The Downside to a Short Story by Sharon Flake

is that you wish that nearly ever short story was a full novel. That's the thing...Sharon Flake creates these really, really interesting, believable, unique characters and you want to know more and more and more about them! You Don't Even Know Me is a collection of poems and short stories about boys. I don't think of myself as a poem person, but man...these poems are terrific. They are all the things I never think poems are-- they make sense and they mean something. I find most poems to be really pretentious but when I find an author who writes poems that are beautiful and mean something, then I REALLY like that poet. Take Nikki Giovanni for example- AWESOME poet. Maya Angelou. FANTASTIC. If you haven't seen this, you need to watch it. It makes me cry. Beautiful. Anyway...I think I am off on another tangent.
Back to the way cool and brilliant Sharon Flake. The poems are so cool. Listen to a bunch of teens perform one here.
Like I said, the short stories...so intriguing that you will wish that you could keep reading about them. I guess it goes without saying that this book is a fast and fabulous read!