November Blues

YA fiction 

     Recently I acquired a small stack of older YA books and remembered that at least last summer a number of our Upward Bound students were avid readers.  There are a couple of book sized shelves empty in the Swap Shop.  After clearing the idea with Jasmine I decided to start putting books on them after skimming them of course--not for controversy but for triggers.

     When I got to Sharon Draper's November Blues, however, my reading slowed 🐌 down to my reading to review speed.  Although it's an older book (2007) the protagonist is so plausible and relatable and the situation she finds herself in is so relevant I just had to clue you, my readers, in on a very thought provoking read.

     November, Draper's protagonist, had lost her boyfriend, Josh, in a tragic hazing incident.  Now, two months later her body is feeling strange.  A home pregnancy test shows two stripes.  He's the only one who could possibly be the father.

     That revelation would be challenging for just about anyone.  November is a sixteen-year-old high school junior who is set to beat the odds stacked against her.  She's been accepted at the Princeton University summer program that could pave the way for an Ivy League education.

     Of course there's a way out.  But it's one November won't take.  

     Her mother's initial strong reactions to her plight don't exactly help.  Her only sibling has Down Syndrome.  She was her Mom's great shining hope.

     Then an unexpected development further tears November apart.  Josh was his parents' only child.  Now they're lawyered up and trying to get custody of his baby.  They've offered that if November signs the papers they'll pay all the expenses for her college education.  The lawyer says they'll win either way.  If she refuses to sign he can have her declared an unfit mother.

     And that's not the only complication that's going to turn up.

     I think November Blues would be an excellent read for a mother/daughter book club.

On a purrrsonal note, it was 1989, getting close to Christmas.  I was pretty obviously great with child even though Amber wasn't due for five months.  Someone had handed me a leaflet and I felt obligated to at least skim it.  It was written by a couple desperate to adopt a baby.  They started off bragging about how the baby they adopted would have everything money 💰 could buy:  a fancy home and vacation homes, designer clothes, vacations all over the world, only the most exclusive schools...

     ...then the rest was guilt tripping.  Obviously I couldn't give my unborn child anywhere near as good a life.  So I should stop being selfish and call some lawyer dude to arrange for adoption.  

     My response was, oh Hell, no!  I'd had a miscarriage about six months earlier.  Maybe Eugene and I would bring our baby home to a trailer and they would go to public school and not have everything money could buy.  But we'd felt the first fetal stirrings like butterfly 🦋 wings.  And we would be the most devoted parents any baby could come home with.

     That would have to be enough.

     And it was.

     What bugged me was the guilt tripping part.  People pregnant for the first time tend to be a least a little insecure about their parenting abilities.  Hinting that not wanting to give up an unborn child is a sign of selfishness and lack of caring is just plain wrong.

Jules Hathaway 

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