Hanging on to Max

Sam Pettigrew has stepped up. When he becomes a father at the age of 17, and his son's mother Brittney decides to start a new life, Sam takes on the care and raising of his infant son. Without support from his single-parent dad, Sam struggles to balance taking care of his son and attending night

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school at an alternative high school. Throw in a couple of dates with a young woman who attends school with her baby, and you can feel the desperate need for Sam to succeed. He loves his son, but as the pressure of all his responsibilities mount, a tragic accident wakes him up from his sleep deprived haze. Sam reaches a moment of truth when he knows he loves Max enough to make decisions that are in his best interests and outside of his own interests.
This is a sweet, gentle novel about a modern-day young man whose heart is in the right place.

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Honest and revealing look at what it might be like for a teenage boy to try and raise his infant son. Bechard does a great job of showing the conflicting parts of Sam’s character—he loves Max and wants to take good care of him, but he’s also a teenager and wants to have his own life (complete

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with friends and girls and free time and the possibility of college and a career). I was surprised at first when Sam decides to give Max up for adoption, but in the end Sam feels that it’s the right choice, and so do we. He doesn’t have the same resources and help that Claire does (her mother and sister), and the contrast with the decisions the other characters make emphasizes the point that there is no one right answer for everybody. I like that we get a glimpse of Sam’s future at the end, and get to know that Sam and Max eventually meet again.

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This was probably the only book I have ever read like this. At the start it is very funny especially of how Sam, of all teenage boys gets stuck in this situation. It is hilarious of how he handles it and how all the other teenagers have babies but all of them are girls. But at the end I think it

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gets quite sad and I still personally think he should have kept Max.

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An interesting look at teen pregnancy from the male point of view. The ending is sure to stir debate.

Review from library copy.

Okay, I think I'm going to start bawling my eyes out. It's a little similar to Angela Johnson's The First Part Last, about teenage fatherhood.

One of few stories I know of where the focus is on the teen dad. But Sam's decision to put Max up for adoption didn't come realistically to me.