Dirty Laundry

This book is full of fictional short stories. All there short stories had the same overall topic, dirty laundry of the family's past, present, and future. This book explains how not every family is perfect, and has someing shamful to hide from the rest of the world. This was a good book, some stories more engaging than others. Overall, I think this book lacked in interesting deatail, but included creative ideas for each story. I would recamend this anyone to read this book that needs a laugh, but more encouragement to the teenage readers.

I wasn't overly impressed with this collection of short stories. The first story "The Secret Life, According to Aunt Gladys" by Bruce Coville started the book off in a great place (although the book sleeve ruined an early shock) especially with its haunting last line. Then the stories of Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Dian Curtis Regan, Anna Grossnickle Hines, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Richard Peck all suffered from predictability and a been-there-read-that mentality. The stories were okay, and some even better than that, but reading one after the other was just too much.The next story, although entertaining, was too science fiction for me. Yes, "I Will Not Think of Maine" by M.E. Kerr dealt with a family secret, but you have to beleive in the supernatural to fully except the story. Currently, I'm reading for reality. I'm looking for stories that can be used to help some of the kids that I'm working for. This story is not one of them.Then came a diamond in the rough. "FRESh PAINt" by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (the editor) was a awesome and moving story. I can't beleive that none of the other reviewers to this date (July 14, 2001) have mentioned it. This short story was one of the longest in the book (and I hate LONG SHORT stories) but I flew through it. "FRESh PAINt" has a strong mystery, a strong family secrets, and a painful moment that brought me to tears. Anyone who has read the story knows what I am talking about.The rest of the stories also were pretty good and seem to be favorites of other reviewers. "Passport" bt Laurie Halse Anderson has a creative and sharp-tongued style that made it a joy to read. "Something Like... Love" by Graham Salisbury was a nice story, but its family secret was probably the weakest of the collection. "Popeye the Sailor" by Chris Crutcher was definitely the correct story to end the book with. Its conclusion seems to put an okay book to rest. The style of the story (it opens as a play before turning to narrative) is gripping. The story shocks you into beleiving and it ends before we know everything, but we know enough. It's a wonderful story.Overall, the book is decent. The long stretch of predictablity to supernatural from Campbell Bartoletti's "Rice Pudding Days" to Kerr's "I Will Not Think of Maine" makes the book hard to finish, but with Rowe Fraustino and Crutcher, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

As a grad school student who had to read a book on controversy in literature for class, I stumbled across this book in the library and was more than pleasantly surprised. The stories are sometimes touching, sometimes humorous and very different from one another. I think this book helps people understand that no family is truly "normal". I especially liked "Rice Pudding Days", "Passport" and "Popeye the Sailor"

I think that most readers would like something about this book because each story had different qualities than all of the other stories. The main theme of this book is that the sterotype of a perfect family is really a very odd family, because every family is different,and every family has problems. I think that this is a great book for any kind of reader.

This is a great book! Our magazine is currentlly offering it as our BOOK OF THE MONTH! I liked how the authors of each short story put their lifes into prespective! It is a very interestin book! I recommend it to everyone!