Help Wanted: Stories

With real wit and heart, Gary Soto takes readers into the lives of young people in ten funny, heartbreaking tales.

Meet Carolina, who writes to Miss Manners for help not just with etiquette but with bigger messes in her life; Javier, who knows the stories his friend Veronica tells him are lies, but can't find a way to prove it--and many other kids, each caught up in the difficulties of figuring out what it means to be alive.

From a first kiss to a family crisis, these ten stories capture the awkward, funny, and heartbreaking moments that define teenage life.

• Coming-of-Age Stories: Whether it’s a first kiss on the same night your grandmother gets arrested or navigating a friendship built on lies, these characters are figuring it all out one mistake at a time.
• Family Relationships: A quiet father who becomes an obsessive Raiders fan to connect with his son, a daughter who thinks she hears her mother’s ghost, and a girl who wishes she belonged to any family but her own.
• Slice of Life Fiction: From paintball battles and junior high dances to disastrous first jobs, Soto finds the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of teenage life in California’s Central Valley.
• Finding Your Place: For two best friends who feel like teenage “chimps,” finding where you belong is the toughest, and most important, challenge of all.

"Soto excels at getting into the minds of both boys and girls . . . Readers, Latino or not, have a good chance of seeing themselves and their feelings in these compelling stories."--Kirkus Reviews