Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
HarperTeen (1994), 192 pages
Description
Eighteen-year-old Chris struggles to deal with two shocks that have changed his life, his meeting the mother who left him and his father when he was ten and his discovery that he has gotten his girlfriend pregnant.
User reviews
LibraryThing member mybookshelf
Chris and Helen are ordinary English teenagers, in love, in their last year of high school. Suddenly Helen begins to suspect that she’s pregnant, and everything changes for both of them. Neither knows how to deal with this. Chris wants to act as though nothing’s changed, but Helen can’t help
This book is all about relationships. It provides much to think about in terms of what can end a relationship, and whether the reasons for doing so are valid. The story also provides room to explore how different relationships effect each other, by showing how one person can become so absorbed with one other so as to exclude other relationships. For Chris, Helen is this person, but for Helen, she can only think about baby Nobody.
The novel explores how Chris and Helen relate to each other, and to their unborn child; but it also looks at the other relationships within families. For example, Chris is in the process of renewing contact with is mother, who walked out on the family when he was ten. And there are issues within Helen’s family, who feel that she has let them down, now that she can no longer go to Music School as planned.
The story is told from assorted perspectives. Helen writes her letters to Nobody. Chris writes letters to Helen, to his mother, and ultimately to his newborn child. Chris’s mother writes a special letter to Helen. In between, Chris narrates the other happenings over these nine months of their lives, but often he’s recording what an older person (his father, his aunt) has just told him about their own past, so the book seems to cover a longer time span than it actually does.
In the course of the story, there are many, many decisions to be made. Both teenagers have been trying to decide what to do when they finish school, now they must decide what to do about their baby instead. Is abortion an acceptable option? Helen will need to find somewhere to live when the baby is born, and isn’t sure if she wants to continue her relationship with Chris. Helen’s mother believes the only proper thing is for the two to get married, and bring the baby up within a secure family environment.
The constant pressure on the characters to make the right decision lends the story in places a somewhat desperate feel. However the reader cannot help but become emotionally involved with the characters, and is as anxious as they are to see whether the decisions will turn out appropriately. In other places, the story is tender, even romantic, as it examines the delicacy and pain of relationships, and the emotional consequences of physical involvement.
I would strongly recommend this story to serious readers, especially females, aged 12 or older.
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being focussed on the life forming within her. As she drifts away from Chris, Helen writes letters to their unborn baby, her Nobody, to try and sort out her feelings. This book is all about relationships. It provides much to think about in terms of what can end a relationship, and whether the reasons for doing so are valid. The story also provides room to explore how different relationships effect each other, by showing how one person can become so absorbed with one other so as to exclude other relationships. For Chris, Helen is this person, but for Helen, she can only think about baby Nobody.
The novel explores how Chris and Helen relate to each other, and to their unborn child; but it also looks at the other relationships within families. For example, Chris is in the process of renewing contact with is mother, who walked out on the family when he was ten. And there are issues within Helen’s family, who feel that she has let them down, now that she can no longer go to Music School as planned.
The story is told from assorted perspectives. Helen writes her letters to Nobody. Chris writes letters to Helen, to his mother, and ultimately to his newborn child. Chris’s mother writes a special letter to Helen. In between, Chris narrates the other happenings over these nine months of their lives, but often he’s recording what an older person (his father, his aunt) has just told him about their own past, so the book seems to cover a longer time span than it actually does.
In the course of the story, there are many, many decisions to be made. Both teenagers have been trying to decide what to do when they finish school, now they must decide what to do about their baby instead. Is abortion an acceptable option? Helen will need to find somewhere to live when the baby is born, and isn’t sure if she wants to continue her relationship with Chris. Helen’s mother believes the only proper thing is for the two to get married, and bring the baby up within a secure family environment.
The constant pressure on the characters to make the right decision lends the story in places a somewhat desperate feel. However the reader cannot help but become emotionally involved with the characters, and is as anxious as they are to see whether the decisions will turn out appropriately. In other places, the story is tender, even romantic, as it examines the delicacy and pain of relationships, and the emotional consequences of physical involvement.
I would strongly recommend this story to serious readers, especially females, aged 12 or older.
Show Less
Awards
Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing (Nominee — 1991)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1993)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
192 p.; 4.13 inches
ISBN
0688127649 / 9780688127640
Other editions
Dear Nobody (Tracks) by Berlie Doherty (Paperback)
Dear Nobody (Tracks) by Berlie Doherty (Paperback)