Short Stories Draw You Quickly Into Plot

When you have 15 minutes of free time, what do you do? The perfect indulgence, while also enriching your brain, is a short story. They are fun, fast and enjoyable.

Short stories are great time fillers. Waiting for a ride, the last few minutes before you fall asleep and a break in the middle of class are a few of the opportunities to read a story. They’re good for readers who have a difficult time starting books because they quickly pull you into the plot.

I have read a couple of books filled with short stories. Here’s a run-down.

In “Athletic Shorts,” Chris Crutcher takes realistic teen problems and has the characters deal with them as normal teens would. In one story, “The Other Pin,” Pete Shropshire has to wrestle Chris Byers, who is almost undefeated, to win the league championship. Pete has to drop his weight lower than he has ever done before, and wrestle someone whom his friends dread to compete against. After meeting Chris Byers at the mall, he confronts her with his fears and misgivings. This difficult situation turns into a great comedy, as Pete is honest with himself and opponent while willing to be humiliated.

“Dancing Pink Flamingos and Other Short Stories” is another book of real-life situation stories. Characters in Maria Testa’s stories have to deal with violence, crime, harassment and bleak futures. All of them leave you hanging, giving you time to think about the story.

Traditional tales become twisted inside and out in this unique book, “Stories from Brother Grimm and Sister Weird” by Vivian Vande Velde. In the story “Rated PG-13,” the emperor orders executions for everybody who has seen him naked, and the ugly duckling grows up into a beautiful swan who pecks his childhood tormentors to death. These stories are really interesting and pretty weird.