Customer Reviews

The First Part Last (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(56)
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The First Part Last is the story of teenager Bobby Morris, a guy who likes to hang out with his friends K-Boy and J. L.; they're typical boys who want to shoot hoops, buy a slice of pizza in a New York City neighborhood, or play with a Game Boy. But things are never the same when Bobby gets Nia pregnant; she's flipping out about this baby developing inside her belly, and Bobby is learning all too fast what it takes to be a daddy and a man.

Bobby narrates the story, explaining all the feelings he has for his new baby daughter called Feather. It seems everything he does these days must be done in consideration of his daughter. Bobby and Feather are irrevocably tied together and Bobby is trying his best to cope with the joys and challenges of his new role.

The First Part Last may serve as a realistic wake-up call for teenagers who are experimenting with sex and who think pregnancy, motherhood, or fatherhood cannot happen to them. The book describes a lot of what being a parent entails and teens may think twice about what they'd want for their own future; being tied to a baby, or maybe having better alternatives about the direction for their lives.

One thing missing from the book is intensity. The narrator's voice is mild throughout the story so you never feel like anything explosive is about to happen. But maybe that is the writer's intent - that the reality of parenthood is explosive enough. The First Part Last is a brief and important book for teens to check out, and perhaps their parents too.

Bobby describes "Just Frank", a man from his neighborhood who always asks when Bobby is going to be a man, as a joke. When "Just Frank" dies saving a young girl, Bobby begins to respect "Just Frank" and understand what it would take for him to be a responsible young father.

Bobby quickly learns that parenting is not an easy job. Angela Johnson gives a clear and accurate description of how totally exhausted new parents get. Bobby is on his own with no one making his experience easier for him.

Bobby is by no means perfect, but he grows as his experiences as a new father change and change him every day.

There is nothing false in this book. Bobby's life is not an easy one, and at times he wants to run away from the stress his situation is causing him.

All in all, Bobby unselfishly makes choices to do what is right for the baby. At times, he does consider just running away from it all, as all new parents do.

This book is worthy of its accolades and I can't say enough good things about it. Read this book and suggest it to others. Anyone can enjoy this truthful look at the ability of one small baby to completely change your life, your goals, your perspectives, and your sleep schedule.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could live our lives backward and experience the first part last? I think it would.

The story starts out with a teenage boy celebrating his sixteenth birthday with his friends. As he returns home to enjoy cake and ice cream with his girlfriend, Nia, he finds her sitting on his front porch with a balloon. As he approaches her she looks like she is in her own world. Then she looks up at him and says "Bobby, I've got something to tell you." That is when he finds he is going to be a father. He doesn't know how to react or what to say. They then decided to tell their parents together. They are all shocked at the news they are hearing. Their parents send them to a social worker so they can find out their options and what would be best for them to do. They decided the best thing to do was give the baby up for adoption. As the months passed Bobby still hangs out with his friends, but sends as much time with Nia as possible. Then one day he gets a call saying to meet his parents at the hospital; something happened to Nia. So he rushes to the hospital, and finds that Nia has become sick. She still has a healthy baby girl which they named Feather. When Feather was born Bobby's neighbor, "Just Frank", died saving a young girl, and it wasn't until then that he started to respect "Just Frank" and his comments about becoming a man. Since Nia became sick, and would have to stay in a nursing home, Bobby decided to keep Feather because she reminded everyone of her mother. As the book then progresses, Bobby learns responsibility quickly, because while living with his mother, his mother would not help him take care of Feather, she would only hug and kiss her while Bobby was not watching. Then he goes to live with his dad, and he sees a major change because his dad is very helpful.

As you read the story it takes you back and forth from "Now" to "Then", which are the titles of most of the chapters. The "Now" chapters are where Bobby tells you what is happening in the present time, and how he is reacting. The "Then" chapters show you the differences in his life before he became a father. The "Now" parts are used to show living the first part last, it shows him having to take care of the baby and then returns to how he used to live life.

First Part Last is a real wake-up call to teenagers of today. This book shows how much responsibility a child can be; especially if you have one at such at young age. This book shows the reality of having a child as a teenager or as the saying goes "A baby having a baby." Also this book would help teach the teenagers that think becoming pregnant or a parent can't happen to them, that it is not something you can control if you are letting your self get into the situation of it being a possibility. It shows that all teenagers think it can't happen to them, but in reality it can!

Wouldn't it be a great experience to live the first part of your life last? I would have to say I believe so!

The First Part Last was a story based on teenage pregnancy, and all the responciblities that come along with having a baby. The main characters were Nia and Bobby. They had been dating for awhile when Nia finds out that she is pregnant. Now, they both have to tell their parents. Nia decides that she is going to give the baby to fostor parents, once it is born. Something goes wrong while Nia is in the delivery room. Nia has the baby, but suffers from brain damage. Bobby does not want to give his baby away anymore. He names the baby feather, and decides to keep her. Now he has to except responcibility.

