The First Part Last

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Johnson, Angela. THE FIRST PART LAST. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2003.

PLOT SUMMARY
THE FIRST PART LAST is a book about a teenage boy that discovers his girlfriend is pregnant with his child. The book goes back and forth from the past to the present. The young man goes through trials and tribulations in his head as well as with his family, his girlfriend, and his teachers. While he knows he has a great future ahead of him, he is torn between his future as an athlete and his future as a father. The book follows him throughout his journey and explains how he came out on the other side.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The main character in the book is an athletic young man with a girlfriend and an active social life. He is a person that most teenage readers can relate to. While he is doing well in school, he must begin to think about his future. This can be a trying time in any teenager’s life but to add to the stress he finds out he is going to be a father. This particular issue is a growing concern these days. Regardless of whether the reader has had the same experience or not, likely they have had some experience that changed their life.

The plot of the story focuses around teenagers that become pregnant. The topic of teen sex and teen pregnancy is on the rise. Teenagers see this issue on television, in movies, and in real life. This is a current topic that will not likely go away any time soon. The book is set in current times. It takes place between Bobby’s house, his girlfriend Nia’s house, and school.

The obvious theme of the story is overcoming obstacles and doing what is right. Bobby has an inner struggle with his options of doing what he wants and doing what is best. He has to find a balance between his school, work, friends, and family. He struggles with his place in the family. He still wants to be young and protected by his mother yet he wants to be a strong father figure to his daughter.

Bobby is the narrator of the story. He gives his personal account of the things that took place during his high school career. While there is some dialogue in the story it does not overpower Bobby’s narration. The chapters give a unique style to this story. The chapters are labeled “now” and “then”. In the “now” chapters Bobby discusses his life now and how it is different from how it used to be. In the “then” chapters Bobby recalls the past when he first finds out about the baby and how he feels about it at the time.

The gender of this book is especially important. The main character is a boy deciding what to do about a baby that he and his girlfriend created. This is refreshing and unique because often times we hear the girl’s perspective rather than the boys.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Brief, poetic, and absolutely riveting, this gem of a novel tells the story of a young father struggling to raise an infant.-SLJ

Johnson makes poetry with the simplest words in short, spare sentences that teens will read again and again.-BOOKLIST

CONNECTIONS
This book is a great lesson on actions and consequences. While I do not think this book should be used in a classroom because of its context, I do believe it could be used by parents to teach their teenagers about the risks of sex.

On a literary note, the use of past and present shows a different way to tell a story and how to connect outcomes to the events that took place.