Bibliography
DuPrau, Jeanne. 2003. THE CITY OF EMBER (SOUND RECORDING). Listening Library, C/O Random House. Westminster, MD. ISBN 0739331675.
Plot
In the city of Ember, every twelve year old child awaits the suspenseful Assignment day. The day when you receive your work assignment for the next three years, the day your heart will either sink or soar. We follow Lina through the streets of Ember, Doon through the pipeworks of Ember, and both of them on their quest to read a mysterious note left to them by the Builders almost two hundred and fifty years earlier. However, this note, full of holes thanks to Lina’s two year old sister, might contain the most important information the Builders left for the inhabitants of Ember. More important than the storage rooms, the generator, and the electricity they need to light up the continually dark sky in the city. However, even if they decode this note, and it leads to a new city, will anyone believe them?
Critical Analysis
This audio book not only uses the amazing vocal talents of Wendy Dillon, but the sound effects help create the desolate world where Lina and Doon live. We are able to hear background noises in the meeting hall, the sound of the pipeworks dripping, and even the roar of the great river below the city. The vocal characterization Dillon offers only assist us mentally painting the pictures DuPrau so beautifully wrote. The city of Ember has its own customs, traditions, superstitions, and workings, just as our own world possesses. The theme, hope, is a continual presence found in Doon’s anger, in Lina’s drawings of her special city, in the clusters of Believers Lina passes on her message deliveries, and in the moth Doon is watching transform from a crawling thing, to a flying thing. The plot of this book is consistent with the laws that govern Ember. DuPrau’s style of describing a crumbling city, worn out clothing, recycling everything, and crammed houses are inviting as well as interesting. Despite a few character flaws, such as fully establishing a reason for Doon’s anger or the seemingly “instant” acceptance of Granny’s death on Lina’s part, the variety and uniqueness of minor characters more than make up for the wanting in the major characters. All in all, the visit to Ember is well worth the dangerous, exciting, and unexpected trip.
Review Excerpts
Kirkus Reviews-This promising debut is set in a dying underground city. Ember, which was founded and stocked with supplies centuries ago by "The Builders," is now desperately short of food, clothes, and electricity to keep the town illuminated. Lina and Doon find long-hidden, undecipherable instructions that send them on a perilous mission to find what they believe must exist: an exit door from their disintegrating town. In the process, they uncover secret governmental corruption and a route to the world above. Well-paced, this contains a satisfying mystery, a breathtaking escape over rooftops in darkness, a harrowing journey into the unknown and cryptic messages for readers to decipher. The setting is well-realized with the constraints of life in the city intriguingly detailed.
School Library Journal-DuPrau debuts with a promisingly competent variation on the tried-and-true "isolated city" theme. More than 200 years after an unspecified holocaust, the residents of Ember have lost all knowledge of anything beyond the area illuminated by the floodlamps on their buildings. The anxiety level is high and rising, for despite relentless recycling, food and other supplies are running low, and the power failures that plunge the town into impenetrable darkness are becoming longer and more frequent. Then Lina, a young foot messenger, discovers a damaged document from the mysterious Builders that hints at a way out. She and Doon, a classmate, piece together enough of the fragmentary directions to find a cave filled with boats near the river that runs beneath Ember, but their rush to announce their discovery almost ends in disaster when the two fall afoul of the corrupt Mayor and his cronies. Lina and Doon escape in a boat, and after a scary journey emerge into an Edenlike wilderness to witness their first sunrise–for Ember, as it turns out, has been built in an immense cavern. Still intent on saving their people, the two find their way back underground at the end, opening the door for sequels. The setting may not be so ingeniously envisioned as those of, say, Joan Aiken's Is Underground (Turtleback, 1995) and Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton, 1993), but the quick pace and the uncomplicated characters and situations will keep voracious fans of the genre engaged
BookList -Ember, a 241-year-old, ruined domed city surrounded by a dark unknown, was built to ensure that humans would continue to exist on Earth, and the instructions for getting out have been lost and forgotten. On Assignment Day, 12-year-olds leave school and receive their lifetime job assignments. Lina Mayfleet becomes a messenger, and her friend Doon Harrow ends up in the Pipeworks beneath the city, where the failing electric generator has been ineffectually patched together. Both Lina and Doon are convinced that their survival means finding a way out of the city, and after Lina discovers pieces of the instructions, she and Doon work together to interpret the fragmented document. Life in this postholocaust city is well limned--the frequent blackouts, the food shortage, the public panic, the search for answers, and the actions of the powerful, who are taking selfish advantage of the situation. Readers will relate to Lina and Doon's resourcefulness and courage in the face of ominous odds.