Personally, I could relate to Bobby's friends, K.Boy and J.L. I can relate to them because i've had friends who have been pregnant. During the story, Bobby feels a lot of pressure from everyone, and he hopes that he will make the right decision. I have felt that way in many different circumstances. It's hard, not knowing if the decision your making is going to steer you in the right or wrong way. It gets worse when you have pressure from peers and family.

I enjoyed this book very much. My favorite part was when Bobby moves to Ohio, so Feather does not have to grow up in Brooklyn. My least favorite part of the book was when Bobby found out that Nia would have brain damage, or possible even die. I wish I could change that part in the story, so that Nia was healthy. Then her and Bobby could raise Feather together, and be a family.

I definetly recommend this book. If you are a teenager, who is wondering how hard it is to raise a child, then this book is for you. I would also recommend this book to adults, so they could try to understand what teens go through everyday of their lives, and how it feels to be judged on one mistake you made. A mistake that is going to change your life...

We've all read plenty of stories about teen moms. In most of these tales, the moms are raising their babies by themselves because the dads are irresponsible, uninvolved, or just plain absent. Aren't there any good teenage dads out there?

In THE FIRST PART LAST, the story of a teen father's growing love for his baby daughter, Angela Johnson turns the tables as she revisits a character from her award-winning novel, HEAVEN. Bobby is an ambitious young man. An aspiring artist with talented parents, he is poised to graduate early from high school. But when his girlfriend Nia surprises him on his sixteenth birthday with the news of her pregnancy, Bobby's whole world turns upside down.

This brief novel alternates chapters between "then" and "now." The "then" is the story of Nia's pregnancy, as Bobby and Nia struggle to decide whether to raise their child or cave to parental pressure and give her up for adoption. The "now" is Bobby's own struggle to do the right thing for his infant daughter Feather, as a tragedy surrounding her birth has left him to care for her alone. Bobby is lucky to have a good support system, including his mother and father, his buddies, and his caring older brother. All along, Bobby's voice, which narrates the story, wavers between great love for his daughter and panic at his situation, but the emotional heart of the story never falters.

In the end, the portrayal of Bobby's relationship with his daughter is a positive one, although some critical readers might get the impression that Johnson is providing the wrong kind of role model. Not to worry. Although she does depict Bobby as a genuinely caring father, she also provides a grim picture of the not-so-rosy realities of teen parenthood, as Bobby copes with daycare dilemmas and his own insecurities: "This little thing with the perfect face and hands doing nothing but counting on me. And me wanting nothing else but to run crying into my own mom's room and have her do the whole thing."

If this novel has one fault, it is that Bobby seems so wrapped up in his daughter that he doesn't take time to dwell on his grief over Nia's fate. Bobby is a caring person who seemed to truly love his girlfriend (even heading halfway across Manhattan to satisfy her pregnancy cravings), so his lack of reflection on the loss of this relationship doesn't ring true.

Overall, though, THE FIRST PART LAST offers an all too-rare portrayal of a caring, nurturing young man, and it should be treasured as a result.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

This winner of the Coretta Scott King award and Michael L. Printz award is the story of a sixteen-year old NYC boy who becomes a father. Unlike most stereotypes of a person in this situation, Bobby is not irresponsible, on drugs, or unwilling to accept the truth of what has become of his life. He also has family and financial resources that most other African American urban characters don't seem to have. His story is told in alternating chapters of "Then" and "Now" - "Then" being flashbacks to the past and "Now" of course being now.

The shock and dismay of his situation is realistically rendered. We go along for the ride of Bobby's thoughts and emotions as he realizes his mother is not going to do it all for him. He has to stay up all night with a cranky infant, it's he who wears drool on his shirt in Brit Lit (he's still in high school). He stays in touch with two immature buddies. In one scene J.L. takes a ride in a clothes dryer at a Laundromat. These scenes heighten the growing distance between Bobby and other sixteen-year olds who have the usual young problems.

We learn through the "Then" segments that Nia (baby's mother) and Bobby had been planning to put the baby up for adoption. Tragedy changes the plans when Nia has eclampsia and falls into a persistent vegetative state. Bobby then decides to do the `right thing' and keep the baby.

This book reminded me of Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, an earlier book that told essentially the same tale, except the characters were white; they married; lost the baby and then divorced. The reason I liked this book is because, though the characters were African American, urban, and different from me, I could identify with them because their story was universal. Finely wrought characters, including both sets of parents, were honest about their emotions. It was a believable book which I would recommend to older students.

