PLANET PREGNANCY

When she sees that fateful pink line, 16-year old Sahara knows that life as she knew it, life as a West Texas Dixie Queen, is over. She hides her growing belly and vomit-breath, but navigating a strange new world, an alien preggo planet, leaves her terrified and frazzled. As Sahara wavers between whether to keep the baby or not, she sinks into depression, hiding in bed and oversized clothes. This first-person, free-verse narrative captures the fear and desperation of unplanned teen pregnancy. It also delivers a unique young-adult voice, one appropriately dulled by disillusionment but that also makes readers laugh. Sahara offers simmering, cynical summations of her unlucky circumstances that evoke pity and a few bittersweet chuckles. Clipped, conversational verse keeps Sahara’s story, which High divides into three trimester sections, moving. Readers see subtle changes in Sahara’s outlook as her pregnancy progresses, and she stops calling her baby “The Egg” or “The Fetus.” Irregular, sing-songy rhyme may distract readers at times, but the realistic pull of both Sahara and her pregnancy will keep teens engaged, wondering if she'll end up calling the baby her own. (Fiction. 12 & up)