From Amazon: You’re waiting for the postman--he’s bringing your A level results. University, a career as a journalist--a glittering future lies ahead. But when the doorbell rings it’s your old girlfriend; and she’s carrying a baby. You’re fine to look after it, for an hour or two, while she does some shopping. Then she doesn’t come back and your future suddenly looks very different.
From Me: I think this is the first title I’ve read that tackles the issue of teenage pregnancy from the father’s POV and it does it very well. I know it’s the first Blackman I’ve read (whenever I’ve thought about Noughts & Crosses it just hasn’t been on the shelf) but it won’t be my last.
Told alternately from the POV of Dante, 17 and with his life planned out and younger brother Adam, casual and seemingly carefree, it’s clever, insightful and oh so real – teenage pregnancy, abortion, homosexuality, death of a parent, suicide – there are a lot of topics in this book but they are covered very well, and very competently. There is also a lot of joy – I am assuming Blackman is a mother herself as the way she describes the overwhelming feelings of happiness and completeness that you can feel from just a simple thing – your child’s smile – is spot on, as are the descriptions of the despair that being so bloody tired from caring for a baby can bring on.
Five stars easily. Read it.
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