The Collectors

King (Attack of the Black Rectangles) collaborates with nine other writers--including M.T. Anderson, Anna-Marie McLemore, and Randy Ribay--to ruminate on collections, collectors, and storytelling conventions in this quirky anthology. Not all the showcased assemblages consist of physical things, as evidenced by David Levithan's humorous "Take It from Me," which follows a nonbinary teen who amasses items stolen from other people; when they encounter a teen who collects self-doubts, they are confronted with the only grouping they can't pilfer from. Jason Reynolds's meandering selection, "A Recording for Carole Before It All Goes," furthers this notion; employing an introspective narrator to cultivate a recollection of a life lived, this story speaks directly to an aging elder with Alzheimer's who gathers wigs and names that begin with C. Other entries detail collections meant to remind the reader that they are allowed to take up physical space, as in e.E. Charlton-Trujillo's biting "La Concha," in which the protagonist hoards jars containing beach sand, a single piece of their own hair, and "torn-out pages from books my mother read." King proclaims, in an introduction, that "there is currency in weirdness"; by turns darkly cheeky and piercingly perceptive, this moody and existential grouping of stories lives up to the statement. Concluding author bios highlight the contributors' own collections. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)

Gr 9 Up--An astonishingly all-star cast of authors take extremely creative interpretations of the idea of collections and collectors in this volume of strange stories. These are 10 of YA's most beloved writers including King, the anthology's editor. From Anna-Marie McLemore's ethereal, quietly violent collection-inspired fairy tale to Jason Reynolds's heartbreakingly honest, tender, and illuminative entry, which is itself a piece of a larger collection, each of the strong-voiced authors included has distilled the essence of what they do best into something "defiantly creative." The pieces found here are ones of experiences (G. Neri's "Pool Bandits"), things that fit in jars (e.E. Charlton-Trujillo's "La Concha"), things that are created (Reynolds's "A Recording for Carole Before It All Goes"), and things that are stolen (David Levithan's "Take It From Me"). The pieces differ in format, as well--other than prose, there is a screenplay (Randy Ribay) and an illustrated, experimental piece (Cory McCarthy); one is set in 1976 (Neri), one in 2021 (M.T. Anderson). The collectors themselves are all searching for something; some of them find it. Though the stories differ in so many ways, each author brings a sense of reverence for the theme to their entry, resulting in brutally heartfelt moments with incredible emotional depth that feel like a cohesive whole. King's argument in the introduction that all collections are art and collectors are artists certainly holds true here; masterfully collected and worth slowing down to absorb. VERDICT An anthology for every collection.--Allie Stevens