the first part last

Ragina Shearer
5653 Multicultural Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Book Review – African American

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Johnson, Angela. 2004. THE FIRST PART LAST. Read by Khalipa Oldjohn with Kole Kristi as Nia. New York, New York. ISBN 1-4000-9115-2

AUDIOBOOK
Unabridged production, 2 compact disc slipcase packaging, 1 hour, 42 minutes. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Read by two readers Khalipa Oldjohn narrator and voice of the main young adult male character, Bobby. The second reader is the voice of Nia read by Kole Kristi.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
The story begins after Bobby already has his baby daughter and goes back and forth in time to before she is conceived up to her birth to present day after she is already born. The listener must pay close attention to understand which particular time period it is currently in. Bobby talks about his feelings as a typical teenager and the struggles of fatherhood. "The rules: If she hollers, she is mine. If she needs to be changed, she is always mine. In the dictionary next to 'sitter,' there is not a picture of Grandma. It's time to grow up. Too late, you're out of time. Be a grown-up." His parents expect him to take on the responsibility of this child. The story relates his love for the child and her mother and his struggles to continue his own life of growing up. The reader does not learn until the end that the mother, Nia is in an irreversible coma after delivering the child and at that point is when Bobby decides he must keep this baby and raise her himself.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
Johnson’s story describes the characters skin tones and hair texture as that of African Americans. The language patterns reflect a black, urban, present day dialect. The characters listen to jazz and Motown music and description of African motif fills their homes. The characters names Bobby, Mary, and Fred are common American names. The names of Bobby’s friends Coco, K-Boy and J.L represent a typical urban black present day use of names for young people. The book proceeds to talk about the teenage black boy and his feelings as he encounters various aspects of his life. The feelings for his child are revealed with “Feather cried yesterday when I left her at the sitter’s. It’s the first time she ever cried for me.” Bobby reveals his love and concern for Nia, “I want to go to your first appointment with you, to be there for you.”

4. REVIEW EXCERPT (S)
Two time Coretta Scott King Award winner.

Starred BOOKLIST: “In short chapters alternating between "now"and "then,"he talks about the baby that now fills his life, and he remembers the pregnancy of his beloved girlfriend, Nia.”
HORN BOOK: “He and his girlfriend, Nia, had planned to put up the baby for adoption, but Feather becomes impossible to relinquish after, as the reader learns at book's end, pregnancy-related eclampsia leaves Nia in an irreversible coma.”
KIRKUS REVIEW: “Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there.”

5. CONNECTIONS
A great book for high school sex education and child development classes. Bobby shows all the mixed feelings of love for his girlfriend, his baby, and his friends and family. He also shows mixed emotions of the changes in his own life.
Other books on teenage life problems are:
Johnson, Angela. HEAVEN. ISBN 0-689-82229-4
Anderson, Laurie Halse. SPEAK. ISBN 10: 0-374-37152-0
Stapledon, Olaf . LAST AND FIRST MEN. ISBN 10: 0-486-46682-5