BUTTERFLIES IN MAY

A gentle simplicity infuses this story of white, middle-class teen pregnancy. Seventeen-year-old Ali is a high-school senior, enjoying yearbook and planning for college. She and her boyfriend Matt neglect condoms only once, but she becomes pregnant. Venturing from suburban Illinois to a Planned Parenthood center in Chicago, Ali tries to schedule an abortion but finds that she can’t go through with it. Supported by Matt and a loyal best friend, Ali meets a potential adoptive couple—also white and middle-class, living in “a white two-story house surrounded with flowers.” However, when Ali begins to consider keeping the baby herself, Matt’s attitude shifts. He becomes distant and eventually leaves her altogether. Ali’s final decision is right for her but brings some tears. Ali’s first-person voice is sometimes generic (“There’s no way I’m pregnant—that’s something that happens to other girls”) but sweetly plainspoken. (Fiction. YA)