Realistic Fiction

The first part last.

Angela Johnson.

Realistic Fiction

This book is a winner of the Coretta Scott King award.

This book is about a 16 year old young man who has taken on the responsibility of raising a baby girl named Feather. The story takes place in urban New York and is focused on a teenager named Bobby. Bobby is trying to get a grip on his new reality, the fact that his is a teenage father. He is struggling with doing the right thing for Feather and still live the way he did before he became a father. Bobby has both of his parents in his life. His mom is more firm she holds on to the fact that he is the parent while he is dad is more understanding. The book is written in a way that flashes between present day, the daughter is there and the past, before her arrival. Angela Johnson keeps your attention because you never quite know where Feathers mother Nia, is. She is present in the THEN chapters but non existent in the NOW chapters. The author does some foreshadowing so you have to come up with your own theories about where Nia may be. Bobby is thrown a lot of curve balls at a young age your left wondering and wanting to know what happens to him and baby Feather? I'm rooting for them!

The book can be a little confusing at times with the flash back between chapters so I would recommend it to a high school crowd. The content is a little mature, some of the things said with a younger crowd it may go over there heads. I think a 15-18 year old would be able to read this book and possibly relate to Bobby..

The first part last definitely kept my interest because I am a fan of realistic fiction. I liked the way the author speaks in first person so you know exactly how Bobby is feeling. You can feel his pain, frustrations and understand his struggle with raising a newborn at 16. This book definitely tugged on my heart strings. Overall it sends out a good message to young people- Life Happens, how you deal with it is what matters.

The book cover the author uses is very attention grabbing. You see a young African American male holding this infant and I know I was curious to know what it was about. Bobby is a teen that made a mistake and is now dealing with the consequences I think it would be of interest to teens just to see how the story plays out.

This book gets my vote!