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Title: Hanging On to Max by Margaret Bechard ISBN: 0-7613-1579-9 Publisher: Roaring Brook Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Finding new ground in a familiar plot
Comment: Hanging On To Max
You think you know what this book will be. Teen father raises baby. Issues follow. Yes. And no. The usual approach is to show young man growing into his responsibilities, lots of diapering fiascoes, etc. Author Margaret Bechard finds new ground. Why is Sam raising Max? To show he is a good guy? To take responsibility? As punishment for disappointing his father? How many lives will be damaged if Sam hangs onto Max?
This thought provoking YA has scenes that are heartbreaking as well as funny. The scene where 17 year old Sam, after a year of isolation as he immerses himself in the baby, meets with old friends and plays basketball, then drops to the wet grass and simply-relaxes-is stunning. You'll love Sam, you'll love Max and the end-isn't an ending at all. I'm going to read this one again.
Rating: 5
Summary: Hanging on to this book!!
Comment: Hanging on to Max by Margaret Bachard is a book about a boy named Sam Pettigrow living through his senior year as a parent. Sam was no typical 17-year boy. At this stage of the game Sam was already changing diapers and pushing around strollers. Sam was a teenage father balancing parenting duties and schoolwork. His former girlfriend Brittney couldn?t handle being a teenage mother and was going to give up her new baby boy, Max. Sam couldn?t let this happen so he took over the roll of being a father.
Sam started to go to an alternative school that had a day care built into it for teenage mothers and fathers. Sam was so busy juggling schoolwork and taking care of Max and never had anytime for himself. Sam meets a former friend Emily from his old high school who also is a parent. Emily shows Sam that things aren?t as easy as they should be.
This story was heartbreaking, humorous, you can relate to this story and was very realistic. I really enjoyed reading this story and I think you would enjoy reading this story also if your a boy or girl anyone can benefit from reading this and you can learn many things from reading this story.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Needed Novel
Comment: Sam Pettigrew is a senior in high school. And he has a baby. Yes-a baby. His girlfriend got pregnant the previous year, decided that she couldn't handle raising the baby, and Sam felt a need to raise his son. Now, Sam's going to an alternative high school and juggling classes, college hopes...and baby Max. The mix only gets tougher when he meets Claire, a fellow teenage parent who Sam definitely has feelings for. Yet no matter what happens, Sam is determined to prove to the world that he's not a stupid teenage guy and that he CAN hang on to Max.
Like I said, this is definitely a book that needed to be written and needs to be read. Many of us at some point or another have read the typical "pregnant teenage girl" novels and they certainly offer valuable perspectives. Yet it seems that we rarely come into contact with novels that explore a MALE's feelings about the issue. "Hanging Onto Max" definitely corrects this problem.
But "Hanging Onto Max" is more than just a mediocre novel with a rarely-done perspective- its main character is just as memorable as the content. I literally checked this book out from the library, read the first page, and raced through the novel until I finished it.
Sam is just that kind of a character. He is realistically "male" without being a stereotype, and his thoughts and words reverberate with a piercing, understated truth. Flashbacks of Sam's experiences with his girlfriend and of life "before" are also unusually well done. Through them, Bechard managed to perfectly capture Sam's previous experiences and thus allow the reader to understand his current situation better. As I read, I felt like Sam was really a person-he is one of those characters you literally feel a "warmth" and empathy toward. The writing is blunt, quick, and free of pretentious prose. This only makes Sam better.
Without a doubt, "Hanging Onto Max" succeeds at exploring one of the toughest issues. Not only is it from an intriguing male perspective, it deals with the issue of teen pregnancy with realism, empathy, and a fearlessness when it comes to exploring the gut-wrenching choices that those involved must make.
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Title: Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson ISBN: 0142400017 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Shattering Glass by Gail Giles ISBN: 0689858000 Publisher: Simon Pulse Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos ISBN: 0374399883 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 26 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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