Guys Read True Stories by Jon Scieszka (ed)

Jon Scieszka is the king of getting to get boys to read.  He has a great Guys Read website, and he has compiled a number of collections of stories especially chosen for boys.  This "True Stories" collection is the first one that I have read.  I must admit, I just picked it up because I had finished my other book, and some books I have on hold hadn't come in yet.  I was going to read a few stories while I was waiting, kind of as a filler book.  Once I got started, though, I found I was really enjoying it.  All the contributors were names I recognized as prominent children's nonfiction writers. There is a wide variety of stories, some, I was surprised to see, written by women.  Some were adventure stories; about being marooned from a ship wreck, getting attacked by a bear in the Rockies, or running Canadian rapids in a canoe.  One was a science story about studying tarantulas in South America another was about growing up in Vietnam with three older brothers.  Some were funny, some suspenseful and some a little gruesome.  All of them were very entertaining.  I think I am going to be recommending these stories and the other Guys Reads books a lot more, especially to reluctant readers.(242 p.)