"The shore of a lake is a place of reflection," Kevin Kling writes in the introduction to "Sky Blue Water." It's also a place to sink into, to "dive down through the layers" of memory and meaning.
For the 18 writers of this young-adult anthology, all of whom have Minnesota ties, water holds secrets and reveals histories. It's a place of family bonds, mystery and malevolent spirits.
The collection was put together to raise money for the Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute, a tutoring and writing center based in St. Paul, and its teaching roots are clearly visible in the writing prompts at the end of the book. It had been slated to be released in September, but an editing error caused the University of Minnesota Press to recall the finished book, re-edit the sentence in question and reissue the book this month.
(The edit changed one of Kling's sentences from "It is believed that the Vikings navigated from the Atlantic to Minnesota over a hundred years before Columbus" to this: "Some believe that the Vikings navigated from the Atlantic Ocean to Minnesota more than a hundred years before Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas." That entire paragraph is gone from the new edition.)
One of the pleasures of this anthology is the chance to see several well-known YA novelists working in shorter forms. Another is the range of voices — and themes — in the collection, all linked loosely through the metaphor of water.
In the opening story, William Alexander's "The War Between the Water and the Road," the water is a drained lake, a metaphor that reflects an inner war fought by Oliver, the 8-year-old protagonist. Oliver decides to "visit justice" on those who drained the lake, but finds himself in a slippery battle of grudges, scorekeeping and truth.
Water is even more elusive in Anne Ursu's "Max Swings for the Fences," as Max, a smart, neurotic sixth-grader, spins a lie that grows out of control when he arrives at a new middle school in February.
Max has a laserlike sense of his vulnerability as a newcomer, but he can't help falling for Molly, a baseball star with emerald eyes, "hair like a mermaid" and changeable moods.
A river in Laos, an ocean and a city swamp connect two friends in memoirist Kao Kalia Yang's "We Were Boys Together." Tou and the narrator, both 9, hunt frogs in a wetland outside their St. Paul housing project and trade stories about their fathers' lives in Laos. Although they are far from the war that splintered their families, the secrets of the past prove to be a heavy burden.
Marcie Rendon's "Worry and Wonder" name-checks Lake Calhoun and Wabun picnic area in Minneapolis, as Amy, who is stuck in foster care, waits to be reunited with her father. Her journey ends with an Ojibwe ceremony that celebrates healing and connection on the Mississippi's shores.
"Sky Blue Water" also takes readers to fish houses on rural lakes, city lakes with tennis courts, fishing lakes, blueberry-picking lakes, Lake Superior and Rainy Lake on Minnesota's border with Canada.
Stories by the state's YA heavy-hitters, including Pete Hautman, John Coy and Margi Preus; newer voices such as Shannon Gibney, Swati Avasthi and Kelly Barnhill, and a roster of others round out a collection that offers plenty to discuss with young readers.
Trisha Collopy is a Star Tribune copy editor.
Sky Blue Water: Great Stories for Young Readers
Edited by: Jay D. Peterson and Collette A. Morgan.
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 240 pages, $19.95.
