One Death, Nine Stories

How could one teenage boy’s life elicit other kids’ first experiences — even after he dies? Nine interconnected stories from nine top YA writers.

Kev’s the first kid their age to die. And now, even though he’s dead, he’s not really gone. Even now his choices are touching the people he left behind. Ellen Hopkins reveals what two altar boys (and one altar girl) might get up to at the cemetery. Rita Williams-Garcia follows one aimless teen as he finds a new life in his new job — at the mortuary. Will Weaver turns a lens on Kevin’s sister as she collects his surprising effects — and makes good use of them. Here, in nine stories, we meet people who didn’t know Kevin, friends from his childhood, his ex-girlfriend, his best friend, all dealing with the fallout of his death. Being a teenager is a time for all kinds of firsts — first jobs, first loves, first good-byes, firsts that break your heart and awaken your soul. It’s an initiation of sorts, and it can be brutal. But on the other side of it is the rest of your life.

With stories by
Chris Barton
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Marina Budhos
Ellen Hopkins
A.S. King
Torrey Maldonado
Charles R. Smith Jr.
Will Weaver
Rita Williams-Garcia

Marc Aronson is an editor and author of many award-winning books for young people, including Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies, and Pick-Up Game, which he co-edited with Charles R. Smith Jr. He lives in New Jersey.

Charles R. Smith Jr. is the photographer of My People, winner of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, and the author of Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali, winner of a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, as well as co-editor, contributor, and photographer for Pick-Up Game. He lives in Poughkeepsie, New York.