single father

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction, YA

Challenge: A-Z (author)

Review: It gives nothing about this book away to say up front that it's about a single father in high school raising his brand new daughter. Johnson alternates the action forward and backward from the birth of the child, showing Bobby's struggles caring for an infant, and also giving brief glimpses of how things went when Nia was pregnant.

By itself, it's a touching but realistic story of two students with promising futures that suddenly give way to parenthood because of one mistake. But for me, the story really came down to the question of why Bobby was raising the baby. This question is answered toward the end of the book, and to reveal that really would give the whole thing away.

effective verse

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: YA

Review: I had a bit of trouble with this book at first. It's written in verse, which is not my favorite style. But once I got used to it, I found it to be an very effective technique. The uneven rhythm and stark language help to underscore the tension inherent in the story between those who are able to see beyond the walls of the projects and those who have a harder time of it.

teenage love

That Night by Alice McDermott
Genre: fiction
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Review: I've enjoyed other books my McDermott, especially Child of My Heart. And I have no problem with a future narrator; in fact, I thought McDermott did a great job alternating the voice of the narrator as a 10-year old and as an adult. But this book lacked something, I'm not quite sure what. It's a nicely told story, but I was left asking the question, "Why was I told this story?" It sort of felt like someone started telling me a story, but lost their train of thought in the middle, or forgot why they were telling me.