Publishers Weekly-In her electric debut, DuPrau imagines a post-apocalyptic underground world where resources are running out. The city of Ember, "the only light in the dark world," began as a survival experiment created by the "Builders" who wanted their children to "grow up with no knowledge of a world outside, so that they feel no sorrow for what they have lost." An opening prologue describes the Builders' intentions—that Ember's citizens leave the city after 220 years. They tuck "The Instructions" to a way out within a locked box programmed to open at the right time. But the box has gone astray. The story opens on Assignment Day in the year 241, when 12-year-olds Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow draw lots for their jobs from the mayor's bag. Lina gets "pipeworks laborer," a job that Doon wants, while Doon draws "messenger," the job that Lina covets, and they trade. Through their perspectives, DuPrau reveals the fascinating details of this subterranean community: as Doon repairs leaks deep down among the Pipeworks, he also learns just how dire the situation is with their malfunctioning generator. Meanwhile, the messages Lina carries point to other sorts of subterfuge. Together, the pair become detectives in search of the truth—part of which may be buried in some strange words that were hidden in Lina's grandmother's closet. Thanks to full-blooded characters every bit as compelling as the plot, Lina and Doon's search parallels the universal adolescent quest for answers. Readers will sit on the edge of their seats as each new truth comes to light.
Connections
Fact from Fiction
On a chart, label one side fact and one side fiction. Have students think of examples they can each label from this book. Examples could include:
Fact
Electricity, generator, river, stone, messenger, pipe repair, moth, vitamins
Fiction
Black sky, bough and hogwash are nonsense words, a door to escape (it is really a cave and a river), History of Ember book, and general customs of the city
Be sure to explain that although this book contains many real elements, the context they are placed in is the ultimate “fantasy.”
A Letter to the Inhabitants of Ember
Pretend you are a Builder. What three pieces of information could you offer to the citizens of Ember to help make their life easier? Write it in a letter form. For realism, students could type it up.
Examples could include: an explanation of how electricity works, a drawing of a hog, a bird, or even a dog, directions for making candles, or instructions for making a terrarium to grow their own food.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Princess Academy
Bibliography
Hale, Shannon. 2005. PRINCESS ACADEMY. Bloomsbury Publishing. New York, NY. ISBN 1582349932.
Plot
Miri, an unusually small, and intelligent girl, longs to be able to work in the quarry of linder with her father and sister. She feels useless and outcast, as if she does not belong because she is not allowed to step foot into the quarry. When the news that an academy for princesses will be built at the old mansion ruins, she scoffs at the idea of leaving her home and her family. Who would want to be a princess? As she learns from the harsh Tutor Olana, she realizes she will show the old bat a thing or two. Making friends with the shy and isolated Britta, Miri studies and eventually stands up to Tutor Olana, only adding to the hatred the other girls feel for Miri. As Miri learns about the rest of the kingdom, she begins to wonder about life outside of the mountains, and begins studying extra hard so she can be the top ranking student in the academy. She discovers, by accident, how to use quarry-speech when she is trapped in a closet and deals with a rat burrowing in her hair. During her studies, she discovers the lowlanders have been taking advantage of the trusting mountain people, and she urges her father to tell everyone of the true expense of linder. The community unites and their prices are met, and simultaneously Miri begins perfecting the use of quarry-speech. As the prince is expected for the ball, all the girls are on edge, especially Katar who is determined to leave the mountain as soon as possible, no matter how she does it. The day of the ball arrives, the prince shows up, he shares a special talk with Miri, and leaves suddenly the next day. That evening, the academy is overtaken by robbers who want the princess for a ransom. Using quarry-speech, she is able to bring help to the academy, and through a daring escape, manages to save the town, the academy, and the future princess.
