"With its gamut of emotions, issues and real-life situations, this volume provides high quality reading that all Americans can identify with."-- Publishers Weekly Twenty stories, arranged by age of the protagonists, from 4 to 18. Contributors include Barbara Kingsolver, John Updike, Ethan Canin, Ernest J. Gaines, Gish Jen, Alice Walker, Michael Chabon, Toni Cade Bambara, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, and more.