When I Was Your Age, Volume Two

Starred review from March 4, 1996
Some of the entries in this memorable anthology are hauntingly sad and several are sharply witty; every single one is expertly crafted and engrossing. In response to Ehrlich's request for an autobiographical story, 10 accomplished children's authors have contributed original pieces that underscore both the diversity and timelessness of youth and adolescence. Sibling rapports and rivalries, feeling alone, and the fervent quest for parental approval and peer acceptance are common threads here. Mary Pope Osborne describes her uncommon attachment to a rubber ball, a gift from her father on the eve of his departure for post-war Korea. Avi humorously recounts his attempt to save face during a rain-drenched camping trip with two friends. In two of the collection's hardest-hitting tales, Susan Cooper shows how World War II invades the already beleaguered life of a British schoolgirl; and Francesca Lia Block describes a sensitive girl coping with her mother's desertion. Each contributor follows up his or her story with a brief but enlightening commentary. Fans of all ages will savor these perceptively chosen, affectingly disclosed episodes from the lives of favorite writers. Ages 9-14.

February 1, 2001
In a starred review of this anthology of stories about growing up, PW wrote, "Fans of all ages will savor these perceptively chosen, affectingly disclosed episodes from the lives of their favorite writers." The writers include Mary Pope Osborne, Katherine Paterson, Avi, Walter Dean Myers and Francesca Lia Block. Ages 9-14.

Starred review from March 29, 1999
Ehrlich offers more of a good thing in this second volume of memoirs of adolescence by renowned, contemporary YA authors. Here, readers can journey to their favorite writers' old stomping grounds, places where the seeds of imagination and keen powers of observation are planted. There is the unheated shed where Norma Fox Mazer presses her eye against the slats of the wall to watch and make up stories about Herbie, the landlord's son. Inside Jane Yolen's grandparents' home is a passage to discovery: a double-doored closet smelling "of cedar and mothballs, and something else, a heavier, homier smell that I realized years afterward had been my grandfather's sweat." And in Joseph Bruchac's "The Snapping Turtle" there is the "little piece of forest" where Bruchac's Abenaki Indian grandfather teaches him to read nature's "signs" and respect its gifts. Rita Williams-Garcia, Paul Fleischman, Howard Norman, E.L. Konigsburg, Michael J. Rosen, Kyoko Mori and Karen Hesse also weigh in. While the settings, themes and characters of these memoirs are as eclectic as their creators' individual writing styles, all express a poetic understanding and insight. Accompanied by brief commentaries from the authors, these works perceptively and succinctly encapsulate the joys, pains and quiet moments of realization that are a part of growing up. Ages 9-14.