Critical Analysis
The theme of this book is the feeling of an unfulfilled destiny. This theme is presented again and again through Miri’s longing to be of use in the quarry, the precious hidden linder in the mountains and the power in uncovering it, and is finally realized when Miri is able to get the city it’s financial prosperity. Miri is a believable teen—full of spirit, haste, dreams, pride in her home, and self-doubts. The simple mountain people presented in this tale are full of a quiet pride, and the beauty of their mountains adds to the richness of the story. Quarry-speech, entirely conceivable within Miri’s world, becomes the voice that helps Miri rescue her town. Hale’s imagery, play on words, and ingenuity create a beautifully stylized story that is fun to read and has a poignant grain of truth that you intuitively feel. All though geared for female readers, males will enjoy the snobbery of Poise class, silly conversations Miri has using the rules of conversation, and the heart-racing kidnapping that determines the outcome of the entire town.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal-The thought of being a princess never occurred to the girls living on Mount Eskel. Most plan to work in the quarry like the generations before them. When it is announced that the prince will choose a bride from their village, 14-year-old Miri, who thinks she is being kept from working in the quarry because of her small stature, believes that this is her opportunity to prove her worth to her father. All eligible females are sent off to attend a special academy where they face many challenges and hardships as they are forced to adapt to the cultured life of a lowlander. First, strict Tutor Olana denies a visit home. Then, they are cut off from their village by heavy winter snowstorms. As their isolation increases, competition builds among them. The story is much like the mountains, with plenty of suspenseful moments that peak and fall, building into the next intense event. Miri discovers much about herself, including a special talent called quarry speak, a silent way to communicate. She uses this ability in many ways, most importantly to save herself and the other girls from harm. Each girl's story is brought to a satisfying conclusion, but this is not a fluffy, predictable fairy tale, even though it has wonderful moments of humor. Instead, Hale weaves an intricate, multilayered story about families, relationships, education, and the place we call home.
Publishers Weekly-Readers enchanted by Hale's Goose Girl are in for an experience that's a bit more earthbound in this latest fantasy-cum-tribute to girl-power. Cheerful and witty 14-year-old Miri loves her life on Mount Eskel, home to the quarries filled with the most precious linder stone in the land, though she longs to be big and strong enough to do quarry work like her sister and father. But Miri experiences big changes when the king announces that the prince will choose a potential wife from among the village's eligible girls—and that said girls must attend a new Princess Academy in preparation. Princess training is not all it's cracked up to be for spunky Miri in the isolated school overseen by cruel Tutor Olana. But through education—and the realization that she has the common mountain power to communicate wordlessly via magical "quarry-speech"—Miri and the girls eventually gain confidence and knowledge that helps transform their village. Unfortunately, Hale's lighthearted premise and underlying romantic plot bog down in overlong passages about commerce and class, a surprise hostage situation and the specifics of "quarry-speech." The prince's final princess selection hastily and patly wraps things up.
Kirkus Reviews-There are many pleasures to this satisfying tale: a precise lyricism to the language ("The world was as dark as eyes closed" or "Miri's laugh is a tune you love to whistle") and a rhythm to the story that takes its tropes from many places, but its heart from ours. Miri is very small; her father has never let her work in the linder stone quarries where her village makes its living and she fears that it's because she lacks something. However, she's rounded up, with the other handful of girls ages 12 to 17, to be taught and trained when it's foreseen that the prince's bride will come from their own Mount Eskel. Olana, their teacher, is pinched and cruel, but Miri and the others take to their studies, for it opens the world beyond the linder quarries to them. Miri seeks other learning as well, including the mindspeech that ties her to her people, and seems to work through the linder stone itself. There's a lot about girls in groups, both kind and cutting; a sweet boy; the warmth of friends, fathers and sisters; and the possibility of being chosen by a prince one barely knows. The climax involving evil brigands is a bit forced, but everything else is an unalloyed joy.
BookList-- Miri would love to join her father and older sister as a miner in Mount Eskel's quarry. Not a glamorous aspiration for a 14-year-old, perhaps, but the miners produce the humble village's prize stone, linder, and mining is a respected occupation that drives the local economy. When the local girls are rounded up to compete for the hand of the kingdom's prince, Miri, the prize student in the Princess Academy, gets her chance to shine. In addition to her natural intelligence and spunk, she discovers an intuitive, and at times unspoken, language that grew out of work songs in the mines and uses linder as a medium. With this "quarry-speech" giving a boost to her courage and intelligence, Miri leads her classmates in the fight against being treated as social inferiors in the academy, at the same time educating herself in ways that will better the village. Hale nicely interweaves feminist sensibilities in this quest-for-a-prince-charming, historical-fantasy tale. Strong suspense and plot drive the action as the girls outwit would-be kidnappers and explore the boundaries of leadership, competition, and friendship.
Connections
Performance
Announce to the students that a producer is looking to purchase the script of the play Princess Academy. Tell the students they will each be writing a script for a portion of the book. A break down might look like this:
Beginning: Miri’s history, family life, friendship with Peder, longing to work in the mines
Rising Action: Announcement of the Princess Academy, going to live there, meeting Tutor Olana, and entering the Academy, Miri’s defiance with Tutor Olana, wishing to run away, discovery of quarry speak
Climax 1: boycott and walk out, visit home, realization of Miri’s feelings toward Peder, return to Academy, preparing for ball, Britta’s sickness
Climax 2: Meeting the prince, Steffan’s abrupt departure, Argument with Peder, capture at the Academy
Falling Action: Negotiations with robbers, escape
Ending: Peder and Miri finally talk, Miri learns about why she has been kept from the quarry, and Katar’s new position in court
Show examples of writing a script. Each group will present their part, using name tags for their characters (so the audience will be able to follow along). Present scripts by inviting other classes to watch.
