Pregnancy Books

Someone Like You

Sarah Dessen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 219 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Another Hit 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Love this book. Sarah Dessen is one talented writer. The story is captivating, truthful, and realistic. Funny, sad, and all together great!

Perfect book for you 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Have you ever had a friend who cared so much about you and would do anything for you? Well that's what the relationship between the main character (Halley) and her best friend (Scarlett).
Halley and Scarlett have been best friends since Elementary School, and now they are teenagers struggling through high school. With Halley getting a new boyfriend and the death of Scarlett's boyfriend there is a lot of drama surrounding the town of Lakeview. But there is quite a surprise that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This realistic-fiction book will take you for a full roller coaster ride.
I thought this book was good. It wasn't a book that you knew what was going to happen. It wasn't too wordy where your tongue would get twisted; there were enough words for you to visualize and not overwhelm you. I would recommend this book for young adults. It has situations that teens deal with today and I think they would make a good connection with the book. I also liked that the book was a good length, it wasn't too short or too long. It was just right.
The only thing I didn't like about the book was the summary on the back of the book. It gave away too much information, which ended up ruining the big surprise of the book. So if you were to read the book, which I highly recommend, then don't read the back of the book you will enjoy it more.
Overall I thought Sarah Dessen did a good job writing the book. So if you're a teeny bopper looking for a good book to read then read Someone Like You!

Editorial Review:

Halley has always followed in the wake of her best friend, Scarlett. But when Scarlett learns that her boyfriend has been killed in a motorcycle accident, and that she's carrying his baby, she's devastated. For the first time ever, Scarlett really needs Halley. Though their friendship may be tested by the strain, like a true friendship, it will endure.

Slam

Nick Hornby

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Hornby's still got it 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Nick Hornby is the only author that continues to meet my now high expectation when I read one of his books. If you are a fan of any of his previous work then you will definitely enjoy SLAM; if you are not, this might be the one that makes you a fan and makes you want to read the others.

The story moves along at a very good pace, I didn't want to put this book down the whole time that I was reading. The editing here is brilliant since there is no "throwaway chapter" every single page fits within the story and doesn't feel like fluff at any point.

Editorial Review:

The #1 New York Times bestseller now in paperback.

For 16-year-old Sam, life is about to get extremely complicated. He and his girlfriend—make that ex-girlfriend— Alicia have gotten themselves into a bit of trouble. Sam is suddenly forced to grow up and struggle with the familiar fears and inclinations that haunt us all.

Nick Hornby’s poignant and witty novel shows a rare and impressive understanding of human relationships and what it really means to be a man.

Impossible

Nancy Werlin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Hooked by the description 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I loved the description of this book. An ancient curse by an Elf King, a teenage pregnancy and three impossible tasks that must be completed to break the curse or go insane. However, I was disappointed with the book. The book is really about the pregnancy of the main character Lucy and her relationships with her mother, step-parents, and childhood friend, Zach. I kept waiting for an adventure and there really was none. The tasks really don't enter the story until about midway through and even then they are just a backdrop to Lucy's relationships. This book was just o.k. for me.

Editorial Review:

Lucy has nine months to break an ancient curse in order to save both herself and her unborn daughter.

Inspired by the ballad “Scarborough Fair,” this riveting novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance for an intensely page-turning and masterfully original tale.

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child’s birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won’t be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?

Passport2Purity (Book & CD Set)

Dennis Rainey, Barbara Rainey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A True Connection product. Box with four audiocassettes, 64-page student guide, 88-page parent manual, gold seals, and commemorative passport.

Connect with your preteen or early teen on this once-in-a-lifetime getaway!

Parents, how would you like a workable plan and effective tools to successfully prepare a preteen or early teen for the turbulent adolescent years? This guided weekend retreat for a father and son or a mother and daughter will:

Provide everything needed for a once-in-a-lifetime getaway together.

