I really liked where this was going. However, I just feel like she missed the mark of educating versus preaching. As this is a short book, there just needed to be more emphasis on how using plastic entirely is not realistic because of class status, disability, and location. Not once does she acknowledge those living in poverty and under lower-class statuses? They cannot just eliminate plastics out of their daily life. Not using plastic products is very much a privilege as is sustainability and Testa really missed the mark on that. I liked the initiative this book brought to teach teens they can be sustainable while not being voting age. However, this conversation needs to be addressed with disabled people in mind, too because plastic straws are a resource and necessity for disabled people. Thus, we cannot just eliminate them entirely. 

I received the Pocket Change Collective series from Penguin Teen. #PenguinTeenPartner 

This is a book everyone needs to read. It is so important and is a short and impactful guide for folks who want to get more involved in LGBTQ+ advocacy. Adam talks about the challenges he faced coming to terms with being a gay man and I really resonated with his story and pain. Though, I disagreed with using Allies in the LGBTQIA2S+ acronym.

One of my favorite quotes from this book was, "Up until this point, I had only experienced the negative parts of queerness. She assured me that once I experienced the positive parts, like joining a community to call my own, finding a partner, and celebrating Pride, I would love being gay". 

Really loved this and learned so much about Max as a player!

I was provided an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review for the Up All Night blog tour. All thoughts are my own. 

This was a solid short story collection and I was pleasantly surprised and very pleased with the majority of the stories! I ended up only giving one 3.5 stars to the first story Never Have I Ever because I really disliked the praise of cops.

My favorite stories that I gave 5 stars to were Nina LaCour's story, Julian Winters and Kathleen Glasgow.

I also enjoyed the inclusion in this collection with several non-binary characters just existing. But, I did want to see more trans characters than just non-binary characters! I wanted to see myself represented in one of the stories and that fell short for me. 

I really liked how each author took this prompt and wrote a story for it. They were all such creative settings like Brandy Colbert's story that took place at a dance marathon! 

Highly recommend this collection. But, do look out for the content warnings because in my ARC copy, CWs weren't provided and some of the stories had hard topics and I definitely needed that warning. 

Menstruation scene was super triggering.