Hale, Shannon. 2005. PRINCESS ACADEMY. Bloomsbury Publishing. New York, NY. ISBN 1582349932.
Plot
Miri, an unusually small, and intelligent girl, longs to be able to work in the quarry of linder with her father and sister. She feels useless and outcast, as if she does not belong because she is not allowed to step foot into the quarry. When the news that an academy for princesses will be built at the old mansion ruins, she scoffs at the idea of leaving her home and her family. Who would want to be a princess? As she learns from the harsh Tutor Olana, she realizes she will show the old bat a thing or two. Making friends with the shy and isolated Britta, Miri studies and eventually stands up to Tutor Olana, only adding to the hatred the other girls feel for Miri. As Miri learns about the rest of the kingdom, she begins to wonder about life outside of the mountains, and begins studying extra hard so she can be the top ranking student in the academy. She discovers, by accident, how to use quarry-speech when she is trapped in a closet and deals with a rat burrowing in her hair. During her studies, she discovers the lowlanders have been taking advantage of the trusting mountain people, and she urges her father to tell everyone of the true expense of linder. The community unites and their prices are met, and simultaneously Miri begins perfecting the use of quarry-speech. As the prince is expected for the ball, all the girls are on edge, especially Katar who is determined to leave the mountain as soon as possible, no matter how she does it. The day of the ball arrives, the prince shows up, he shares a special talk with Miri, and leaves suddenly the next day. That evening, the academy is overtaken by robbers who want the princess for a ransom. Using quarry-speech, she is able to bring help to the academy, and through a daring escape, manages to save the town, the academy, and the future princess.
Critical Analysis
The theme of this book is the feeling of an unfulfilled destiny. This theme is presented again and again through Miri’s longing to be of use in the quarry, the precious hidden linder in the mountains and the power in uncovering it, and is finally realized when Miri is able to get the city it’s financial prosperity. Miri is a believable teen—full of spirit, haste, dreams, pride in her home, and self-doubts. The simple mountain people presented in this tale are full of a quiet pride, and the beauty of their mountains adds to the richness of the story. Quarry-speech, entirely conceivable within Miri’s world, becomes the voice that helps Miri rescue her town. Hale’s imagery, play on words, and ingenuity create a beautifully stylized story that is fun to read and has a poignant grain of truth that you intuitively feel. All though geared for female readers, males will enjoy the snobbery of Poise class, silly conversations Miri has using the rules of conversation, and the heart-racing kidnapping that determines the outcome of the entire town.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal-The thought of being a princess never occurred to the girls living on Mount Eskel. Most plan to work in the quarry like the generations before them. When it is announced that the prince will choose a bride from their village, 14-year-old Miri, who thinks she is being kept from working in the quarry because of her small stature, believes that this is her opportunity to prove her worth to her father. All eligible females are sent off to attend a special academy where they face many challenges and hardships as they are forced to adapt to the cultured life of a lowlander. First, strict Tutor Olana denies a visit home. Then, they are cut off from their village by heavy winter snowstorms. As their isolation increases, competition builds among them. The story is much like the mountains, with plenty of suspenseful moments that peak and fall, building into the next intense event. Miri discovers much about herself, including a special talent called quarry speak, a silent way to communicate. She uses this ability in many ways, most importantly to save herself and the other girls from harm. Each girl's story is brought to a satisfying conclusion, but this is not a fluffy, predictable fairy tale, even though it has wonderful moments of humor. Instead, Hale weaves an intricate, multilayered story about families, relationships, education, and the place we call home.
Publishers Weekly-Readers enchanted by Hale's Goose Girl are in for an experience that's a bit more earthbound in this latest fantasy-cum-tribute to girl-power. Cheerful and witty 14-year-old Miri loves her life on Mount Eskel, home to the quarries filled with the most precious linder stone in the land, though she longs to be big and strong enough to do quarry work like her sister and father. But Miri experiences big changes when the king announces that the prince will choose a potential wife from among the village's eligible girls—and that said girls must attend a new Princess Academy in preparation. Princess training is not all it's cracked up to be for spunky Miri in the isolated school overseen by cruel Tutor Olana. But through education—and the realization that she has the common mountain power to communicate wordlessly via magical "quarry-speech"—Miri and the girls eventually gain confidence and knowledge that helps transform their village. Unfortunately, Hale's lighthearted premise and underlying romantic plot bog down in overlong passages about commerce and class, a surprise hostage situation and the specifics of "quarry-speech." The prince's final princess selection hastily and patly wraps things up.
