Powerful, riveting, real. Sixteen celebrated authors bring us raw, insightful stories that explore guns and teens in a fiction collection that is thought provoking and emotionally gripping. For fans of Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and Give a Boy a Gun, and with an array of YA talent like the late great Walter Dean Myers, the poetic Joyce Carol Oates, the prophetic Elizabeth Wein, and the gritty Chris Crutcher, these are evocative voices that each has a different perspective to give. Capturing the hurt and the healing, victims and perpetrators, these stories get to the heart of the matter. From a boy whose low self-esteem is impacted when a gun comes into his possession to a student recalling a senseless tragedy that befell a favorite teacher, from a realistic look at hunting to a provocative look at a family that defies stereotypes, each emotional story stirs the debate to new levels. The juxtaposition of guns and their consequences offers moving tales, each a reminder of how crucial the question of guns in our society is, and the impact they have on all of us. Other acclaimed contributors are Marc Aronson, Edward Averett, Francesca Lia Block, Alex Flinn, Gregory Galloway, Jenny Hubbard, Peter Johnson, Ron Koertge, Chris Lynch, Eric Shanower, Will Weaver, and Tim Wynne-Jones.

Even if I wanted to die for someone, it wouldn't be that easy. They just keep dying for me. Something is happening to Charlotte Emerson. Like the fires that are ravaging the hills of L.A., it consumes her from the inside out. Something to do with the tear in her enviably perfect nails. The way she feels when she's with the brooding, magnetic Jared. The blood rushing once again to her cheeks and throughout her veins. For Charlotte is a vampire, witness to almost a century's worth of death and destruction. But not since she was a human girl has mortality touched her. Until now.

Izzy Ames lives with her high school sweetheart, Cyrus Rivera, in the Salton Sea. They cling to each other and to their close friends Nephy and Seth to cope with the trauma of their pasts. Until the morning Izzy awakes to find Cyrus has vanished. When she realizes no one will help, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and decides to search for Cyrus alone. After weeks of looking for him, she discovers a clue that leads her to the House of Hearts retreat center run by the mysterious Sky. At House of Hearts, Izzy meets an intriguing musician named Ever Fontana and for a moment she is able to forget the pain of her past. But when new clues about Cyrus' disappearance surface, Izzy must go down into the dark to find the truth. Izzy's quest will take her into a world of sexuality, madness, and violence, where she will discover life-changing secrets not only about Cyrus but, ultimately, about herself.

With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out.

Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place.

A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse.

And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand more than men.

Within these singular, timeless landscapes, the brutal and the magical collide, and the heroine triumphs because of the strength she finds in a pen, a paintbrush, a lover, a friend, a mother, and finally, in herself.

Best Children's Books 2000 (PW)
Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)

An emotionally-charged and wistful novel of friendship, intimacy and longing from the author of 'Weetzie Bat'. After enduring, from afar, a seemingly endless series of worldwide disasters while living in LA, a bereft Katrina experiences deep inner longings for some sense of permanence, meaning and intimacy.

Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, gathers together three of her most enchanting books into one volume. Retelling age-old fairytales and Classical myths, this collection captures the best Block has to offer: extravagantly imaginative tales, dark landscapes, fierce poetry, and storytelling that is nothing short of magical.

Psyche in a Dress is told in free verse. A contemporary retelling of several Greek myths rolled together, it is set in California in a world where Aphrodite owns a dress shop and Orpheus is a rock musician.

Echo is a prose reimagining of the stories of Echo and Narcissus. It stars a Hollywood girl who goes on a quest for love and along the way comes across angels, vampires, and fairies.

The Rose and the Beast is a collection of nine short stories which put a modern and original spin on fairytales such as Snow White, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Rose Red and Rose White, and others.

Roses and Bones was praised by VOYA as "a vivid and sensual ride." And each book in this evocative collection received multiple starred reviews, including one from Kirkus which proclaimed "Block uses language like a jeweled sword, glittering as it cuts to the heart."

