13: Thirteen Stories That Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen

If you want to know the truth...

Sometimes I'm not sure who I am anymore.

Thirteen. It's an age of wonder...or dread. The best year of your life...or maybe the worst ever. You've just become an official teenager, even though you're not quite sure you feel like one, but you're no longer a kid, either. Here, from fourteen different points of view, are stories about that wonderful, terrible time. The big bar mitzvah that goes suddenly, wildly, hilariously out of control. A first kiss — and a realization about one's sexual orientation. A crush on a girl that ends up putting the boy who likes her in the hospital. A pair of sneakers that a kid has to have, no matter what. Written by some of today's finest writers for young adults, these stories — by turns funny and sad, wrenching and moving — truly capture the agony and ecstasy of being thirteen.

"If thirteen is supposed to be an unlucky number...you would think a civilized society could come up with a way for us to skip it."

— from "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" by Bruce Coville

No one will want to skip any of the twelve short stories and one poem that make up this collection by some of the most celebrated contemporary writers of teen fiction. The big bar mitzvah that goes suddenly, wildly, hilariously out of control. A first kiss — and a realization about one's sexual orientation. A crush on a girl that ends up putting the boy who likes her in the hospital. A pair of sneakers a kid has to have. By turns funny and sad, wrenching and poignant, the moments large and small described in these stories capture perfectly the agony and ecstasy of being thirteen.

James Howe is the author of more than seventy books for young readers, including the popular and award-winning series about Bunnicula and his friends. Among his other books are the Pinky and Rex series, the Sebastian Barth mysteries, and The Misfits and Totally Joe, which inspired the nation-wide initiative for No Name-Calling Week.  He lives in New York.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

James Howe

What's the Worst That Could Happen?

Bruce Coville

Kate the Great

Meg Cabot

If You Kiss a Boy

Alex Sanchez

Thirteen and a Half

Rachel Vail

Jeremy Goldblatt Is So Not Moses

James Howe

Black Holes and Basketball Sneakers

Lori Aurelia Williams

Picky Eater

Stephen Roos

Such Foolishness

Maureen Ryan Griffin

Noodle Soup for Nincompoops

Ellen Wittlinger

Squid Girl

Todd Strasser

Angel and Aly

Ron Koertge

Nobody Stole Jason Grayson

Carolyn Mackler

Tina the Teen Fairy

Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin