The First Part Last by Anglea Johnson

Personal Response:

Throughout the entire book I found myself fighting two conflicting opinions. First, when would this ever happen? Sure, there are times when a mother will lose her life while trying to give birth to a baby. Sure, there are teenage father’s out there. But the chances of a story happening exactly like this are slim to none: none being much closer to the truth. The second opinion dealt with truth. What is truth? A story does not need to be true in order for it to be true to the reader. A young parent does not need to be sixteen years old to relate to Bobby’s fear. A parent does not need to have the other parent in a coma to relate to feeling alone. In the end truth is all in the perspective. Yes the story is a work of fiction. Yet, it is also a work of truth; a truth for many young parents out there who are struggling to make it on their own.

I am not a father, nor am I a teenager. On an individual basis it is hard for me to relate to the story. However, as a teacher and a youth leader I have witnessed students, children the same age as Bobby struggle with the same issues. I appreciate the fact the Johnson has the teenage parent as a male instead of a female; it is a perspective we do not in literature or in the real world. Sadly, of all of the teenage parents I have known it has always been the mother that gets left on her own. I have known teens whom have had an abortion, given up their child for adoption as well as ones who have chosen to keep them. The process that Bobby and Nia go through is a process that more and more teenagers are going through in today’s society.

Bobby’s story kept reminding me of a youth of mine who become pregnant at the age of 16. She also chose to keep the child. For the next few months she had the same look that I could picture on Bobby’s face. The look of a girl completely worn out, and at the same time when she looked at her little girl there was a look of unconditional love. She would not give up her sleepless nights for the entire world. Her baby was her life. So, while I still find myself finding this story at times unrealistic, I can still see the truth in it. Because I have seen the truth lived out through my youth and my students.

Critical Response:

One of the most important qualities in a book is whether or not the intended audience can relate to the story. If the text was rated solely on that criterion then I believe that this text is a high quality text for Adolescents. We now live in a society in which more and more students are becoming pregnant. This means that there are more and more children having to make tough decisions about what to do when they get pregnant, or their girlfriend gets pregnant. They are not easy decisions, but I believe that Johnson does a good job showing the importance and weight of these decisions in her novel. These decisions are ones that many students can relate to.

While the students will be able to relate to the decisions and process Nia and Bobby went through, I think that one thing that the story lacks is realism. Very few teenagers who actually have a child will have the same privileges that Bobby had. While he may have been left on his own quite a bit, he had two sets of parents who were willing to help. They gave him a place to stay, and more importantly they gave him love and support. Many teenage parents to not have that help, they do not have a family that can or will help support them. Some are kicked out of their house or just flat out ignored. They are “forced” to go to a different school, and many find themselves not having a realistic option to graduate from high school.

I think that what will remain memorable about this text is the fact the way in which it was told. It is not a free flowing novel. It jumps the past to the present. Often time jumps months ahead from one sequence to the next. While it takes a few chapters to get used to the jump, I believe that it is a tool that will actually get the readers more interested in the story. It is essentially two stories in one. They can get engrossed in their past and his present. They want to find out what happened to Nia, but they also want to see how Bobby will react to new situations. I believe that doing the novel this way Johnson keeps it fresh for teenagers. It is something that they have not seen before and often times something different means something good.