Fiction, Fantasy, & YA-Review2

1.BILBIOGRAPHY
Johnson, Angela. 2003. THE FIRST PART LAST. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689849222

2.PLOT SUMMARY
This contemporary fiction novel is about a sixteen year old, Bobby, and his early experiences with fatherhood. Nia, his girlfriend, is pregnant. It’s unplanned; they thought they were taking the necessary precautions. Their families and friends are shocked, but they are the only ones who know how terrified they feel themselves. The possibility of giving the baby up for adoption seems like the right thing to do. Nia and Bobby have their whole lives ahead of them and their parents had dreams. At about 8 months of pregnancy, Nia is rushed to the hospital. She has suffered from eclampsia, is brain dead, and will remain in vegetative state for the rest of her life. Nia is placed in long-term care. Stepping up to his responsibilities, Bobby knows that he cannot give up their child, Feather. He refuses to finalize the adoption papers amidst the social worker’s talk of how difficult it would be for someone so young to raise a baby. Feather goes home with her father and parental grandparents. Bobby struggles emotionally and physically, but realizes that somehow they will be fine together.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Wow! This novel was so emotionally packed that as a reader I underwent suspense, compassion, joy, warmth, pain, and sadness. The story plot was incredibly true to life and revealed a reality for many young adults and their families. As the protagonist, Bobby related the story from a first person point of view allowing the reader to fully experience his innermost thoughts which were bursting with fears about his role as a father while he was still a child himself. At one point he is considering if he could likely persuade Feather’s pediatrician, who was technically also still his pediatrician, to write him a notE excusing him from this role of fatherhood: “I just want a note to get me out of it.” The ending of the story was not ordinary. The characters did not simply end up living happily ever after. Instead, readers are left to wonder how Bobby and Feather were doing together as they adapted to life in a new small town. Readers may experience a sense of hope for both of them.

Again, the author’s style delivers a story through first person point of view. Bobby lends voice to the events as if he were sitting to the side, overlooking his life and writing about it in a journal. The novel is divided into “Now” and “Then” chapters alternating between the past and the future. From the “Then” chapters the reader lives the shock and confusions experienced by Nia, Bobby, and their parents as news of the pregnancy is delivered and Nia goes through her pregnancy. The “Now” chapters relay Bobby’s role as a young, new, inexperienced father living with his mother in the city. It is like reading two novels simultaneously, and this style of writing is quite original. The format requires precise thought and making connections while providing a different model for personal writings.


As a reader I was led to reason and interact with the characters through the careful writing of the author. Angela Johnson’s characterization of Bobby’s mother as unhelpful and unresponsive to Feather’s needs initially anguished me. I wondered and reasoned mentally with her as a reader. How could she not lend a hand when Bobby was not getting any sleep and still had to go to school the next morning? Wasn’t Feather her granddaughter? Poor Bobby. However, these ongoing were part of Johnson’s theme as I came to realize. Bobby did not have much choice now but to grow up and learn to take full responsibility for the life that had been created. He has to realize that even though there are neighbors, friends, and grandparents who can quite possibly take the responsibility off him and let him be a kid, this is what comes from his adult actions.

Angela Johnson’s use of foreshadowing early on in the story when Bobby is wishing to be out of school and with Feather was a subsequent point of interacting with the text. He is thinking he could be “telling her how much she looks like her mom. And asking if she remembers her. It hasn’t been that long ago.” As the reader, I was wondering and nearly trying to solve a mystery of what had happened to Nia. Why should Feather only remember her now? What was most captivating, thought was that the mention of Nia’s absence due to something unknown was rather elusive. There were very brief clues such as when Bobby realized that Feather’s facial expressions and her eyes were like looking at Nia. Had something happened to her after all? Was it possibility death at birth? Did she just decide to leave the city after Feather’s birth as her parents had once suggested during the pregnancy? Not until the near closing of the story is the reader able to have answers.


4.REVIEW (EXCERPTS)
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.”

BOOKLIST-“ 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.”

CORRETA SCOTT KING AWARD

MICHAEL PRINTZ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

5.CONNECTIONS
-Rewrite the story to tell it from Nia’s point of view.
-Allow students to experience an audio book through this title.
-Other titles by Angela Johnson:
A SWEET SMELL OF ROSES
HEAVEN
JUST LIKE JOSH GIBSON
BIRD
A COOL MOONGLIGTH