Common Sense Note
The subject is teen parents, from the boy's point of view, and it's not glamorized. But the attitude toward the underage sex that caused it is casual, as shown when Bobby and Nia have sex again after she becomes pregnant. Nevertheless, it's a realistic look at being a teen parent.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
Johnson manages here a delicate balancing act: she doesn't gloss over the difficulties of teen parenting, but she also highlights the joy and love that are just as much a part of raising a baby as diapers and lack of sleep.
Bobby, the only fleshed-out character in the story, is an unusually sweet teen, fully open to the emotions of fatherhood, and willing to do whatever it takes to do the right thing. His family -- divorced parents and older brother -- are all kind and understanding, though unwilling to remove any of the burden from his shoulders. This may make the whole situation seem a bit unreal, but it does focus the reader's attention on the problems that come with the territory, rather than any trumped up by the author for the sake of conflict. It's a simple, gentle way of dealing with a complicated, difficult issue.
From the Book
I've been thinking about it. Everything. And when Feather opens her eyes and looks up at me, I already know there's a change. But I figure if the world were really right, humans would live life backwards and do the first part last. They'd be all knowing in the beginning and innocent in the end.
Then everybody could end their life on the momma or daddy's stomach in a warm room, waiting for the soft morning light.
Plot Summary:
Award-winning author Johnson trains her poetic prose on two secondary characters from her previous novel, Heaven.
In alternating Now and Then chapters, 16-year-old Bobby tells about his girlfriend, Nia's, pregnancy, and his life as sole parent of their baby daughter, Feather, after he refuses to give her up for adoption. He relates his feelings of love and exhaustion, and of missing his childhood and friends, who don't really understand him anymore.
Related Books:
Other Books by Angela Johnson
Toning the Sweep
Songs of Faith
Heaven: a Novel
When I Am Old With You
Looking for Red
Other Books About Teen Parents
Lucy Peale by Colby Rodowsky
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Flour Babies by Anne Fine
Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentA somewhat graphic sex scene after Nia is pregnant. |
 |
|
 |
|
Violence |
|
|
|
|
LanguageSwearing typical of teens. |
|
|
|
|
Message |
|
 |
|
|
Social BehaviorTeen sex. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Commercialism |
|
|
|
|
Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco |
|
|
|
|
