Dubbed the "Godfather of YA short stories" by Chris Crowe in the English Journal, Don Gallo has edited numerous award-winning anthologies dealing with themes from the moral development of teenagers to athletics and multiculturalism. His groundbreaking Sixteen inaugurated Gallo's interest in YA short story collections as well as the popular use of that format for younger readers. The book gathered the writings of well-known authors such as Robert Cormier and Richard Peck and ultimately found a place on the American Library Association's (ALA) Best of the Best Books for Young Adults published between 1966 and 1986. In books such as Visions, Connections, Short Circuits, Join In, Ultimate Sports, and No Easy Answers, Gallo has continued this winning formula of collecting the shorter writings of popular YA novelists and writers to present engaging anthologies.

Born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1938, Gallo was one of those reluctant readers at whom his anthologies...