
Publisher: Running Press
Format: Paperback, 383 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-7624-4428-1
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Source: Publisher {Running Press}
Rating: 4/5
Tagline(s): How will you survive the day?
Summary: Fearful breaths, racing hearts, uncontrollable emotions--both bullies and the bullied live life on a razor's edge. While school can be an endless cycle of whispers and rumors, and home everything
but a safe haven, the stream of emails, texts, and tweets has absolutely no bounds. What does it take to come out on the other side?
Fourteen brutally honest YA voices explore the humiliation and urgency between predator and prey. With unique perspectives and hints at hope for the future, these stories speak for the boy sitting next to you in class, the girl whose locker is above yours, or perhaps even for the deepest, darkest corners of your true self.
Review:
Bullying has been a HUGE topic the past few years, and no matter how we try to stop it, bullying seems to worsen as time goes by. There always seems to be someone who thinks they are better than someone else, and that they can do whatever they want to those they view beneath them. Though it's near impossible to rid ourselves of bullying forever, and though it may be difficult, there is the hope that those who are being victimized will find the strength to overcome and rise above their bullies.
Cornered: 14 Stories of Bullying and Defiance shows us both sides: the bully and the bullied. We see how some have found strength from being bullied and try to help others in the same position. We see how nationality, sexuality, religion, social standing and other factors can determine which side of the spectrum you're on. Some get stronger, some just can't take anymore, and some become the bully after being bullied themselves. The stories in this anthology are as enlightening as they are disturbing. I definitely think this is a collection of stories every young adult should read.
Some Favorite Stories:
Nemesis by Kirsten Miller
Everyone's Nice by David Yoo
Defense Mechanisms by Elizabeth Miles
Like Kicking a Fence by Kate Ellison
We Should Get Jerseys 'Cause We Make a Good Team by Lish McBride
About these Authors:
Kirsten Miller grew up in a small town in the mountains of North
Carolina. At seventeen, she hit the road and moved to New York City,
where she lives to this day. Kirsten is the author of the acclaimed Kiki
Strike books, which tell the tale of the delinquent girl geniuses who
keep Manhattan safe. Her latest novel, The Eternal Ones (August 2010) is
a twisted story of reincarnation, true love, and sinister secret
societies.
Mayra Lazara Dole's Americas Award Commended Title, Down to the Bone,
received a starred ALA Booklist review, was nominated for ALA Best Books
and made the following lists: Booklist's Top Ten Novels, ALA Rainbow
List and CCBC Top Choices. Mayra has worked as a library assistant, ESL
tutor, drummer and landscape designer. Her essays, Cuban dialect poems
and short stories have been published by Hunger Mountain: the Vermont
College Fine Arts Journal of the Arts, and many other digital and paper
magazines.
Matthue Roth is a Hasidic author, slam poet, and screenwriter. His
first book, Never Mind the Goldbergs, was an ALA Popular Paperback in
Religion and a NYPL Best Book for the Teen Age. He's also written a
memoir about becoming Orthodox (Yom Kippur a Go-Go), a supermodel spy
caper (Candy in Action), and a cover of Ferris Bueller's Day Off
starring Russian Jewish immigrants.
His next book, My First Kafka, is a picture book for kids. It's forthcoming in Spring 2013.
By
day, he is a video game designer. Matthue lives with his wife and
daughter in Brooklyn, and he keeps a secret online diary at
www.matthue.com.
Sheba Karim writes literary and young adult fiction. She was born and
raised in Catskill, NY, where she never saw Rip Van Winkle but
frequently crossed the bridge that bore his name. She is a graduate of
New York University School of Law and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her
young adult novel, Skunk Girl, was published in the United States,
Denmark, India, Italy and Sweden. Her fiction has appeared in 580
Split, Asia Literary Review, Barn Owl Review, EGO, Kartika Review,
Shenandoah, South Asian Review, Time Out Delhi and in several published
and forthcoming anthologies in the United States and India, including
Cornered, Electric Feather and Venus Fly Trap. Two of her short stories
have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She was a 2009-2010
Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in Delhi, India, where she conducted research on
her current project, a a historical fiction novel set in 13th century
India. She is editing the second Tranquebar Anthology of South Asian
Literary Erotica for Tranquebar Press, forthcoming Fall 2012. FInd out
more at
www.shebakarim.com.
Kate Ellison lives in Georgia with her husband and two spoiled
cats. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching NBC comedy shows,
playing video games, and eating ice cream cake. Learn more about her
writing, books, and obsessions with all things bright and colorful at
her blog, The Southern Scrawl.
Jennifer Brown is a two-time winner of the Erma
Bombeck Global Humor Award (2005 & 2006), Jennifer's weekly humor
column appeared in The Kansas City Star for over four years, until she
gave it up to be a full-time young adult novelist.
Jennifer's
debut novel, HATE LIST (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009)
received three starred reviews and was selected as an ALA Best Book for
Young Adults, a VOYA "Perfect Ten," and a School Library Journal Best
Book of the Year. HATE LIST also won the Michigan Library Association's
Thumbs Up! Award, the Louisiana Teen Readers Choice award, the 2012
Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award, was an honorable mention for the 2011
Arkansas Teen Book Award, is a YALSA 2012 Popular Paperback, received
spots on the Texas Library Association's Taysha's high school reading
list as well as the Missouri Library Association's Missouri Gateway
Awards list, and has been chosen to represent the state of Missouri in
the 2012 National Book Festival in Washington, DC. Jennifer's second
novel, BITTER END, (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011)
received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and VOYA and is listed
on the YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults list and is a 2012
Taysha's high school reading list pick as well.