Help you confidently and effortlessly share the "birds 'n' bees" talk.

Prepare your child to make wise, biblical choices about friendships, growing to sexual maturity, moral purity, and relationships with the opposite sex.

Grab your child's attention with drama, sound effects, upbeat music, and creative object lessons.

Use Passport to Purity to open the door to adulthood. Establish a foundation of openness and trust which will last a lifetime!

The First Part Last

Angela Johnson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 83 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Heartbreaking Story 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I think the title of this review says it all. Angela Johnson's "The First Part Last" broke my heart. I deliberately read through this thin volume slowly as to make my time with the characters last. The result was me laying in bed in tears, almost borderline at doing the "ugly cry," about the plight of Bobby and his beautiful daughter Feather. Johnson does an excellent job of creating characters that are both uncompromising and richly drawn. It is one of the best books I have ever read.

A Teenager's Review. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I've read other reviews, and how this book should be read by all teens. No kidding. I am seventeen years old (only one year older than Bobby-the main character) and finished reading this book the same day I borrowed it from my English teacher. What a great book. I have a hard time putting into words how much better and more in touch with reality I felt after finishing this book.

Like most males my age, I feel like Superman, and say "Oh that would never happen to me" when subjects like teen pregnancy are brought to my attention. I realize after reading this book my arrogance has only crippled me and made me less prepared to take on the reality that is life. I don't think I could ever go through the events that take place in "The First Part Last" and ended up respecting the character Bobby as the man he wasn't at all prepared to be in the beginning of the story.

I am ready to recommend this book to just about every single one of my friends and family members.

Editorial Review:

Bobby's a classic urban teenager. He's restless. He's impulsive. But the thing that makes him different is this: He's going to be a father. His girlfriend, Nia, is pregnant, and their lives are about to change forever. Instead of spending time with friends, they'll be spending time with doctors, and next, diapers. They have options: keeping the baby, adoption. They want to do the right thing.

If only it was clear what the right thing was.

November Blues

Sharon M. Draper

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

When November Nelson loses her boyfriend, Josh, to a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong, she thinks her life can't possibly get any worse. But Josh left something behind that will change November's life forever, and now she's faced with the biggest decision she could ever imagine. How in the world will she tell her mom? And how will Josh's parents take the news? She's never needed a friend more.

Jericho Prescott lost his best friend when he lost his cousin, Josh, and the pain is almost more than he can bear. His world becomes divided into "before" and "after" Josh's death. He finds the only way he can escape the emptiness he feels is to quit doing the things that made him happy when his cousin was alive, such as playing his beloved trumpet, and take up football, where he hopes the physical pain will suppress the emotional. But will hiding behind shoulder pads really help? And will his gridiron obsession prevent him from being there for his cousin's girlfriend when she needs him most?

This sequel to The Battle of Jericho is a no-holds-barred look at what happens when life doesn't go as planned, by the acclaimed author of the 2007 Coretta Scott King Award winner Copper Sun.

Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager

Beatrice Sparks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 150 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Poorly-written propaganda 2 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Maybe it's because I'm now past the target age for this book, and because I now know about how Dr. Sparks in all probability just makes up these books instead of using real teen journals, but I didn't believe for one blessed moment that this book was a real teen journal, nor that Annie was a real person. I was a teenager of the Nineties myself, and am a nearly-lifelong journaller, and nothing about Annie (her personality, thought process, writing style, etc.) rang true. She and everyone else in this book come across as one-dimensional stereotypes and clichés, like they're all characters in some over the top morality play or afterschool special. It's so suspicious how the teens in all of Dr. Sparks's "real-life diaries" have the exact same writing style and moral preachiness, holding rather conservative views in line with her own. I don't begrudge her her sincerely held beliefs even though they're radically different from mine, but it's just morally irresponsible to push these beliefs on impressionable teens by pretending they're from peers instead of some over-the-hill ultra-conservative psychiatrist. There are far better ways to teach teenagers to not do drugs, have unprotected sex at young ages, get eating disorders, have an affair with a teacher, or join a gang than lying to them and trying to scare them straight.