Kirkus Reviews-There are many pleasures to this satisfying tale: a precise lyricism to the language ("The world was as dark as eyes closed" or "Miri's laugh is a tune you love to whistle") and a rhythm to the story that takes its tropes from many places, but its heart from ours. Miri is very small; her father has never let her work in the linder stone quarries where her village makes its living and she fears that it's because she lacks something. However, she's rounded up, with the other handful of girls ages 12 to 17, to be taught and trained when it's foreseen that the prince's bride will come from their own Mount Eskel. Olana, their teacher, is pinched and cruel, but Miri and the others take to their studies, for it opens the world beyond the linder quarries to them. Miri seeks other learning as well, including the mindspeech that ties her to her people, and seems to work through the linder stone itself. There's a lot about girls in groups, both kind and cutting; a sweet boy; the warmth of friends, fathers and sisters; and the possibility of being chosen by a prince one barely knows. The climax involving evil brigands is a bit forced, but everything else is an unalloyed joy.
BookList-- Miri would love to join her father and older sister as a miner in Mount Eskel's quarry. Not a glamorous aspiration for a 14-year-old, perhaps, but the miners produce the humble village's prize stone, linder, and mining is a respected occupation that drives the local economy. When the local girls are rounded up to compete for the hand of the kingdom's prince, Miri, the prize student in the Princess Academy, gets her chance to shine. In addition to her natural intelligence and spunk, she discovers an intuitive, and at times unspoken, language that grew out of work songs in the mines and uses linder as a medium. With this "quarry-speech" giving a boost to her courage and intelligence, Miri leads her classmates in the fight against being treated as social inferiors in the academy, at the same time educating herself in ways that will better the village. Hale nicely interweaves feminist sensibilities in this quest-for-a-prince-charming, historical-fantasy tale. Strong suspense and plot drive the action as the girls outwit would-be kidnappers and explore the boundaries of leadership, competition, and friendship.
Connections
Performance
Announce to the students that a producer is looking to purchase the script of the play Princess Academy. Tell the students they will each be writing a script for a portion of the book. A break down might look like this:
Beginning: Miri’s history, family life, friendship with Peder, longing to work in the mines
Rising Action: Announcement of the Princess Academy, going to live there, meeting Tutor Olana, and entering the Academy, Miri’s defiance with Tutor Olana, wishing to run away, discovery of quarry speak
Climax 1: boycott and walk out, visit home, realization of Miri’s feelings toward Peder, return to Academy, preparing for ball, Britta’s sickness
Climax 2: Meeting the prince, Steffan’s abrupt departure, Argument with Peder, capture at the Academy
Falling Action: Negotiations with robbers, escape
Ending: Peder and Miri finally talk, Miri learns about why she has been kept from the quarry, and Katar’s new position in court
Show examples of writing a script. Each group will present their part, using name tags for their characters (so the audience will be able to follow along). Present scripts by inviting other classes to watch.
The First Part Last
Bibliography
Johnson, Angela. 2004. THE FIRST PART LAST (SOUND RECORDING). Listening Library. Riverside, NJ. ISBN 1400090655.
Plot
Bobby and Nia, sixteen year old African Americans, find out that they are having a baby. At first, they agree to keep it. Then, they realize, giving the baby up for adoption would be best for everyone concerned. The baby will grow up to lead a fulfilling life, and Nia and Bobby can focus on school and start thinking about college. Until Nia has an accident and is left in a “permanent vegetative state.” No one expects Bobby to keep the little girl. But can he handle losing Nia and what all is left of her through her child?