From the beloved author of Necklace of Kisses comes a modern-day fairy tale of a willful and intuitive heroine and a world of shocking realism and transcendent magic. Francesca Lia Block, this time with co-writer Carmen Staton, introduces readers to Ruby, a Midwestern girl named for the jewel that is believed to ward off evil spirits. Ruby's special gift is a sixth sense that makes her at one with nature and gives her the ability to know her own destiny. After growing up in an abusive family, Ruby escapes to Los Angeles and learns of her soulmate -- Orion -- a British actor. She travels to England, where she works at a potions and herbs shop, and through a series of coincidental circumstances, ends up nursing Orion back to health without confessing that she has been on a quest to find him all along. But just when she thinks her dream is becoming a reality, Ruby is stopped in her tracks by the violent demons of her past. Only by facing the darkness together can she and Orion finally fulfill their destiny. As with Necklace of Kisses, Block, here with Staton, breaks the mold. In Ruby, readers will find a story about the power of our minds to overcome the past and ultimately change the course of our lives.

Pink Smog, the long-awaited prequel to Francesca Lia Block's groundbreaking novel Weetzie Bat, was praised as "an intoxicating mix of mystery, fantasy, and romance" by ALA Booklist in a starred review. Weetzie Bat is one of the seminal young adult novels of the '90s and continues to be an iconic treasure for teens everywhere. Now Pink Smog reintroduces a whole new generation to the eponymous Weetzie Bat--before she was Weetzie. Against the backdrop of a Los Angeles teeming with magical realism, Louise Bat struggles to find a way to deal with life after her father's unceremonious departure.

Longtime fans and newfound readers alike will fall in love with Francesca Lia Block's beautifully crafted and brutally honest world. Maggie Stiefvater, New York Times bestselling author of The Raven Boys, proclaimed "Pink Smog sparkles and obscures; it's a glorious mirage, like the city it pays homage to."

Extras in this paperback edition include "The Girl in the Pink Pinto," an essay about the inspiration for Weetzie Bat, the official Pink Smog playlist, an excerpt from Francesca Lia Block's next novel, and more

For devotees of Bird by Bird and The Artist's Way, a memoir-driven guide to healing through the craft of writing A cinematic exploration of the writing life by Francesca Lia Block, the bestselling author of the Weetzie Bat series of magical-realism novels, The Thorn Necklace offers visceral insights and healing exercises for the writer who creates as a way to process pain and adversity. Gently guiding the reader down the write-to-heal path, Block offers guideposts of awareness for writers, such as how to find a muse, channeling agony into art, putting chaos into order, ignoring the inner critic, fostering personal perseverance, and thriving as an artist in a troubled world. The author also addresses the intrinsic value of channeling our experiences into the written word and provides compassionate support to the reader for his or her own write-to-heal process.

But this is what
I could not give up:
I could not give up myself

Psyche has known Love--scented with jasmine and tasting of fresh oranges. Yet he is fleeting and fragile, lost to her too quickly. Punished by self-doubt, Psyche yearns to be transformed, like the beautiful and brutal figures in the myths her lover once spoke of. Attempting to uncover beauty in the darkness, she is challenged, tested, and changed by the gods and demons who tempt her. Her faith must be found again, for if she is to love, she must never look back.

Seventeen-year-old Penelope (Pen) has lost everything--her home, her parents, and her ten-year-old brother. Like a female Odysseus in search of home, she navigates a dark world full of strange creatures, gathers companions and loses them, finds love and loses it, and faces her mortal enemy.

In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm of "Love in the Time of Global Warming" is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.

From a star YA writer Francesca Lia Block, author of the "Weetzie Bat" books, comes an adult novel about a student, haunted by the disappearance of a friend, who must face the truth "The Elementals" is on one level an intriguing coming-of-age novel about a young woman, Ariel Silverman, facing the challenges of her first years away at college in Berkeley, California, while her mother battles cancer at home in Los Angeles. But the book takes on deeper, stranger meanings when we realize that Ariel is haunted by the disappearance of her best friend, Jeni, who vanished without a trace a few years before, closing Ariel's heart and changing her forever. Ariel wonders if she will ever be fully alive, until she meets three mysterious, beautiful and seductive young people living in a strange old house in the Berkeley hills. Through them Ariel will unravel the mystery of her best friend's disappearance and face a chilling choice.

Where are the kisses?

Weetzie Bat wondered. When her relationship with Secret Agent Lover Man turns cold, the forty-year-old post-punk pixie packs up, jumps into her mint-green '65 Thunderbird, and leaves to take refuge in L.A.'s enchanted Pink Hotel&#8212with its blue-skinned receptionist, invisible cleaning lady, seductive faun, and sushi-eating mermaid who gives Weetzie the first kiss that sets the wheel of self-discovery spinning madly in motion. Though she faces some very adult problems, anything is still possible in Weetzie's world&#8212angels, magic . . . even true love.