All Sleek And Skimming Stories Author:Lisa Heggum From Booklist — Mixing excerpts from novels and previously published short stories, these 22 selections, mostly by Canadian writers, tend toward the dark and angst-ridden side of life. Approaches and themes vary widely: there are two stories told in graphic novel-style panels (Michel Rabagliati's "Paul in the Metro" and Joe Ollmann's "Giant Straw... more »berry Funland"); there are gay teens (Diana Aspin's "The Art of Embalming" and Ivan E. Coyote's "The Cat Came Back"); in other entries, readers will encounter sex, teen pregnancy, divorce, incest, murder, and disfigurement. Janet McNaughton's "Piglet" reminds how easy it is to jump to conclusions about single teen mothers. Tim Wynne-Jones' tender story "Dawn" features a teen with an orange mohawk who consoles a distraught boy with a tape of New Age music. Chosen with an eye to building a bridge between young adult and adult fiction, these tales limn the mundane horror of adolescence in ways that frequently jolt expectations.« less