Series ✦ Penny’s Take
Coming of Age in the 21st Century
Mary Frosch · 2008
70/100
👍 Worth It
Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz, Louise Erdrich, ZZ Packer — the contributor list alone earns this anthology serious attention, and Frosch's contextualizing introductions give it more shape than most classroom collections. Uneven by nature and requiring parental preview for younger teens given mature themes, but as a multicultural American lit sampler it delivers genuine literary value.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: mature sexual and LGBTQ+ identity themes in individual stories · strong language in some contributor pieces — parental preview advised for younger teens. We still scored it 70; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
📚 Buy the book ↗📱 Read on Kindle ↗🎧 Listen on Audible ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety62
substance76
craft78
originality70
accuracy75
hype72
age-fit65
human-eye74
Penny’s verdict70
Cross-pollinate