Browse Items (18 total)

%22Readers Responding Creative Writing and YA Literature%22 English Journal.jpeg
This article explores ways in which creative writers can craft better, more engaging Young Adult fiction. The author proposes the use of the YA short story collection Sixteen: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults, edited by Donald…

%22The Tenderness%22 The Sign.jpeg
This story recounts the efforts of thirteen-year-old Phillip as he tries to impress his piano teacher Sister Angela and win a spot in the orchestra for the Christmas recital.

%22The Price of Truth%22 The Sign.jpeg
This story in The Sign tells how 11-year-old Jerome takes up painting in an effort to impress his teacher, the nun Marie-Thérèse, whose later departure from the convent serves as the story's subplot. The story takes place in Frenchtown, the setting…

%22My First Negro%22 The Sign.jpeg
This story, set in Frenchtown, recounts the protagonist's brief friendship with an African American kid from the disadvantaged neighborhood, Alphabet Soup. The story deals with issues of race and poverty (including blackface and government…

%22My Father's Gamble%22 The Sign.jpeg
The young protagonist of this story witnesses the consequences of his father's alcoholism and poor money management skills for his entire family. The father takes out a loan to pay his debts in a time of uncertain employment. He loses the money,…

%22The Moustache%22 Scholastic VOICE.jpeg
Cormier's often reprinted story "The Moustache" presents a seventeen-year-old protagonist whose mustache provokes a case of mistaken identity. When he visits his grandmother in a nursing home, she takes him for her long-deceased husband. His…

Anniversary The Sign001.jpg
This story's protagonist is not a youth, but a 43-year-old librarian celebrating 25 years at her post. An old lover chooses this day, of all days, to resurface in her life, causing her to consider the role her life has played in the community and…

Between the Darkness and the Daylight The Sign001.jpg
This Cormier story shows the unfolding thoughts of a husband who realizes his wife is an alcoholic after finding bottles hidden throughout their home. A significant factor that affects her mental health is the wife's recent miscarriage. While the…

Bunny Berigan Wasnt He a Musician or Something Redbook Magazine001.jpg
In this story, two middle-aged men meet at a restaurant, where Walt tells Jerry he's leaving his wife for another woman. The situation becomes even more awkward when said other woman, Jennifer, arrives on the scene. Walt tries to normalize…

Mine on Thursdays Womans Day001.jpg
This story recounts a father's visit with his daughter Holly, who is "his on Thursdays." The father realizes that he has been bribing his daughter for her love rather than having a meaningful role in her life.

A Bad Time for Fathers Womans Day001.jpg
This short piece recounts Cormier's bittersweet feelings as his daughter prepares to leave for college in Boston. The father shares an awkward exchange with the daughter's boyfriend, who is also distraught that he will be far away from her. While the…

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This piece recounts a boy's discomfort with watching his parents argue, as told in his trademark detailed narrative style. By talking to his parents, he finds their similarities. His sister's observations also inform him of the role of nonverbal…

Charlie Mitchell You Rat Be Kind to My Little Girl.jpg
This short story features a father coming to grips with his daughter falling in love for the first time. It is difficult not to read this story as autobiographical or to overlook the gender bias regarding a woman's ability to think logically. This…

Goodbye Little Girl.jpg
In Cormier's short story "Goodbye Little Girl" a father comes to grips with his daughter encountering her first love. The father is skeptical of the boy and expresses sadness in the idea of being replaced by a boy who can make her happy when he…

Pretend A Verb_St. Anthony Messenger_April 1967_001.jpg
In this short story, Jerry's father receives a questionnaire attached to a letter from New York about an inheritance. The family spends the summer dreaming of the amount they would receive and that optimism carries them through a summer layoff and…
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