"[In a novel] you can be more careless, you can put more trash in it and be excused for it. In a short story that's next to the poem, almost every word has got to be exactly right. In the novel you can be careless but in the short story you can't."
William Faulkner
The same goes for songs and children's books--every word counts. That's why it drives me crazy when people who don't know anything about writing think they can write children's books.
ANYWAY,
Here are some of my favorite books of short stories:
Bauer, Marion Dane. Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
Houston, Pam. Cowboys are my Weakness: Stories. New York: Norton, 1992
Berg, Elizabeth. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation.New York: Random House, 2008.
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
