The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

Bibliography
Johnson, Angela. 2003. The First Part Last. New York: Simon & Schuster.

ISBN: 0-689-84922-2

Summary
Bobby, a teenager, becomes a father of a baby girl, Feather. His life changes completely after her birth.

Critical Analysis
Award winning author, Angela Johnson, has written a young adult novel that is easy to read with her then and now chapters and short, eloquent sentences in her story The First Part Last.

The story is set in contemporary New York City, where the characters are suggestive of today's people. The main character, Bobby is a sixteen year old boy who has just fathered a child with his teen girlfriend, Nia. Minor characters include Bobby's father and mother and his best friends, K-Boy and J.L. After eclampsia leaves Nia permanently disabled, Bobby decides to keep his baby, Feather, rather than giving her up for adoption. During the story, Bobby deals with such things as exhaustion for caring for Feather, skipping school, and getting arrested for spray painting a wall.

Johnson believable storyline creates a plot readers can understand. Throughout the story, Bobby struggles with life as a new father. At the end, Johnson finishes the story with a surprising twist, yet hopeful ending. The theme indicates Bobby's struggles with doing what is right, as many young adults would and provides an extraordinary example of a family, even if the family is different than most.

The First Part Last is a moving story of relationships and the birth of a child from a teenage boy's point of view. Angela Johnson has written a powerful, insightful story.

Review Excerpts
Kirkus Review states, "Told in alternating chapters that take place "then" and "now," Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there. Managing to cope with support, but little help, from his single mother (who wants to make sure he does this on his own), Bobby struggles to maintain friendships and a school career while giving his daughter the love and care she craves from him at every moment. By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy" (2003).

Booklist announces, "[F]rom the first page, readers feel the physical reality of Bobby's new world: what it's like to hold Feather on his stomach, smell her skin, touch her clenched fists, feel her shiver, and kiss the top of her curly head. Johnson makes poetry with the simplest words in short, spare sentences that teens will read again and again" (2003).

Review excerpts accessed from http://www.titlewave.com/

Connections
Other young adult novels by Angela Johnson:
Heaven
Toning the Sweep
Gone From Home
Humming Whispers
On the Fringe

Other stories by Angela Johnson:
The Aunt in Our House
Do Like Kyla
Daddy Calls Me Man
A Cool Moonlight
The Other Side
Bird