I find it hard to believe that Dr. Sparks is that respected of an adolescent shrink, since she seems so profoundly out of touch with how real teens write, behave, talk, and think. But chances are, if she'd used a real diary from a pregnant teen she had worked with, it wouldn't have had the desired holier than thou moral preachiness, anti-abortion and anti-welfare rants, childish writing style, stereotypical characters, sense of shame and guilt for something like having sex or lying to one's mother, or depiction of all teen moms as terrible parents who are just setting their kids up for a lifetime of problems unless they do the responsible thing and place the babies for adoption. Teenagers are a lot smarter, more mature, articulate, and self-aware than she gives them credit for. Real teen journallers also don't over-analyse everything, use babyish expressions worthy of a six year old, use excessive italics and exclamation points, FREQUENTLY WRITE IN ALL CAPS (those sections were so annoying, irritating, and distrating I found myself just skimming over them), feel guilty for engaging in normal teen behaviors (like going to parties or lying to one's parents about their whereabouts), or apologise for having used the occasional curse word in their own journals. Annie also acts really bipolar, the way she's all happy, excited, and bubbly one moment, then depressed, angry, frustrated, and confused the next. The way she often talks to her journal like it's an actual person, even going so far as having entire back-and-forth conversations, arguments, and tantrums with it, would also seem to suggest a serious mental problem.

While there are a few things about her character that ring true, such as how many teen girls are in abusive relationships and how many young teen moms do feel overwhelmed when the baby arrives, those details are cancelled out by all of the over the top clichés and stereotypes littered throughout the rest of the book. The "relationship" with Danny develops way too fast, for instance, and she's already acting like he's her soulmate before she even knows his name, and then thinks they have some serious relationship when they've only had a couple of dates and hung out at school a few times. As the relationship wears on, she seems to deliberately put herself in bad situations and do the most foolish things possible, like going back to him after he first tries to rape her and then actually rapes her. I could see if this were a longer-term relationship, but making excuses, blaming herself, and wanting to stay with him for the sake of some minor fling at age fourteen? I never felt anything for anyone in this book, not even at the supposedly dramatic moments, like when Annie stages some elaborate ruse to trick her mother into thinking she was hit by a car instead of raped, or when she tries to abandon her baby. The characters and situations were just too unbelievable.

A real teen journal would also have a lot more mundane chit-chat, like about hanging out with friends, a movie she just saw, schoolwork, that sort of thing, not this obsessive focus on the "problem." And where are all of the details a normal teen girl would make sure to write about, like how she got the birth control pills or just how Danny was roughing her up during sex? How are we supposed to get accurate mental images of these people and things if all we're given are generalities? Unless of course this were deliberately written as a fictional teen journal about a specific issue and not really drawn from the pages of a real teenager's journal, something she never dreamt would be published. I also found it really hard to swallow how Annie is switched to an "unwed mothers' home" in her town. Such places do still exist, but they're far and few between anymore. How convenient one of the few still in existence is in her area. And what American teen of the Nineties would actually use the term "unwed mother"? What is this, the Fifties? Annie also looks down her nose on most of the "unwed mothers" in the school, particularly because they're planning to use welfare. I found the anti-welfare rhetoric to be even more offensive than the anti-abortion rhetoric. (And how is her baby allowed to leave the hospital after only about two weeks when she's two months premature? Don't most babies born at seven months need to spend at least a month in the hospital?)

