The First Part Last by Angela Johnson | Teen Ink

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

January 16, 2012
By Anonymous

The book "The First Part Last" by Angela Johnson was published by Simon Pulse. The
book was published in January 2005. This book is about a teenage pregnancy. The main character, protagonist, narrator, and father in the book are Bobby. He has to take care of his daughter Feather, while Nia, Feathers mother, is in the hospital. Mainly this book is about how Booby is handing and taking care of his daughter and having to find a person to take care of Feather while he is at school. How quickly his life is changing from being a child to having a child. The setting taking place in the Bronx New York.

"Bobby I've got something to tell you. Then she handed me a balloon." The conflict was that Bobby was just now finding out about the pregnancy. Once Feather was born, Bobby’s life changed completely. He had to change his life schedule for Feather, which includes lack of sleep, hanging out with his friends, doing what he wants, and playing video games, etc... Bobby would dream about not having to take care of Feather "skipped school with my running boys K-Boy and J.L., and went to Mineo's for couple of slices. Hit a Manitee and three popcorn at each other as we ate." Bobby wishes he could do all those things, but he has a bigger responsibility. The "Now" and "Then" represent the chapters instead of being numbers. The "Now" represents what is happening since Feather was born and the "Then" parts represents what was happening while Nia was in the hospital and before Feather was born.

Bobby is doing his best at taking care of Feather, and doing this all on his own while Nia is in the hospital. His mother and antagonist, Mary tells him that he needs to take cares of Feather by himself and says to him "In the dictionary next to sitter there isn't a picture of grandma." But booby has so much on his plate he can't even eat what's in it. He has to think about school, having someone look after Feather, homework, and then taking care of Feather at the same time. Booby has had thoughts of adoption before Nia was in the hospital and was there to help him make this huge decision, but he loves her too much. "So. You are going to keep her or what." K-Boy asks. "What do you mean am I going to keep her?"

Bobby then gets everything together and makes his decision the right one for not just him but Feather too. His life is a whole lot easier and better for him and Feather. It is all because he moved in with his brother Paul. It was a great idea to move and Bobby has a lot more help now than he did before. He could have given up on himself and let someone adopt Feather but she was the last thing that Bobby has of Nia, so he didn't want to give her up. Bobby has made great decisions so he can take care of Feather, and hopefully he keeps doing that because everything is turning out great except for one thing.

So if you like this review and want to know what goes wrong I suggest you read the book because the conflicts and details are very well written. They keep you interested. So hopefully you want to read the book and enjoy it.



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on Aug. 25 2014 at 4:27 pm
You misspelled Bobby as Booby.