Reviewed by Dianna Geers for TeensReadToo.com

In BEST SHORTS, you never know what surprise you're going to get next. Unlike many short story collections, which usually revolve around some thread of a theme, the stories Avi selected for this anthology come from all over the genre spectrum. The one thing they all have in common, however, is that they are all great little adventures you can experience without the big time commitment of an entire novel.

Readers can get freaked out by seeing what happens when Dad loses his cell phone at Auntie's funeral, travel along with some city-smart boys who try to camp out alone, and root for an entire bank who adopts a baby abandoned in the night-deposit box.

It's pretty slick how a well-written short story can suck you in; before you know it, you're reading a genre that you are sure you don't like. An interesting thing that happened to me as I read this compilation of stories is that I enjoyed stories in genres that I may never have picked up if they had been labeled. As I read these stories to my sixth-grade students, they wanted to get copies of their own. They, too, enjoyed the punch in these stories and the wide variety of styles and genres.

How can you go wrong with a book featuring stories from such authors as Richard Peck, Lloyd Alexander, Washington Irving, Theodore Taylor, and even Avi himself?

If you're looking for a sampler of authors or genres, or a few short stories to read between novels, or something to read without committing to an entire book, or you just feel like something a little different, then try BEST SHORTS on for size. It is one of those one-size-fits-all kind of collections. ( )

A must short story read for reluctant readers! School age/Middle School ( )

My favorite stories in this collection:

The Caller - Robert San Souci
LAFFF - Lensey Namioka
Nuts - Natalie Babbitt
The Town Cats - Lloyd Alexander
Zlateh the Goat - Isaac Bashevis Singer
To Starch a Spook - Andrew Benedict
The Librarian and the Robbers - Margaret Mahy
The Woman in the Snow - Patricia McKissack
The Baby in the Night Deposit Box - Megan Whalen Turner
The Special Powers of Blossom Culp - Richard Peck ( )

Teachers of middle school/junior high students will find this book highly useful for a quick read to their classes. The 23 stories range from comtemporary authors, such as Theodore Taylor and Avi, and well as revered classical authors, such as Washington Irving and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

This was an awesome book!
You just want to read it over and over again!
It has some of the best tales, but some are a little....boring and pointless, but just two.
But others are simply magical.
You'll love it!
I highly suggest you read it. ( )