Working Days: Short Stories about Teenagers at Work

Reflecting that ""a job was the way you really found out about the world,"" Rob, the narrator of Kim Stafford's ""Riding Up to Ruby's"" neatly condenses a theme repeated throughout this anthology. Fifteen stories, 12 of them original, by talented YA authors trace young Americans' experiences at the work place to show the intangible rewards of labor. Most of the featured protagonists, as culturally diverse as their creators, gain wisdom from people they meet on the job. Working at a dull job, the heroine of Mazer's ""The Pill Factory"" learns something about her strengths by watching a co-worker struggle. In Marilyn Sachs's ""Lessons,"" a tutor is deeply touched by the kindness of her student, a grandfatherly Greek pastry chef who possesses the sensitivity her own stepmother lacks. Tenth-grader Shane, the protagonist of Graham Salisbury's ""Forty Bucks,"" finds something remarkable in an elderly Mexican customer who disbands a gang of troublemakers during Shane's shift at a Taco Bell. Readers need not turn to Mazer's rather drawn-out introduction to extract meaning from these poignant selections. The volume's chorus of strong, expressive voices dynamically conveys the joys, traumas and discoveries of impressionable teens taking their first leap toward adulthood. Ages 10-up. (July)