In many teen pregnancy stories you almost always here it told by the girl, telling how she feels and how being pregnant has changed her life but when asked “Where’s the baby’s father?” you’ll “He’s not in the baby’s life.” or “I don’t know.” Now it seems like the girl always makes the guy out to be the bad one the one who doesn’t care. What Angela Johnson does in the book The First Part Last she shows that there are guys out there who do care and who are in the baby’s life she changes the whole perspective of what people think when it comes down to teen pregnancy and the father. “When I told Nia I wanted to go to her first appointment, she asked, “Why do you want to go?”(27)
THE FIRST PART LAST is a story about a 16 year old boy named Bobby who has to deal with the struggles of being a father at a young age. Bobby had just turned 16 and after a long fun day out with his boys on his birthday. He comes home to find his girlfriend Nia waiting for him in the front of his house with something to tell him. Bobby finds out that he’s going to be a father and he’s scared and excited at the same time he doesn’t know what he and Nia are going to do about the baby. While Nia is pregnant Bobby worships her hand and foot he does everything for Nia to make her happy “I know she ate two hours ago because I was the one who picked up the pineapple-and-pepperoni pizza for at Mineo’s.” Bobby and Nia have decided on adoption because they don’t think that they could take care of a baby on their own and at such a young age.
Bobby was living with his mother now he and his daughter Feather are living with his father. Bobby is raising Feather on his own with a little help from his parents and his neighbor Coco. Bobby takes the subway everyday to drop Feather off at daycare and pick her up he also takes the subway to and from school everyday. Bobby will do anything for Feather “Feather spent last night in the hospital, with me sitting next to her bed all night long.” He has also given up things that he likes “I thought about laying her in the middle of my bed and going off to find my old Game Boy, but I didn’t.”
THE FIRST PART LAST goes by “then” and “now” chapters the “then” tells about what life was like for Bobby while Nia is pregnant. It foreshadows what’s going to happen in the now chapters. “Now” tells about what life is like for Bobby after Nia has the Baby. When he’s taking care of Feather by himself. In the “then” chapters Bobby and Nia were planning on giving the baby up for adoption when it was born. When the baby is born Nia goes into a coma because she lost a lot of blood so now its up to Bobby of whether or not he wants to sign the adoption papers or keep the baby. In the “now” chapters bobby takes care of Feather because he decided that he wanted to keep her because she was all he had left of Nia.
I think that Angela Johnson didn’t a wonderful job writing this novel it really captures the guys point of view of being a father. The way the chapters were made the book a little confusing at first but when you keep reading you start to get it. I also think that she should have talked a little more about Bobby and Nia’s relationship and have Bobby show a little more emotion for her not being there because it made it seem like their relationship wasn’t that great. I would recommend this book to every young teen out there.