James Joyce once wrote, "If you have had a childhood you have experienced enough to be able to write stories for the rest of your life."The truth in what Joyce wrote is evident in this book. Every short story was inspired by a person, place or event during the author's childhood in Ash Grove, Mo. Some stories could nearly be considered autobiographical. Stories in this books were written between 1982 and 2012 and cover topics like running, life and death, heart ache and challenges that teenagers often face.