Sixteen-year-old Bobby is a new dad, and sometimes he feels like a bigger baby than little Feather. The baby�s mother, Nia, had eclampsia and suffered brain damage, leaving her in an irreversible vegetative state. Although they had decided to give the baby up for adoption, when baby Feather is first placed in his arms, he understands that they need each other. He knows they won�t look like the families in the posters, with two parents, a dog, and a swing set in the yard, but they will be a family, just the same.
Bobby�s mother makes it clear that Feather is his responsibility, and he is the one who changes diapers, feeds her in the night, and goes to school with little or no sleep. Although Nia�s parents supported his decision to keep Feather, they never reappear in the story. When Feather becomes sick and has to be hospitalized, Bobby goes through the ordeal alone because his mother is working out of town, but he�s proud of himself for behaving like a �real man.�
When his brother Paul comes to visit, Bobby confides to him, �I�ve never been closer to or loved anybody more than I love Feather.� His discussions with Paul help him realize that he needs to make a separate life for himself and his child, and after kissing Nia goodbye, they take a bus away from New York. He moves to a little town in Pennsylvania � a town where he and Feather have their own little apartment and he feels �brand new� � a little place called �Heaven.�
Angela Johnson uses flashbacks and a stream-of-consciousness style of writing to tell this story. Besides the one chapter written as Nia�s thoughts, all the chapter titles alternate between �then� and �now� so the reader is never confused between Bobby�s memories and the present. The author is very skillful at conveying the story without �telling� what happens, but by revealing it through Bobby�s mind. The reader knows that Nia suffered from eclampsia, bled, suffered brain damage, is in an irreversible vegetative state, and being cared for at a long-term facility, without ever being directly told: �. . .I see the blood and it shouldn�t be where it is� (p. 115); �I ask nothing about brain death or eclampsia or why [Nia] won�t ever walk, talk, or smile again. And I have to say irreversible vegetative coma five times . . . to believe it.� (p. 121, 122); � . . .I put you on her stomach before they took her away. . . for something called long-term care.� (p. 117)
Language and speech patterns are used that are true to the characters and their setting. Drinks are referred to as �forties,� K-Boy says it is �too right� Bobby is keeping Feather, and Bobby�s mother gets more than mad - she gets �nasty mad.� Although not excessive, Johnson does not flinch from using the occasional expletive or vulgarity when it is appropriate for the character and the situation. Bobby knew his mother was making a �big-ass� cake for him, the baby occasionally gets �pissed off,� and K-Boy asked a �stupid f__ing question.�
Johnson�s use of unusual metaphors is especially powerful in conveying the emotion of his situation. Rather than saying his father is depressed, Bobby laments �I guess I�ve taken a lot of his smile away.� (p. 73) Referring to Feather as �ten pounds of I need my daddy� clearly conveys the weight of parental responsibility. Reading that Bobby �breathed her in� while Feather lay on his stomach gives a sense of the spiritual sustenance she provided him, more than just her baby smell.
The war that wages between the child and adult in every teen is escalated when faced with premature parenthood, and Bobby is no different. His urge to curl up inside Feather�s baby carrier conveys more than physical fatigue � he is emotionally exhausted and weary of adult responsibility. After Feather has been so sick and Bobby finally hears his own mother�s voice over the phone, he becomes the child. �I feel like a big old baby . . . I start crying like one.� (p. 33) In one particularly poignant moment, Feather is screaming in her crib and Bobby looks around his room and misses himself � the child who lived there.
A subject that could easily deteriorate into melodrama is handled sensitively and sensibly by Angela Johnson. Bobby�s vulnerability and the tragedy he faces are counterbalanced by the courage of his decision and the sweetness of his feelings for Feather. This book will resonate with teens who are dealing with the same issues that Bobby and Nia have to face in this story: teen pregnancy, having to shoulder adult responsibilities for which they are ill prepared, and the war that is waged between the child and adult in each of us.
Related Web Site:
A Brief Biography of Angela Johnson:
http://www.ohioreadingroadtrip.org/johnson/
The Coretta Scott King Award:
http://www.ala.org/ala/srrt/corettascottking/abouttheaward/aboutaward.htm