The only real thing going for this work of fiction are the supplemental sections in the back. There are quizzes to find out if one is in an abusive relationship, a Q&A on birth control and teen pregnancy (which continues with the anti-welfare rhetoric and the downright offensive view that teens are automatically sub-par parents who are putting their kids at risk for all sorts of problems if they don't do adoption), and some resources for things like STDs and rape. Funny how the writing style in this section, as well as in the author's note, is the exact same one used by Annie all throughout the book, down to the FREQUENT CAPS. So it's not totally useless. I don't know whether to feel more sad, amused, or scared that apparently many teen girls believe this book was written by one of their own instead of an elderly shrink pretending to be some whiny immature self-absorbed holier than thou teenager.

Editorial Review:

When Annie discovers she's pregnant by her boyfriend, she's devastated. She has never felt so alone. With no one she can talk to, she pours her heart out to her diary, confiding her feelings of panic, self-doubt, and the desperate hope that some day she can turn her life around. She decides she wants to keep her baby and dreams of loving and caring for this little person. But after the baby is born, it's in her diary that she faces the agonizing question: Can she really raise this child on her own?

Gingerbread

Rachel Cohn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 112 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Life is full of frogs, you just have to learn to jump over them 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

When one thinks of Gingerbread, heady spices and molasses-like sweetness comes to mind, the book however was a literary equivalent of Angel Food Cake - fluffy, light and sweet enough to entertain but not overly filling. It's something that I can read in one sitting and then get up without a headache, possibly ready to begin the next book in the series. Young Adult fiction has come a long way, reading books about disgruntled sixteen year olds are certainly easier than being one all over again and even though I am no longer a teen I certainly remember how tough it was. Standing strong against the ripping winds of corruption and negative influences while dealing with feelings for boys, parents and especially how I saw myself was no walk in the beach and even though I had a blast growing up I am relieved to be done with it.

For Cyd, living with her step dad Sid and mother Nancy and her younger half siblings in San Francisco is more an a nuisance than paradise. Her richly decorated home, stylish mother, lenient step father and her relationship with her new awesome boyfriend Shrimp are slowly crumbling up into a black hole that she has dug up in her past, the spoiled relationship with her then boyfriend Justin who got her hooked on his dark lifestyle and got her pregnant without giving her any support. After her life changing decision to write her own future Cyd becomes even more cynical, witty, sarcastic and sometimes warm and human on her quest to fix her broken relations with her parents, Shrimp and her biological father in New York. Her last memory of him was when she was five years old and him giving her a doll that she named Gingerbread, carrying it with her to this day. The visit to the East coast opens her eyes in more ways than she has imagined and it's up to her to either find the light or slink away into the shadows with no helping hands to pull her up. The mystery of her parents split, her other half siblings and potential new boys are lined on up the horizon for the reader to grab onto and enjoy. It's all up to her whether she wants to grow up and change or act like a spoiled brat.

The writing was easy to read and made the book flow like an express train. I enjoyed the brief glimpse of Cyd before she was with Shrimp and how her current situation evolved. This isn't deep fiction but a fun romp though pages filled with growing pains and emerging roots of maturity. I'm all ready reading the sequel "Shrimp" and cannot wait to find out what happens when Cyd is back in San Francisco after her life changing summer in New York. This book is like a nice, light slice of cake; it's no dinner but still fills you up.

- Kasia S.

Editorial Review:

"I will be as wild as I wanna be."

After getting tossed from her posh boarding school, wild, willful, and coffee addicted Cyd Charisse returns to San Francisco to live with her parents. But there's no way Cyd can survive in her parents' pristine house. Lucky for Cyd she's got Gingerbread, her childhood rag doll and confidante, and her new surfer boyfriend.

When Cyd's rebelliousness gets out of hand, her parents ship her off to New York City to spend the summer with "Frank real-dad," her biological father. Trading in her parents for New York City grunge and getting to know her bio-dad and step-sibs is what Cyd has been waiting for her whole life. But summer in the city is not what Cyd expects -- and she's far from the daughter or sister that anyone could have imagined.

