November Blues - Sharon Draper
Draper, S. (2007). November blues. New York: Antheneum Books.
When I was in high school, there was a girl who was Miss Everything – popular, inteligent, school leader, etc. Then, one day, she suddenly disappeared. She left school and left town… because she had gotten pregnant. After the flood of whispered rumors subsided, life resumed in our little community, and she was summarily forgotten. Today, in the school district where we live, this topic is a common fact of life. There are over 130 girls who are pregnant, most with accompanying STDs. The youngest is 12. And still most parents vehemently oppose any mention of pregnancy or any form of school-sponsored sex education – including any mention of family planning. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Consequently, I was very glad to read Sharon Draper’s treatment of this topic in her book November Blues. Teenage pregnancy is an ever-growing problem that won’t go away by adults ignoring it. In this story, when a teenage girl named November Nelson learns she is pregnant, she and the adults in her life must face the realities of her circumstance and plan for the future. In a way, this serves not only as a story that pregnant teenagers can relate to, but might even be a deterrent to those young girls who look at this possibility in their own lives with nonchalance.
The book is also timely in the way it includes teenage death in the story. It’s a tragic fact of life that teenage deaths – both accidental and suicidal – are on the rise. In addition to the girl who got pregnant in my old high school, one of my classmates committed suicide. Teenagers today live in a world of Virginia Tech, Columbine, etc. Because of its reality and contemporary language, November Blues would be very appealing to contemporary teens. Personally, I welcomed it as an open and honest treatment of issues that need to be discussed with our youth.
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