Synopsis
"During the summer of 1967, Anne Harper, 17, enters a home for pregnant teens.... This powerful novel will be enlightening reading for any young woman today." --School Library Journal, starred review
Reviews
Grade 7 Up?During late summer in 1967, Anne Harper, 17, enters a home for pregnant teens. Forced by her parents to live there, she is unhappy and uncooperative. The woman in charge, Mrs. Landing, insists that Anne attend group meetings, and she eventually becomes involved in the other residents' lives. The young women are there to await the birth of their children (most of whom are given up for adoption), as well as to work on their feelings and personal crises. Pennebaker introduces each character through achingly realistic passages. Anger, resentment, loneliness, confusion, longing, and love wash over these teens as they face the hard facts of life and try to learn from one another's experiences. One girl has been raped by her father; another has been seduced by her pastor. The honest depiction of Anne's physical and emotional development is well presented and renders a strikingly intimate portrayal of teenage pregnancy. Despite the historical setting, the author delves into many aspects of this contemporary social dilemma, from parents' reactions to boyfriends' desertions. This powerful novel will be enlightening reading for any young woman today.?Jana R. Fine, Clearwater Public Library System, FL
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Set in 1967, before the legalization of abortion, this insightful story presents an engrossing, grimly realistic depiction of pregnant teens who have been ostracized by their families and rejected by their lovers. Upon her arrival at a Texas home for unwed mothers, 17-year-old Anne is sure that the next few months will be as dismal as the shabby interior of her new living quarters. Among strangers with backgrounds vastly different from her own middle-class experiences, however, Anne gradually begins to feel more accepted and acceptable than at home with her judgmental parents. She finds the freedom to analyze her mistakes as she plans for the future. The tone of this reflective and sometimes wrenching first novel could easily become oppressive if not for the protagonist's astute, often witty appraisals of housemates, also struggling to rebuild their lives. Without moralizing, Pennebaker conveys a pointed message about social hypocrisies, family relationships and desperate attempts to find love. Ages 13-18.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A darkly funny, intensely affecting coming-of-age novel set in a home for unwed mothers in Texas, 1967. Anne, 17, is an intelligent young woman, swept away by first love for the baby's father, a love that is not requited. In her first weeks at the home, hers is an unfocused anger: ``I read A Streetcar Named Desire last year,'' she tells readers in the first-person, present-tense narrative, ``because the school district banned it and I wanted to stick up for the Constitution.'' At the novel's end, she has matured from such childish rebellion to adulthood, and can play hardball when she must, refusing to sign adoption papers until she's allowed to hold her newborn. The ``happy'' resolution Anne wanted initially isn't possible--she can't give birth and jettison all memory of the baby--but another, more courageous, outcome is. Anne has broken through to a larger reality than her peers or family can envision; readers will know that she is a survivor who is tough yet capable of tenderness and humor, and they will love her. Pennebaker's masterful first novel depicts a time when to be pregnant and unmarried was to be ostracized, but it makes Anne's concerns no less applicable today; the strength and truthfulness of all the characterizations as well as the scope of their issues give this debut a resounding timeliness. (Fiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Gr. 9^-12. Set in the late 1960s, in a rural Texas home for pregnant teens, this is much more than a "girls in trouble" story. The entertaining, fully realized cast of characters believably runs the gamut, including a frizzy-haired, caftan-wearing California "hippie," a 12-year-old who was raped by her father, a coldly calculating sorority girl from Mississippi, and Anne, the intelligent, acerbic 18-year-old narrator. Though Anne's wholly dysfunctional family (workaholic lawyer-father, manic-depressive mother, and airhead sister) offer her no support, she slowly builds friendships among the wildly disparate group of girls at the home. One by one, the girls have their babies, give them up for adoption, and move on, but it's never an easy journey. There are no saviors and no happy endings. Pennebaker presents a compassionate, many-layered look at the complexities of teen pregnancy. The girls' desperate situations are filtered through Anne's wit and sarcasm, creating needed distance and levity. The intriguing jacket illustration, a photo collage of bizarre but appropriate images, perfectly suits the tone and content of this surprisingly realistic and moving period piece. Debbie Carton
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