Wink

Young Adult Tales that Wink at Classic Children's Books

Clever and pithy children's classics turned upside-down, WINK is a true delight. Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of Damsel. Fifteen young adult contemporary fantasy and science fiction tales that wink at classic works of children's literature. Featuring stories by: James Aquilone, Kendare Blake, Leah Cypess, Stacia Deutsch, David Gerrold, Tara Gilboy, Henry Herz, Nancy Holder, Alethea Kontis, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Wulf Moon, Henry Neff, Alex Shvartsman, Maggie Stiefvater.

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More for kids than young adults

The assignment was to write a short story that winked at famous children’s tales. The source material varied widely, from The Hobbit and Velveteen Rabbit to Sesame Street and Harold and the Purple Crayon. If I wasn’t told, at the end of each short, which famous tale was being winked at, I wouldn’t have guessed the majority of these.

Because of the summary, I went into this expected a YA tone, however, nearly all of these were more childish. There’s barely Goosebumps level scares, no sex, no harsh language, and only fairy tale level violence. Each of the 16 shorts was labeled by title/author. There were only a handful of shorts that I found engaging, such as Precious Treasure by Wulf Moon or Chloe’s Cabin by Tara Gilboy. I’m not sure any of them topped the original.