Familiar faces and settings return in Chris Crutcher's most recent work, which is a collection of three short stories. This time, he has brought back some favorite secondary characters to give them a chance to resolve some of the issues they were confronted with in earlier novels.

The first piece focuses on Sarah Byrnes from Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. She was the teen who had bad burns on her face from an incident with her father when she was younger. She is now getting a chance to try and reconnect with the mother who abandoned her years back, with the help of a new friend.

Then, there is the interestingly named Montana Wild, first introduced in The Sledding Hill. She likes to write cutting edge stories for her school newspaper, but they tend to be a little too edgy for the administration so they are usually cut. To make things more interesting, her father is the conservative chair of the local school committee. After an article about medical marijuana is on the chopping block and her foster sister is being returned by her parents, she decides that enough is enough and fights back.

Finally, we are introduced to Marcus James, who lives a small northwestern town readers first visited in Whaletalk. Those who have been there before will remember that sports are king and the community is not exactly open to minorities. Well, Marcu is gay and black, leaving him with a big target on his back. When someone hangs a pink noose on his locker at school, the administration is unsure of how to handle the problem. Matt Miller, a star wrestler who is strong in his faith, decides to step up and name those who did the crime, but he is not really ready for what happens in response.

The tales are presented as if they were notes from a report by Mr, Nakatani, a guidance counselor who ran an anger management therapy group in Ironman. He is the perfect choice, because the underlying theme in all of the stories is anger ... what causes it, what it causes us to do, and what it doesn't let us do.

As with most of Crutcher's books, the stories are filled with the edgy reality found in the lives of many of today's teens. They speak and act like real teens, which is what has made him one of the greats of the modern YA novel. The characters and situations are somewhat familiar, which makes visiting them a warm experience until the reader joins them in the harsh realities of their situations.

The only problem I have with the book is that it can be a little heavy at times with the message in each story. Rather than allow the reader to connect the dots on his own, Crutcher uses the thoughts or voices of his characters to beat the message in, almost with a hammer. The lack of subtlety detracts from the story and their message because of the blunt preachiness evident. While I whole-heartedly agree with the messages involved, they could have been presented with more finesse. Even with this problem, it is definitely worth the read even if only to reconnect with favorites. Those unfamiliar with the characters should have no trouble catching up, either.