One in every crowd : stories

After getting my hands on One in Every Crowd the day it was made available at the public library, I brought it home and curled up on my couch to read it. I'm a big Ivan fan, so I really wanted to love this book.

The introduction started off great - is a letter to the kid Ivan was. It's sweet,

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funny, sad, and poignant, as you would expect from Coyote. The book is organized into sections based on themes (childhood, family, lessons, etc) and these are helpful to the reader.

As I got deeper into the book, I found myself increasingly disappointed. Many of the stories were previously published in Ivan's previous books or columns for Xtra West. The odd new gem was included - I particularly liked the update on Francis - but for the most part the book felt repackaged. I skimmed a great deal of these older stories, as I just finished reading "Loose Ends" last week.

It wasn't until near the end, in the "Kids I Met" section that the book came together and I started thinking this was another marvellous Coyote work. Ivan has several stories about bullying, visiting schools, and why she feels it's so important to get into schools and speak. Collectively, they send a strong message to readers about stepping up and opposing bullying, and to do their best to make the world safer for people of all kinds.

While the repeated stories irked me at first, I think that in an anthology that's aimed at young adults, the republished pieces were important. They help form a cohesive package, divided into different sections, and are aimed at kids who might not have read all of Coyote's other books. The stories are worth re-reading.

As a stand-alone book for readers who have had limited exposure to Coyote, I'm giving this a 4.5. For people familiar with Ivan's work, however, I'd drop my rating to a 3.5 due to lack of fresh content.

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