Short story collections at this level are scarce, and when a good one … does appear on a YA list it often seems to have wound up there by default…. [Mazer's stories in Dear Bill, Remember Me?] are clearly broadcast on a young teenager's wavelength, with the signal unobtrusively amplified as in good YA novels; and just as clearly, Mazer appreciates the short story form, with its narrow focus and spotlit moments, where others might do up the same material as diluted novels. Except for "Zelzah," a resilient immigrant of "long ago," these are sympathetic views of ordinary, contemporary girls and their relationships with mothers and new boyfriends. In the funniest, and shrewdest, a socially insecure girl ends up carrying limburger cheese all through her first date…. Elsewhere a thirteen-year-old breaks free of the loving protection of her mother, aunt, and grandmother; a working class teenager discovers her bouncy...