Critical Analysis
This short work of realistic fiction starts out on the path of teenage pregnancy, and takes you rapidly to a whole other dimension of human choices. Structured in a series of flashbacks, each chapter is titled simply ‘then’ or ‘now.’ Through these transitions, we see Bobby struggling as the sole caretaker of Nia, and dealing with the accompanying sleep deprivation, planning, and lowering of grades that are a result of suddenly becoming a father. Bobby and Nia are two normal teenagers. Bobby enjoys hanging out with friends while Nia is studious. However, two come from very different backgrounds and their histories are as different as night and day. Slowly, like a picture coming into focus, Johnson reveals the events that lead Bobby down this unexpected path. It is no surprise that Nia wants to find the baby a home. And all goes according to plan. Until Johnson hits us with a completely unexpected whammy. Nia is brain dead. Despite society’s taboos, despite the reluctance of Nia’s family and Bobby’s own family to help him, Bobby makes a decision about the baby that no one can alter.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal –Angela Johnson's Printz Award-winning novel (S & S, 2003) is perfectly suited to the audiobook medium, and Khalipa Oldjohn narrates this first person tale with poignant authenticity of tone and pacing. At 16, Bobby struggles to be a father to his newborn daughter while keeping up with school, maintaining his boyhood friendships, and trying to live up to his parents' expectations. Told in alternating passages of "Now" and "Then," the back-story that has brought Bobby to this point falls steadily but deliberately into place, with the revelation of why Bobby is a single father arriving only near the very end. In spite of its brevity, the story is complex and satisfying. Bobby is both boy and man, responsible and overwhelmed, near panic and able to plan an intelligent and loving future for Feather, the daughter he adores and nurtures. In audio format, this story can readily be shared in just a class period or two and will grab listeners immediately, making it an ideal subject for class discussion. It will also be instantly popular for leisure reading outside of school.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
BookList-Bobby, the teenage artist and single-parent dad in Johnson's Coretta Scott King Award winner, Heaven (1998), tells his story here. At 16, he's scared to be raising his baby, Feather, but he's totally devoted to caring for her, even as she keeps him up all night, and he knows that his college plans are on hold. In short chapters alternating between "now" and "then," he talks about the baby that now fills his life, and he remembers the pregnancy of his beloved girlfriend, Nia. Yes, the teens' parents were right. The couple should have used birth control; adoption could have meant freedom. But when Nia suffers irreversible postpartum brain damage, Bobby takes their newborn baby home. There's no romanticizing. The exhaustion is real, and Bobby gets in trouble with the police and nearly messes up everything. But from the first page, readers feel the physical reality of Bobby's new world: what it's like to hold Feather on his stomach, smell her skin, touch her clenched fists, feel her shiver, and kiss the top of her curly head. Johnson makes poetry with the simplest words in short, spare sentences that teens will read again and again. The great cover photo shows the strong African American teen holding his tiny baby in his arms.
Publishers Weekly-In this companion novel, Johnson's fans learn just how Bobby, the single father for whom Marley baby-sits in Heaven, landed in that small town in Ohio. Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather, is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells his story in chapters that alternate between the present and the bittersweet past that has brought him to the point of single parenthood. Each nuanced chapter feels like a poem in its economy and imagery; yet the characters—Bobby and the mother of his child, Nia, particularly, but also their parents and friends, and even newborn Feather—emerge fully formed. Bobby tells his parents about the baby ("Not moving and still quiet, my pops just starts to cry") and contrasts his father's reaction with that of Nia's father ("He looks straight ahead like he's watching a movie outside the loft windows"). The way he describes Nia and stands by her throughout the pregnancy conveys to readers what a loving and trustworthy father he promises to be. The only misstep is a chapter from Nia's point of view, which takes readers out of Bobby's capable hands. But as the past and present threads join in the final chapter, readers will only clamor for more about this memorable father-daughter duo—and an author who so skillfully relates the hope in the midst of pain.
Kirkus Reviews-"The rules: If she hollers, she is mine. If she needs to be changed, she is always mine. In the dictionary next to 'sitter,' there is not a picture of Grandma. It's time to grow up. Too late, you're out of time. Be a grown-up." Sixteen-year-old Bobby has met the love of his life: his daughter. Told in alternating chapters that take place "then" and "now," Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there. Managing to cope with support, but little help, from his single mother (who wants to make sure he does this on his own), Bobby struggles to maintain friendships and a school career while giving his daughter the love and care she craves from him at every moment. By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy. The somewhat pat ending doesn't diminish the impact of this short, involving story. It's the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy.
