Like a banquet featuring a dish or two for every taste, Tim Wynne-Jones provides young readers with 20 short stories by contemporary Canadian writers, all originally published in the last 16 years. He cheerfully acknowledges that he didn’t approach this collection with any fixed idea about what makes a good story for boys, but rather selected pieces that he liked. However, his distinction and experience as both writer and editor make me inclined to trust his instincts.

Read in sequence, the stories explore the themes of wilderness survival, sports, and outdoor adventure you’d expect to find in a book called Boys’ Own, but the mood swings dramatically from sombre to hilarious, and many of the stories – even the funny ones – have a dark edge. Five stories were commissioned for this collection; the others include both self-contained stories from other collections, including fine works by Sarah Ellis, Martha Brooks, and Wynne-Jones himself, and excerpts from novels. The chilling description of the Dieppe raid from Monica Hughes’s Blaine’s Way stands well on its own, but some of the other excerpts, such as the opening one from a Julie Johnston novel, need more context in order to engage the reader. Brian Doyle’s “Pincher” is, not surprisingly, the outstanding piece, with a splendid twist at the end.

Wynne-Jones’s anthology makes a good effort to be inclusive and reflect the cultural diversity of Canadian society, with heroes like Amit and Rhan Van as well as Duncan and Jamie. Both stories by native authors are from the same collection, and although each contributes a dimension to this book – respectively, legend-making and animal narrative – I wish the editor had looked further to find stronger writing.

Penguin has paired this book with a similar collection entitled Girls’ Own, edited by Sarah Ellis, and both editors sensibly include a number of authors of the opposite sex. Although William Bell’s commissioned story for the boys’collection daringly features a girl protagonist, she’s a broody girl who spends the story cooking dinner and obsessing about her flat chest; she’s unfortunately unlikely to shatter any stereotypes. While a few stories are aimed at younger readers, many of Wynne-Jones’s selections are quite sophisticated, playing with the borderlines between reality and illusion, and confronting the malice and violence that young people experience at home, school, and in the community.

Wynne-Jones introduces each story with a paragraph that alerts readers to the trickier stories, such as Ellis’s spoof of the R.L. Stine genre, and gives an idea of what he finds particularly appealing about each writer. Whatever quibbles we might have with individual stories, Boys’ Own, like its fine companion piece, Girls’ Own, reminds us what a rich feast of writing is available for Canadian young people now.