The Girl with a Baby

by Sylvia Olsen

Paperback, 2022

Status

Available

Call number

272

Description

You are the same girl that came to school last year. They are the same kids. But nothing was the same and I knew it. I had become the girl with a baby. Jane has always been the good Williams. Her brothers might be high school dropouts and late-night rowdy partiers, but never Jane. Jane never drinks, smokes dope or misses a single day of school. She's in the drama club...smart and hot...one of the popular ones. Or she used to be. Now she's one of those: the teenage mothers packing diaper bags with their knapsacks, wheeling strollers into the high school daycare, tired and grumpy. Jane's only 14, younger than most of them, and she can feel the stares in the school halls. She can hear the whispers on her whitebread street, too: too bad, gone the way of her brothers, guess those Indians are all the same. Jane isn't what she used to be-but then, maybe she's more. When baby Destiny was being born, grandmother Tet told her she came from a long line of strong mothers, and Jane's discovering it's true. Because of baby Destiny, Jane dares to demand the best, not just of herself, but of her whole family. This Jane accepts the consequences of her decisions, good and bad, and pushes through prejudices the former Jane just tiptoed around. This Jane is a strong link in something bigger than herself. She's a girl with a baby, two feet on the ground, one hand in the warm grasp of Tet and her Indian past, and the other holding firmly to the future.… (more)

Publication

Sono Nis Press (2003), Edition: First Edition, Advanced Reading Copy, 208 pages

User reviews

LibraryThing member peonygoat
A good book about fourteen-year-old Jane, a mother carrying on with high school and finding strength in her First Nations heritage. Her involvement with the drama club is reminiscent of True Confessions of a Drama Queen.
LibraryThing member Omrythea
The book, The Girl with a Baby, opens with fourteen year old Jane in the labor with her first child. Jane, a popular girl with Native American heritage has managed to conceal her pregnancy from everyone except her disinterested boyfriend up until one day before she delivers. After her baby Destiny
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is born, she decides to return to high school which has an on-site daycare. Thereafter known as “the girl with a baby” she struggles to juggle her roles as mother and student, while at the same time keeping her motherless Native American family together, fed, and out of trouble with the law. In a powerful story of courage and pride, Jane rises above everyone’s expectations.
This is a great read!
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LibraryThing member StonehamHS_Library
Having a baby at fourteen years old is anything but easy. Jane Williams was a smart girl with a bright future- just the opposite of her rowdy, older brothers. Jane lives with her Indian family who isn’t accepted by their neighbors especially with her crazy brothers always causing a ruckus. Once
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Jane found out she was pregnant she decided to keep the baby, although the baby’s father, Trevor, wanted her to get an abortion. Because she was afraid of disappointing her family, the only person she told throughout her whole pregnancy was Trevor. Once baby Destiny arrives, the pressure is on to keep up her grades and not fall behind or drop out like most teenage mothers. Just walking down the hallways at school was difficult to do without hearing nasty and hurtful remarks from other kids about her having a baby. Now with Trevor moving away and not having anything to do with her or Destiny and her old friends gone, will Jane be able to pull through? With the help of her grandmother, Teh, and new best friend, Dawna, it may be possible.
Honestly, when I picked out this book I didn’t think I would enjoy it because the title is a little out there, but from what I read on the back, it sounded interesting. I learned not to judge a book by its cover because this book was great! I really liked it and could barely ever put it down. It was amazing to see Jane still be strong and determined even through the worst of times. She always held her head up high, and proved everyone who doubted her, wrong. Jane was truly an inspirational character. I also liked this book because it is very relatable to a lot of girls in this day and age, so the story was very believable. I love how it shows the reader that if Jane could be successful even with a baby, then it is definitely possible for the reader to be successful as well.
This book can easily be connected to the American dream. Jane lived a nearly perfect life before she got pregnant- lots of friends, popular in school, straight A student, and active in her school’s drama club. Once she got pregnant, a lot of people didn’t believe in her and all of her neighbors looked down upon her and her family (also because of her brothers). Her neighbors were very discriminatory against Indians, as were her peers at school against teenage mothers. Ever since having baby Destiny, Jane’s life has been very difficult with many obstacles and challenges. Jane still found the strength within her to maintain that perfect American dream life with the support of her family and best friend. -J.E.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

208 p.; 7.75 inches

ISBN

1550391429 / 9781550391428

Barcode

3088
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