My First Lesson: Stories Inspired by Laurinda

by Alice Pung

"The stories in this anthology are special because they capture the school experience with rare authenticity. These are not adults writing about teenagers, but real young adult writers." -Alice Pung. Award-winning author Alice Pung has selected 25 diverse stories written by high school students inspired by her bestselling YA novel, Laurinda. The collection features an impressive range of genres by exciting new voices, exploring themes as varied as intergenerational friendship, cultural identity, bullying and heartbreak. From epiphanies on an African safari to trying to cope with the death of a parent, from a prank gone wrong to finding love in unexpected places, the stories in My First Lesson are vivid and imaginative, funny and surprising, poetic and moving. Proceeds from this book will be donated to Room to Read.

• ISBN13: 9781525229466
• Publish Date: 1 September 2016 (first published 25 August 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: ReadHowYouWant
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 160
• Language: English

Reviews

[bumblingbookworm]

This review was originally posted on The Bumbling Bookworm

This was a collection of short stories edited by Alice Pung, the author of Laurinda (which is sitting on my shelves but I have yet to read it... story of my life).  These short stories were all written by teens inspired by Laurinda, and it was a fantastic collection.  This is a brilliant platform for Australian teen writers, having their stories published in a collection like this, and there needs to be more of this out there to show teens that they can do it if they want to.

On the whole, the collection was quite strong.  Some stories were better than others, and some just weren't long enough IMO - I needed more!  There weren't any stories I considered bad or even that I didn't enjoy, I breezed through this quite quickly and it was fun to read.  I haven't read anything quite like this before, and I'd definitely read it again or another similar anthology - 4 stars.
Check out the rest of my review here!