A treasury of short stories about young people, written by some of the world's best writers. This volume of sixteen stories written by some of the world's best writers--including three Nobel Prize winners--will transport readers to all parts of the globe to meet kindred spirits in other cultures on their journeys to adulthood. In Heinrich Bll's "The Balek Scales," a young German boy heroically tries to redress the centuries of injustice in his village. In Yasunari Kawabata's "The Jay," a girl's interest in a mother jay separated from her young becomes a metaphor for her own estrangement from her father. Set during the Pinochet regime in Chile, "The Composition" by Antonio Skrmeta is the story of a boy who resists betraying his parents through a routine school assignment. In Jamaica Kincaid's "To the Jetty," a teenage girl embarks on her first journey away from her island home of Antigua and into the wider world. Also included are stories by Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), Toni Cade Bambara (United States), Italo Calvino (Italy), Anita Desai (India), Elizabeth Jolley (Australia), Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt), Frank O'Connor (Ireland), V. S. Pritchett (England), Valentin Rasputin (Russia), Cora Sandel (Norway), and Xiao Hong (China). An introduction and lengthy biographical notes provide context and give insight into the lives of the authors.