My True Love Gave To Me

Perkins, Stephanie, ed. My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories. New York, New York: St Martin's Griffin, 2014. Print.

Genre: Short Stories (realistic fiction and some fantasy)

Intended Audience: Ages 12 and older

Personal Reaction: I read this book alongside several others over the last week, taking in bits and pieces at a time to help prepare myself for the holiday season, finishing it on Thanksgiving.  There were stories taking place everywhere possible.  My favorite was in the North Pole with Natty, adopted by Santa, who has a crush on Flynn one of the elves written by Jenny Han.  Another featured Hanukkah, and a misfit student in college finding home over the Simpsons and latkes on the last day of Hanukkah.  Still others took place on New Years, giving hope and new starts to live.  

Each of these stories has a perfect fit in the collection as they all seem to have that feeling of hope-filled anticipation the holidays often bring.  Amid the longer novels I have been reading for this class and other homework that has been gracing itself with my time it was nice to have a reason for short breaks that I would not get hooked into reading for hours on end.  

Author (Editor) Facts: Stephanie Perkins is an author of teen fiction novels who lives in Ashville, North Carolina.  She counts as both editor and author for this book, as one of the short stories was by her, but she did the editing as well.  She and her husband live in a house that is nearly a hundred years old with many different colored rooms.  They have a cat named Mr. Tumnus. She used to be a librarian before becoming an author and believes stories should always have more kissing.  

Author (Editor) Website: http://www.stephanieperkins.com/books.html