Ten short stories told in the first-person voices of young African-American teenagers deal with the emotional ups and downs they encounter in their day-to-day dealings with the opposite sex. Readers get inside each narrator’s head, witnessing all the heart poundings and heartaches, the bickering and bullying that goes on in these character’s lives in their search for love and validation. Some stories are particularly gut-wrenching: for example, the young girl who completely gives up her identity to please the undeserving boy she has a crush on in “So I Ain’t No Good Girl.” But all are painfully realistic and true to the middle-school voice, something that distinguishes all of Sharon G. Flake’s writing. (Ages 11–14)