Short story collections by multiple authors are always a bit weird for me. Some are great, some are passable, but you have to review it as a whole! I'd day this one was about halfway great.

So glad this exists and I appreciate that there's a theme in this one (vs. Flying Lessons). Highlights: Rita Garcia-Williams starts things off powerfully with Minnows and Zombies (view spoiler)[Young swimmers facing folks on hard drugs on the way home, people who used to be real people. And a friend with an older sibling who might be heading that way. (hide spoiler)]. Home by Hena Khan, about adopting a younger brother from Morocco) is really sweet. Thrown by Mike Jung is full-on empowering I ap...

I loved the first We Need Diverse Books collection, Flying Lessons, so much! It is one of my favorite anthologies ever, so I couldn't wait for this one to come out. I have to say. I am a little disappointed. My favorite story in here was Rescue by Suma Subramaniam. It covers domestic abuse through the eyes of a girl and her dog. RJ Palacio's story is sweet especially the mom's reaction to the neighbor's father. I appreciated Hena Khan's story about adoption and Mike Jung's story whose protagonis...

As a diverse middle grade short story collection, this fills a gap (along with Flying Lessons) and has several standout stories. My favorite stories were "One Wish" by Ronald L. Smith, "The Assist" by Linda Sue Park and Anna Dobbin, and "Reina Madrid" by R.J. Palacio.

This story collection is worth picking up if only to read “Reina Madrid” by R.J. Palacio. While the story was great all on its own, I wouldn’t mind a full book featuring Reina and her friends in 1970s Queens - I was that invested in the characters after only 20 pages. Like all collections, I liked some stories a lot more than others. Other favorites for me besides Reina Madrid were One Wish by Ronald Smith, Home by Hena Khan, and Go Fish by William Alexander. I’m sure other readers will have oth...

“Minnows and zombies” by Rita Williams Garcia. -- A young child at day camp in the city likes it when her swimming class earns a treat, except that it means walking to a 7-Eleven through what she calls “zombies” who always ask them for money. This was sad in so many ways, because the adult reading it, or possibly the older child, will recognize that the zombies are drug addicts. It’s interesting to have the child’s perspective on it and knowing that in some ways they are so right. The hero in th...

I would like to highlight three of my favorite selections from this short story collection.-- Home, written by Hena Khan:This is a touching story written from the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl, Aleena, who lives in Virginia with her parents and teen brother, Bilal.The family arranges to adopt a three-year-old boy, Hakeem, from an orphaniage in Morocco. Hakeem speaks no English, and Aleena's family speaks no Arabic. The process of adopting this child has taken over a year. The entire f

The Hero Next Door is a collection of short stories written by award-winning authors and aimed at middle grade readers. Each story includes a diverse group of people, focuses on at least one child, and has a hero doing every day things because something that seems simple to one person can be huge to another. I quite enjoyed most of the stories. I highly recommend this book to people of all ages!

This anthology leans heavily away from realistic fiction short stories, but is filled to the brim with stories that allow for deep metaphors and discussions based on certain themes and ideals. I think this is an incredibly accessible teaching text for middle grades and could easily be used in a Hero's Journey unit.

Still very much in love with the short story collections coming out for middle grade and YA. This is no exception. A commendable, sentimental, beautiful, touching, lovely, thoughtful collection by fantastic solid authors and some new-ish authors who showcase friendship above all else with stories about helping a teammate write a book report (on All American Boys nonetheless) to drug addiction, adoption and innovation (twins who create robots) and which represent a spectrum of regional voices fro...

As you see, from "We Need Diverse Books", a new collection that is easy to imagine readers loving, hopefully, teachers reading it aloud so that every single student can learn so many ways that acts of kindness can occur. Each story has its own magic, sometimes fantastical, often realistic, but always satisfying. I am grateful to this organization that is giving us ALL the faces of our students and to the writers who brought life to some of them.

Great set of short stories! Perfect for 5-6th grade! Diverse characters, diverse stories/situations! Perfect for current students!I don’t think there was a single story I didn’t like! Great mixture of authors voices!

I felt represented. Lately I have been reading more books with diversity and have finally been able to see myself in them. It's an incredible feeling.

Great short stories from diverse voices, especially targeted to middle grade students. Many of the stories should be expanded into books!

We Need Diverse Books collection of short stories included the following topics: Hero next doorKG Thoughts- vocabulary isn’t challenging, stories are mostly shorter and easy reads. Maybe better for 6th than 7th. Great variety including underrepresented cultures and decent mix of fan tasty, sports and realistic fiction. Zombies and Minnows by Rita Garcia Williams- Minnows are kids in swim school. Walking to 7-11 and see zombies. Infer that zombies are drug addicts experiencing homelessness. Sumay...

Solid collection of short stories for middle grade readers. As with all collections, some stories felt more complete than others—I particularly enjoyed Ronald L. Smith's "One Wish," William Alexander's "Go Fish," Suma Subramaniam's "Rescue," and R.J. Palacio's "Reina Madrid."I hope We Need Diverse Books keeps these anthologies coming.

My favorite stories : Home by Hena Khan and A Girls Best Friend by Cynthia Leitch Smith. I plan to share with grade 5 students!

I really liked most of the stories from _Flying Lessons_, but this collection had a bunch of duds. Good ones (IMO): --"Ellison's Cornucopia" by Lamar Giles (sci-fi)--"Thrown" by Mike Jung (narrator with autism)--"A Girl's Best Friend" by Cynthia Leitich Smith (seeing good in everyone)--"Go Fish" by William Alexander" (which included a gender nonconforming character)--"Reina Madrid" by R.J. Palacio (about racism)

A good variety of stories, some of which take the theme to less ordinary places than the “next door” theme might imply. Should be enjoyed by middle-grade readers.