HOW THEY MET, AND OTHER STORIES

Levithan, a YA author and children’s-book editor, created 12 of the 14 stories collected here as Valentine’s Day presents to family and friends. Fittingly, each is a story about love—between brothers, between man and wife, two boys, two girls or one of each. In “Skipping Prom,” Kelly and her boyfriend do just what the title implies and lie in a field telling each other what they think is happening at the Prom, all the while feeling the weight of the certainty that their relationship is coming to an end. In “Alumni Interview,” Ian must sit for a college-entrance interview with the father of his closeted boyfriend. No one leaves the room unscathed. Some, like the title story, are about how lovers meet, and others, like “Miss Lucy Had a Steamboat,” are about painful but necessary breakups. Teens and older young adults will find themselves here and likely learn a little about that many-splendored emotion. (Fiction. YA)