"DEAR DIARY, I'M PREGNANT: Teenagers Talk About Their Pregnancy"

by Anrenâe Englander ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1997

Englander interviewed around 40 young women who became pregnant in their teens, featuring ten of them in this informative, disquieting book. Each teen, after much deliberation, chose one of three alternatives for dealing with her pregnancy: abortion, adoption, or motherhood. The results are never wholly happy; the tacit point is that teenage pregnancy is never without complications, most of them serious. Although Englander, nonjudgmental in presentation, supplies several disclaimers to persuade readers that the girls' stories in the book do not comprise the entire range of situations, the tales are somewhat depressing. Mostly drifting into pregnancy, the young women only half-heartedly accept responsibility for their actions, and the young men only hover on the periphery. Although the interviews were edited into readable form, few of the teenagers are articulate and interesting enough to sustain the several-page, first-person narrations. The two most helpful sections are the introduction, which discusses the myths about teen pregnancy, and the afterword--""You are pregnant--now what?""--which gives the book its value, containing more solid information and real help for readers than all the tales of woe that precede it.

Pub Date: June 1, 1997

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Annick--dist. by Firefly

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1997

Categories: CHILDREN'S