Jennifer writes and lives in the Kansas City, Missouri area, with her husband and three children.
[
Brendan Halpin] I'm a writer and a teacher. I've written memoirs, novels for adults,
and novels for young adults. I don't know if my interest in and talent
at writing YA comes from my experience as a high school teacher or my
immaturity. Either way, it's good.
I live in Boston with my wife Suzanne and our three children and our dog, Cooper.
Jaime
Adoff was born in New York City but grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He
received a Bachelor of Music degree from Central State University in
Ohio, where he studied drums and percussion. Moving to New York City in
1990, he attended the Manhattan School of Music and studied drums and
voice. Jaime then went on to pursue a career in songwriting and fronted
his own rock band for eight years. He released two CD's of his own
material and performed extensively in New York City and throughout the
US.
Jaime
is a highly sought after speaker, presenting across the country on teen
issues, diversity, YA literature and Poetry. His Rock n Roll school
visits have been knocking the socks off students and teachers alike, for
years. Jaime has worked with students from Kindergarten through High
School and even college and graduate students as well. Giving them all a
"backstage- all access- pass" into the life, creative process, and
works of one of the most groundbreaking, unique and innovative voices
writing for children and teens today.
Jaime Adoff is the son of the late Newbery Award-winning author Virginia Hamilton and renowned poet Arnold Adoff.
Jaime lives in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, with his family.
Elizabeth Miles is a children's
developmental and psychological author, mother of 4 children - two of
whom, both boys were diagnosed with ADHD before they were 10 and are now
well into their late teens and attending college to study business and
graphic design, respectively. In her spare time she enjoys painting,
walking in the hills with her family and Labrador Charlie and watching
the occasional crime drama.
David Yoo's first collection of
essays, The Choke Artist: Confessions of a Chronic Underachiever (Grand
Central) is out June 19, 2012. He is a graduate from Skidmore College
with an MA from the University of Colorado-Boulder. His first novel,
Girls For Breakfast (Delacorte) was a Booksense Pick, an NYPL Books For
the Teen Age selection, and a Reading Rants Top Ten Books for Teens
choice. He lives in Massachusetts, where he regularly plays adult soccer
and Sega Genesis and teaches fiction at the Gotham Writers' Workshop.
[James Lecesne] For over 25 years I've been
telling stories. Whether I'm writing, acting, producing or trying to
create social change, it's usually the story that got me involved. But
in the process of getting things done and trying to make the world a
better place, I've also been telling the story of my life. This
website is my best effort to provide the general gist. But my hope is
that you find something here that will inspire you to live your life
more fully and continue to tell your story.
Josh
Berk is the author of THE DARK DAYS OF HAMBURGER HALPIN (Knopf 2010),
named a best book for teens of 2010 by Kirkus Reviews and Amazon.com. It
was also awarded a Parent's Choice Silver medal, a starred review from
School Library Journal, and a perfect 10 from VOYA. Reviewers called it
witty, sardonic, delightful, and "a genre-bending breakthrough." (SLJ)
His second comedy/mystery YA novel is GUY LANGMAN: CRIME SCENE
PROCRASTINATOR (Knopf 2012). Kirkus says: "Hilarious wit and serious
gloom blend seamlessly as Guy wades through the year after his dad's
death..." Josh has also written a series of baseball-themed mysteries
for younger readers. Look for STRIKE THREE, YOU'RE DEAD - the first in
the "Lenny & The Mikes" series in 2013.
Josh has previously
been a journalist, a poet, a playwright, and a guitarist (mostly in
bands known for things other than fine guitar-playing). Visit
www.joshberkbooks.com for more information or
twitter.com/joshberkbooks
for too much information.
Lish McBride was raised by wolves in the Pacific Northwest. It rains a
lot there, but she likes it anyway. She spent three years away while she
got her MFA in fiction from the University of New Orleans, and she
liked that too, although the hurricane did leave much of her stuff
underwater. Her main goal in going to college was to become a writer so
she could wear pajamas pretty much all the time. She enjoys reading,
movies, comics, and preparing herself for the inevitable zombie
apocalypse. Currently, Lish lives happily in Seattle where the weather
never actually tries to kill you, with her family, two cats, and one
very put-upon Chihuahua. She is slowly building her garden gnome army.
Born
in Canada,
Zetta Elliott has spent the past fourteen years studying,
writing, and teaching in the U.S. Her poetry has been published in the
Cave Canem anthology, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Check the
Rhyme: an Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees, and Coloring Book: an
Eclectic Anthology of Fiction and Poetry by Multicultural Writers. Her
novella, Plastique, was excerpted in T Dot Griots: an Anthology of
Toronto's Black Storytellers, and her essays have appeared in The Black
Arts Quarterly, thirdspace, WarpLand and Rain and Thunder. She won the
2005 Honor Award in Lee & Low Books' New Voices Contest, and her
picture book, Bird, was published in October 2008. Her first play,
Nothing but a Woman, was a finalist in the Chicago Dramatists' Many
Voices Project (2006). Her fourth full-length play, Connor's Boy, was
staged in January 2008 as part of two new play festivals: in Cleveland,
OH as part of Karamu House's R. Joyce Whitley Festival of New Plays
ARENAFEST, and in New York City as part of Maieutic Theatre Works'
Newborn Festival. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
Learn more at:
http://zettaelliott.com/