School Library Journal-Brief, poetic, and absolutely riveting, this gem of a novel tells the story of a young father struggling to raise an infant. Bobby, 16, is a sensitive and intelligent narrator. His parents are supportive but refuse to take over the child-care duties, so he struggles to balance parenting, school, and friends who don't comprehend his new role. Alternate chapters go back to the story of Bobby's relationship with his girlfriend Nia and how parents and friends reacted to the news of her pregnancy. Bobby's parents are well-developed characters, Nia's upper-class family somewhat less so. Flashbacks lead to the revelation in the final chapters that Nia is in an irreversible coma caused by eclampsia. This twist, which explains why Bobby is raising Feather on his own against the advice of both families, seems melodramatic. So does a chapter in which Bobby snaps from the pressure and spends an entire day spray painting a picture on a brick wall, only to be arrested for vandalism. However, any flaws in the plot are overshadowed by the beautiful writing. Scenes in which Bobby expresses his love for his daughter are breathtaking. Teens who enjoyed Margaret Bechard's Hanging on to Max (Millbrook, 2002) will love this book, too, despite very different conclusions. The attractive cover photo of a young black man cradling an infant will attract readers.
Connections
Family Interview
Ask students to briefly tell this story to a family member. Ask a family member if they have experienced a situation where they experienced a problem, big or small, thought they knew how to take care of it, and then it ended up being solved in a life-changing way. Students can write a short story about the interview from their family. Those who wish to read them can share.
Vote
Pretend all the students in your class are now Bobby. They have just learned of Nia’s permanent condition. Have students say what they would do and to give at least three reasons for it. Be sure to state there is no right or wrong answer. Depending on your group of students, this might be done as an individual, written assignment.
Mistake Research Project
Discuss with students how Nia and Bobby felt that the pregnancy was a mistake. Explain to students mistakes happen to everyone and it is how we go forward that shows our character. Have students research and find at least 5 influential people in the history of the world who made mistakes but came through their mistakes. Suggestion: Insist that the person must be known from the 1980’s or previously. This will force students to look beyond Britney Spear’s marriage to Kevin Federline and Paris Hilton’s sex tape. Students can make a brief power point presentation to include all five ‘mistakers.’ If possible, present these for a few weeks during morning announcements to share them with the entire school.
Johnson, Angela. 2004. THE FIRST PART LAST (SOUND RECORDING). Listening Library. Riverside, NJ. ISBN 1400090655.
Plot
Bobby and Nia, sixteen year old African Americans, find out that they are having a baby. At first, they agree to keep it. Then, they realize, giving the baby up for adoption would be best for everyone concerned. The baby will grow up to lead a fulfilling life, and Nia and Bobby can focus on school and start thinking about college. Until Nia has an accident and is left in a “permanent vegetative state.” No one expects Bobby to keep the little girl. But can he handle losing Nia and what all is left of her through her child?
Critical Analysis
This short work of realistic fiction starts out on the path of teenage pregnancy, and takes you rapidly to a whole other dimension of human choices. Structured in a series of flashbacks, each chapter is titled simply ‘then’ or ‘now.’ Through these transitions, we see Bobby struggling as the sole caretaker of Nia, and dealing with the accompanying sleep deprivation, planning, and lowering of grades that are a result of suddenly becoming a father. Bobby and Nia are two normal teenagers. Bobby enjoys hanging out with friends while Nia is studious. However, two come from very different backgrounds and their histories are as different as night and day. Slowly, like a picture coming into focus, Johnson reveals the events that lead Bobby down this unexpected path. It is no surprise that Nia wants to find the baby a home. And all goes according to plan. Until Johnson hits us with a completely unexpected whammy. Nia is brain dead. Despite society’s taboos, despite the reluctance of Nia’s family and Bobby’s own family to help him, Bobby makes a decision about the baby that no one can alter.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal –Angela Johnson's Printz Award-winning novel (S & S, 2003) is perfectly suited to the audiobook medium, and Khalipa Oldjohn narrates this first person tale with poignant authenticity of tone and pacing. At 16, Bobby struggles to be a father to his newborn daughter while keeping up with school, maintaining his boyhood friendships, and trying to live up to his parents' expectations. Told in alternating passages of "Now" and "Then," the back-story that has brought Bobby to this point falls steadily but deliberately into place, with the revelation of why Bobby is a single father arriving only near the very end. In spite of its brevity, the story is complex and satisfying. Bobby is both boy and man, responsible and overwhelmed, near panic and able to plan an intelligent and loving future for Feather, the daughter he adores and nurtures. In audio format, this story can readily be shared in just a class period or two and will grab listeners immediately, making it an ideal subject for class discussion. It will also be instantly popular for leisure reading outside of school.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
BookList-Bobby, the teenage artist and single-parent dad in Johnson's Coretta Scott King Award winner, Heaven (1998), tells his story here. At 16, he's scared to be raising his baby, Feather, but he's totally devoted to caring for her, even as she keeps him up all night, and he knows that his college plans are on hold. In short chapters alternating between "now" and "then," he talks about the baby that now fills his life, and he remembers the pregnancy of his beloved girlfriend, Nia. Yes, the teens' parents were right. The couple should have used birth control; adoption could have meant freedom. But when Nia suffers irreversible postpartum brain damage, Bobby takes their newborn baby home. There's no romanticizing. The exhaustion is real, and Bobby gets in trouble with the police and nearly messes up everything. But from the first page, readers feel the physical reality of Bobby's new world: what it's like to hold Feather on his stomach, smell her skin, touch her clenched fists, feel her shiver, and kiss the top of her curly head. Johnson makes poetry with the simplest words in short, spare sentences that teens will read again and again. The great cover photo shows the strong African American teen holding his tiny baby in his arms.
