What’s the biggest choice you’ve made in life?
Making a
decision is hard, but accepting the decision made can be harder!
Ask Me How I
Got Here is about a young lady who is pretty well known as always running,
whether is cross country, to her school, to her best friend Claire, or into her
boyfriend Nick. Addie attends a private
all-girls Catholic school. She is the sophomore
start of the cross country team. Addie cheated on her alcoholic boyfriend with
Nick, a sensitive good guy. Careless of her intimate actions with Nick, Addie
ends up pregnant. She makes the hard decision to have an abortion. Addie knows
that she made the right choice but does not seem to cope well with her decision.
She hides her abortion from everyone except her parents and boyfriend who
supported her hard resolution. She lacks interest in the activities that she
used to performed, she leaves her team, and ignores her boyfriend. Nothing seems
to excite Addie anymore, until she starts a romance with her classmate,
Juliana. Addie regains her sense of
balance and acceptance.
This is a
great book for teenagers, they can relate to Addie about having to make and
accept difficult decisions in life.
Sometimes
due to religious beliefs and/or family values, the “right” decision taken may
affect the person’s sanity.
Christie
Heppermann did a magnificent job writing a free verse poem. She focused on realistic
problems that teenagers and women encounter at life. The take away of this
novel is, once a decision is made, accept it and move forward.
Pros – is a
short and easy read. Teenage pregnancy has always been a controversial topic.
It is good that young adolescents read this book to reflect on their actions
and become more responsible. The information given to the reader about
abortion, pregnancy, and other related issues is of great support for teenagers
that are alone, facing similar problems.
Cons – Too short,
too many different aspects to focus on, the cheating, the religious principles,
family values, teenage pregnancy, abortion, emotional and social problems. I
feel the story did not finish a topic, when it started another one.
Book talk
Epic Author
Facts: Christine Heppermann
Hello Yaneli,
ReplyDeleteWow, there seems to be a ton of information packed into Christine Heppermann’s novel. This caught my interest because I actually read this same author for one of my YA books too. Moving along, I didn’t realize that this was a poem until you mentioned it later in your post. By having all of these ideas cramped into a free verse poem I feel that this way may have been more successful than a traditional novel. It would be an interesting discussion to have with the students about what affect this has on reader, why Heppermann chose to write her novel like this, and to read into the lines.
I wonder if Heppermann decided against closing off a topic because she was attempting to make this novel as realistic as possible.
By not “finishing off a topic” it may be easier to discuss these topics with students and have an in-depth discussion about teen pregnancy, abortion, or social issues.