SWEET ILLUSIONS
by Walter Dean Myers
An intellectual and emotional workbook for teen-agers on the subject of pregnancy. The author gives each of his 14 fictional characters (five unwed mothers, five fathers, four family members or other interested parties) a chapter to describe his or her response to sudden parenthood. The characters have urban, lower-middle-class backgrounds, are mostly black or Hispanic, and face the situation with varying realistic combinations of confusion, fear, anger, hope and indifference. Myers tries to be nonjudgmental, but few of the men display courage or a sense of responsibility, and the one woman who has an abortion becomes unstable. The narratives are tenuously linked together, and finished with a "Seven Years Later" epilogue, but plot definitely takes a back seat to didactic purpose. Each chapter ends with several blank ruled pages: readers are invited to think about what they've just read and to write (on their own paper if they're reading a library copy) a relevant letter, daydream or essay. There's no physical violence or drug abuse here, but these tales are nonetheless very scary, and adolescent readers will find them involving and disturbing.