Publishers Weekly-In this companion novel, Johnson's fans learn just how Bobby, the single father for whom Marley baby-sits in Heaven, landed in that small town in Ohio. Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather, is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells his story in chapters that alternate between the present and the bittersweet past that has brought him to the point of single parenthood. Each nuanced chapter feels like a poem in its economy and imagery; yet the characters—Bobby and the mother of his child, Nia, particularly, but also their parents and friends, and even newborn Feather—emerge fully formed. Bobby tells his parents about the baby ("Not moving and still quiet, my pops just starts to cry") and contrasts his father's reaction with that of Nia's father ("He looks straight ahead like he's watching a movie outside the loft windows"). The way he describes Nia and stands by her throughout the pregnancy conveys to readers what a loving and trustworthy father he promises to be. The only misstep is a chapter from Nia's point of view, which takes readers out of Bobby's capable hands. But as the past and present threads join in the final chapter, readers will only clamor for more about this memorable father-daughter duo—and an author who so skillfully relates the hope in the midst of pain.
Kirkus Reviews-"The rules: If she hollers, she is mine. If she needs to be changed, she is always mine. In the dictionary next to 'sitter,' there is not a picture of Grandma. It's time to grow up. Too late, you're out of time. Be a grown-up." Sixteen-year-old Bobby has met the love of his life: his daughter. Told in alternating chapters that take place "then" and "now," Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there. Managing to cope with support, but little help, from his single mother (who wants to make sure he does this on his own), Bobby struggles to maintain friendships and a school career while giving his daughter the love and care she craves from him at every moment. By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy. The somewhat pat ending doesn't diminish the impact of this short, involving story. It's the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy.
School Library Journal-Brief, poetic, and absolutely riveting, this gem of a novel tells the story of a young father struggling to raise an infant. Bobby, 16, is a sensitive and intelligent narrator. His parents are supportive but refuse to take over the child-care duties, so he struggles to balance parenting, school, and friends who don't comprehend his new role. Alternate chapters go back to the story of Bobby's relationship with his girlfriend Nia and how parents and friends reacted to the news of her pregnancy. Bobby's parents are well-developed characters, Nia's upper-class family somewhat less so. Flashbacks lead to the revelation in the final chapters that Nia is in an irreversible coma caused by eclampsia. This twist, which explains why Bobby is raising Feather on his own against the advice of both families, seems melodramatic. So does a chapter in which Bobby snaps from the pressure and spends an entire day spray painting a picture on a brick wall, only to be arrested for vandalism. However, any flaws in the plot are overshadowed by the beautiful writing. Scenes in which Bobby expresses his love for his daughter are breathtaking. Teens who enjoyed Margaret Bechard's Hanging on to Max (Millbrook, 2002) will love this book, too, despite very different conclusions. The attractive cover photo of a young black man cradling an infant will attract readers.
Connections
Family Interview
Ask students to briefly tell this story to a family member. Ask a family member if they have experienced a situation where they experienced a problem, big or small, thought they knew how to take care of it, and then it ended up being solved in a life-changing way. Students can write a short story about the interview from their family. Those who wish to read them can share.
Vote
Pretend all the students in your class are now Bobby. They have just learned of Nia’s permanent condition. Have students say what they would do and to give at least three reasons for it. Be sure to state there is no right or wrong answer. Depending on your group of students, this might be done as an individual, written assignment.
Mistake Research Project
Discuss with students how Nia and Bobby felt that the pregnancy was a mistake. Explain to students mistakes happen to everyone and it is how we go forward that shows our character. Have students research and find at least 5 influential people in the history of the world who made mistakes but came through their mistakes. Suggestion: Insist that the person must be known from the 1980’s or previously. This will force students to look beyond Britney Spear’s marriage to Kevin Federline and Paris Hilton’s sex tape. Students can make a brief power point presentation to include all five ‘mistakers.’ If possible, present these for a few weeks during morning announcements to share them with the entire school.
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