It's a small book when you first pick it up, and that's good. Because it's a small story. Not an unimportant story. Just one of the millions of stories that could be told about the citizens of New York everyday. Yet for such a small little puff of writing, "The First Part Last" carries a big punch. It won the Printz Award (the young adult equivalent of the Newbery) as well as the Coretta Scott King Award in 2004. No one who has read it through can find it in their hearts to lobby a hateful word against it. It is loving on the deepest level and it tells a story human beings have been telling amongst themselves for millennia. It is the story of a boy becoming a man.

The book is split into two narratives, both of them originating with the narrator, Bobby. In one narrative, Bobby is telling the story of "Now". In this part, Bobby is sixteen years old and caring for his brand new baby girl. He's exhausted and worn out and jittery. All he wants to do is sleep but he has a brand new baby depending on him every hour of the day and it sometimes seems like it's more than he can bear. In the second narrative "Then" Bobby talks about how he and his girlfriend Nia discovered that she was pregnant and had to come to a decision about what to do with the baby. As the two narratives slowly come together, the reader begins to wonder certain things. For example, where's Nia all this time? Why isn't she helping Bobby take care of Feather (their baby)? And why didn't the two follow through with the idea of putting the child up for adoption? By the book's end everything is cleared up and Bobby has come the slow realization about who he is and what his role in the world has become.

The book is expertly written. Parts of it are true-to-life gritty while others verge on poetry itself. One of the best passages comes from Bobby's mother right at the beginning when she says, "Put that baby down, Bobby. I swear she's going to think the whole world is your face. She's going to be scared out of her mind when she turns about six and you haven't put her down long enough to see any of it". Little meaningful passages like that one crop up all the time in this story. The choice of separating the book into Thens and Nows comes from Bobby wishing that people could learn everything there is to know at the beginning of their lives and die in innocence at the end. It's funny reading the book in this way, partly because Bobby grows to adulthood even as he flashes back to his self-absorbed childish ways before the baby.

If I have any objection to anything in this story (and honestly, what kind of a reviewer would I be if I found any book to be completely flawless?) it's probably a single chapter that is done in the voice of Nia. The chapter serves little purpose except perhaps to read as a kind of little goodbye. Unfortunately, it's not only confusing but also unnecessary. We've been doing perfectly well with Bobby as our hero and Bobby as our voice. Why drag Nia into it all of a sudden? Otherwise, the book's a pip. A real well written document about a teen-age father that loves his little daughter more than anything else in the world. He's real and wonderful. The fact that Johnson could write something as perfect as this in a mere 131 small pages is reason enough to swoon.

I bought this book because it seemed mildly intresting, reading a story about parenthood from the farthers point of view... but as i started reading the book, it kinda seemed a little slow, i was proud of Bobby for taking care of his daugther, but i couldnt figure out why the mother wasnt involved. The ending was touching, moving, shocking, and heart stopping. I had no idea that the story was going there. In a whole, when i set back and look at the book after reading it, the story was very good, and touching, and it makes you think, i love a book that makes you think, and sticks with you for weeks after you are doing reading it.... If you have any intrest in reading a story about teen pareenthood, pick this book up, i guarantee that Bobby and Feather will touch your lives, and stick with you.

This is probably one of the best books I have ever read. The first chapter draws you in immediately, and you can't stop reading until it is over. Bobby explains it all in the opening pages. "...But I already know there's change. But I figure if the world was really right, humans would live life backward and do the first part last. They'd be all knowing in the beginning and innocent in the end." It's haunting in its honesty. It's beautiful in it's brevity. I knew I had something special when I picked the book up, and I was not disappointed. It's simple. And it's oustanding.
The one scene that left such an impact on me was the one where Bobby, KBoy and JL go to visit Nia in the hospital. I love the way Johnson writes about the simple moment.
"I tell her, I saw your mom today. KBoy told her jokes the she probably didn't hear, and JL played her his new CD and danced around her bed till one of the nurses came in and gave him a nasty look."
That and one other chapter were the most impactful. The final chapter, where Bobby tells he "won't talk about the goodbyes" made me weep.
Angela Johnson amazed me in only 132 pages. As I flew through them, I didn't even feel as I was reading them. It was worth every moment spent reading it.

This book, which is like so many lives of other teenage men, was one of my favorite books. I really enjoyed reading as Bobby, unselfishly put his life on a hold to raise his child. It was time for him to start to become a man, a grown up, at 16, but he didn't have the time. Time was up he had to be a grown up, a man, a father. I enjoyed this book so much I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. to finish it.
He also had to raise the baby on his own because his mom was never around and told him it was his responsibility and he needed to be a man about it. His girlfriend... well, you read the book and you'll find out. Although, I wish it had a little more information about what happened to Nia, but all in all, this book showed alot about taking the responsibility for your mistakes and to learn from them. And Bobby did just that in this story even though he really did do the first part last.