The First Part Last

by Angela Johnson

Book Overview

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.
It's not going to happen....
Bobby is your classic urban teenaged boy -- impulsive, eager, restless. On his sixteenth birthday he gets some news from his girlfriend, Nia, that changes his life forever. She's pregnant. Bobby's going to be a father. Suddenly...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689849222
• ISBN13: 9780689849220
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.7" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

the novel is good

I would recommend this awesome novel because it edify you how to be intact around guys if you a gal This novel will Be able to let your child say no to what the guys want you to. Make sure you get stability if you know do anything You need to make sure that you don't have nasty luggage at the age-16. 16 year olds don’t need to have a child at the age younger than 18. It’s very educational for teens to read it will help get them ready to be an adult. Even tho Bobby is 16, he and his soulmate always have to go to the doctor's appointment to get check ups on the baby. When J.L is in the room with the precious baby, he scares the precocious baby and she screams. You should buy this novel to edify your children to be safe and not have kids at the age 16.

A must have

The First part last is a must have, a coming of age book and a struggle of a young man, becoming a great man.

A reality check for teens

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!

It should be treasured.

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

Hush little baby don't you cry, papa's gonna sing you...

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

Now and Then

This was the first book I read about teenage pregnancy from the male perspective. This book was educational and enlightening.In reading the book I noticed how the author barely talked about the mother in the present tense. It made me wonder what she was feeling and thinking, but as I read on I understood why.When the author spoke in Bobby's voice it was very honest and poignant. I loved when Bobby realized Nia's (the mother) fate and stepped up to the plate and decided to be a single father, which is very rare in this day and age. The author also made the reader realize what a single mother goes through on a day to day basis. Very interesting book, I am going to pass this one off to my son's also.Later...

A Long Awaited Perspective-Teenage Fatherhood

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.