The Collectors: Stories

Written by M. T. Anderson, e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, A.S. King and David Levithan

Narrated by A.S. King, Becca Q. Co, Frankie Corzo and 7 more

From Michael L. Printz Award winner A.S. King and an all-star team of contributors including Anna-Marie McLemore and Jason Reynolds, an anthology of stories about remarkable people and their strange and surprising collections.

From David Levithan’s story about a non-binary kid collecting pieces of other people’s collections to Jenny Torres Sanchez's tale of a girl gathering types of fire while trying not to get burned to G. Neri's piece about 1970's skaters seeking opportunities to go vertical—anything can be collected and in the hands of these award-winning and bestselling authors, any collection can tell a story. Nine of the best YA novelists working today have written fiction based on a prompt from Printz-winner A.S. King (who also contributes a story) and the result is itself an extraordinary collection.


* This program includes a downloadable pdf which contains the fully illustrated story, "Museum of Misery" by Cory McCarthy from the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9780593790946

M. T. Anderson

M. T. Anderson is the critically acclaimed author of many picture books and novels, including Feed, which was a National Book Award finalist, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing,, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party, which won a National Book Award and was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars, some of these stories were excellent and some were sad or confusing or too brief. I like the idea of a collection about collections/collectors, and I think the theme was pulled through all of them nicely.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mixed bag, of course. If I were a teen, and more into 'dark' than I am, I'd probably have a bunch of new authors to add to my to-read lists. As is, um, I guess not, based on the titles of the other works by the ones who wrote the stories I liked. Sorry for so vague.

[electrascaife · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A curation of short stories, all by YA authors and all set within the parameters set by the editor: make it about a collection of some sort, and make it weird. Most hold up to both requirements, some more than others. I generally don’t enjoy short story collections, but this one wasn’t bad, and there are a couple of real gems in here.

[oldandnewbooksmell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Collectors is an anthology of stories by well known young adult authors about characters and their strange collections.

I haven’t really reviewed an anthology of stories from different authors before, so here’s my doing my best.

Play House: Took me a minute to get into it, but then enjoyed it.

The White Savior Does Not Save the Day: This was okay for me - it delivered a well written story, but I don’t know how I feel about it still, even two days after reading it.

Take It From Me: I can still actively “see” scenes from this story even now. The banana stickers on the wall, the locked box of doubts - it was a vivid story.

Ring of Fire: Metaphor about grief, but was kind of left confused a little at the end.

Museum of Misery: Impactful. A big punch with little words but pictures said everything.

La Concha: I couldn’t always follow this one. I felt like there were some big pieces missing from it.

Pool Bandits: One of my favorites just because of the length these boys went to to skate. My partner is a skater and I understand that culture a lot.

We Are Looking For Home: Another story I didn’t quite understand and even in the end, I don’t know what it was about??

A Recording for Carole Before It All Goes: This was beautiful and heartwarming. I feel like everyone nowadays possibly knows someone who has Dementia or Alzheimer's. My grandmother had dementia and just passed away at the beginning of this month and these stories will always make me think of her.

Sweet Everlasting: A crazy and kind of scary concept of being stuck in the “moment they wish could last forever”

The ones I loved: Take It from Me / David Levithan, Pool Bandits / G. Neri, A Recording for Carole Before It All Goes / Jason Reynolds, and Sweet Everlasting / M.T. Anderson

Overall, there were some wonderful and great stories, and others that I just couldn’t get into - doesn’t mean they weren’t good and others wouldn’t enjoy them though!

*Thank you Dutton Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for a digital advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review