In this moving book by acclaimed novelist Louise Plummer, we read the story of Hannah Ziebarth, a fifteen-year-old girl with a lot on her mind. Her boyfriend Milo has been pressuring her to have more than just a casual relationship, and she finally gives in, seeing in him a chance for real love and attention. Her own father passed away and it’s so nice to have a man tell you he loves you.
Hannah’s not sure what to do when she finds out she’s pregnant. She has known for a while that she wasn’t Milo’s first, that he actually has made a career out of circulating through the girls in school. But when he finds out she’s pregnant, she thinks that of course he’ll stand by her. It’s his baby, after all.
But Milo refuses to accept responsibility for his actions. Hannah is left alone to deal with the consequences of her decision, and her mother is heartbroken. Her best friend Trilby feels left out, as though suddenly Hannah took a turn down a dark alley where she can’t follow.
The pressure on Hannah is just too much, and she is sent to a clinic to work through the weight of her emotional baggage. Trilby comes to see her there, and they are able to find some humor in the situation when Trilby presents her with a pregnant Barbie doll. Wasn’t it just yesterday they were brushing out their Barbie’s hair? Childhood wasn’t that long ago.
Roman, Milo’s brother, wishes he could do something to make his brother see the light. It’s a baby, not an inconvenience, and Roman wants to be an uncle and to take responsibility for his own flesh and blood.
One day near the end of her pregnancy, Hannah goes to an outdoor concert and sees a mother and father with their small child. The child went back and forth between the parents, and each parent took a turn offering a cracker or a hand to hold. It was like a dance, with everything perfectly choreographed, and Hannah realizes that parenthood is a dance for three, not a dance for two. There needs to be a father and a mother in the picture, and so she decides to give the baby up for adoption.
Her life doesn’t return to normal after she has the baby. She must live with the stigma of her pregnancy the rest of her life. But she learns and grows through the process, and Roman becomes a good friend.
I am reviewing this book today because I think it’s important for teenagers to understand what emotions are in place that can help lead up to a pregnancy. Feelings of loneliness, of wanting someone to understand you and care about you, low self-esteem – all these can send a teen down a path they ordinarily wouldn’t take. This book shows Hannah’s feelings of desperation and despair over the pregnancy and losing Milo, and how hard it is to make the choice she did. If more teenagers truly understood the big picture, I think we’d have fewer teen pregnancies.
That said, I did find certain parts of the book a little too descriptive for my taste. I would encourage the parent to read the book first, decide for themselves, and act accordingly. All in all, I feel it’s a valuable tool in the fight against teen pregnancy.
(This book was published in 2000 by Random House.)
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