In this warm-weather followup to the yuletide-themed My True Love Gave to Me, Stephanie Perkins gathers a stable of 12 famed names in young adult fiction for her anthology of sun-drenched romantic short stories.
Begin your summer vacation on the banks of New York's Little Spindle Lake with "Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail" by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows), where you might glimpse the local lake serpent while Gracie falls for outsider boy Eli over the course of five summers, some cryptozoology research, and one monster of a secret. Next, catch a classic horror movie at the tongue-in-cheek "Last Stand at the Cinegore" by Libba Bray (The Diviners), where a possessed film might inspire movie enthusiast Kevin to embrace his future and his crush... or kill him. Don't miss Ted Darke's Dark Carnival in Cassandra Clare's (Lady Midnight) "Brand New Attraction," where Ted's teenage daughter Lulu has grown up hawking fake human blood slushies and feeding the demon that powers the carnival, but must contend with darker forces when her evil uncle (and his hot, possibly-not-evil stepson, Lucas) take over after her father disappears. Not ready for summer to end? Hop into Lev Grossman's (The Magician's Land) "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things," where time stalls for two teens finding every perfect moment in a single repeating day.
Diverse casts and settings enliven a collection that considers both the sweet and fleeting nature of summer love. Funny or poignant, fantasy or here and now, Shakespearean or psychedelic, Summer Days and Summer Nights offers mature teen readers a smorgasbord of possibilities from a riot of talents. --Jaclyn Fulwood, lead librarian at Del City Public Library, Okla.