Make Lemonade

Virginia Euwer Wolff

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 81 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Best Book I've Ever Read. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have to say that the book Make Lemonade was the best book I've ever read. It's written differently, and I have never read one like that before. (In stanzas) There were a lot of surprising things and you never know whats going to happen next. I'm reading the sequel right now and it's just as good. So I definitely do recommend this book to anybody who's in for a surprise!

Editorial Review:

Jolly is seventeen. She can't really spell. She doesn't have much of a job. And she has two little kids from two different, absent fathers.

Jolly knows she can't cope with Jilly and Jeremy all by herself. So she posts a notice on the school bulletin board: BABYSITTER NEEDED BAD. No one replies but Verna LaVaughn, who's only fourteen. How much help can she be?

For a while, Jolly, Jilly, Jeremy, and LaVaughn are an extraordinary family. Then LaVaughn takes the first steps toward building her own future, and Jolly begins the longs low process of turning the lemons of her life into lemonade.

Written in sixty-six chapters with text lines that break at natural speaking phrases, this is a startling novel by an extraordinary writer.

Briana's Gift (Lurlene McDaniel)

Lurlene Mcdaniel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Briana's Gift 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Thirteen-year-old Susanna (Sissy to her family) hasn't had much luck with the month of December. When she was six, her dad died in a horrible accident at work. At eight, her mother was diagnosed with a debilitating arthritis. And most recently, her spirited older sister, Briana, decides to run off to Los Angeles with her boyfriend. So this year's December is a depressing one as well. Briana sends postcards at first, but all too soon, there's no word at all. Sissy depends on her best friends, Melody and Stu, to help her through the lonely days of missing her sister, and practicing her flute helps pass the time as well. Somehow, life goes on.

Then, just before school starts the following year, Briana shows up at the front door asking to come home. But she's not alone --- she's pregnant. Briana's boyfriend is long gone, and she's better off without him; she absolutely refuses to find him for child support. Briana is determined to make a good life for her baby, and soon gets a cashier job at Wal-mart, saving up for everything her baby will need.

Sissy's so ecstatic with her sister home, and she's really looking forward to becoming an aunt. Her relationship with Briana has grown some as well. Instead of tagging around after Briana, admiring her from her little sister status, they are more like friends, pouring over baby books and following the baby's progress together. Sissy even volunteers to redecorate the new nursery, painting the walls lilac with green trim, and she loves to play her flute for the unborn baby.

But without warning, Briana falls deathly ill, and Sissy and her mom are faced with some impossible decisions. To make life more complicated and confusing, Sissy's friendships with Melody and Stu are changing; Melody seems distant, and Sissy finds she's seeing Stu in a different way, in a "guy-type" way. She wishes their friendship could return to normal, but deep down, she knows it will never be the same. This year's December approaches with even more sadness and despair than ever...and with one of the greatest gifts ever offered.

Author Ms. Lurlene McDaniel has written quite a few novels for young people including THE ANGELS IN PINK trilogy and LETTING GO OF LISA. As with her other stories, BRIANA'S GIFT centers around serious life changing events that really hit the heart hard. Ms. McDaniel's characters are as life-like as her plots, and her storylines keep the pages turning. Another winner from this talented author!
--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of Finding My Light and The Black Pond
---Courtesy of Teenreads.com

Editorial Review:

Thirteen-year-old Casey's mother always said that Casey's sixteen-year-old sister marched to the beat of a different drummer. But it isn't until Briana runs away with an older boy that Casey begins to understand what her mother meant. When Briana returns home alone and pregnant, Casey and her mother try to help Briana come to terms with her options.

It was already complicated to think about Briana's choices and then things change suddenly again. When Briana is in a serious accident, Casey's mother sees things one way. Although Casey understands her mother's reaction, she feels she must try to convince her mother to make a different decision. Casey needs to grow up fast and do what she can to maintain Briana's legacy. Will she be able to make her mother understand that there is only one way to accept Briana's gift?


From the Hardcover edition.