After

Props to Amy Efaw. This author made me root for a girl who dumped her baby in a trash bag and feel empathy toward her. Before reading this, I would have said "send her to jail, try her as an adult, who cares about her!" But after reading it, I care about the girl. This author did her job. She made me feel exactly what she wanted me to. 

Enter Devon: above-average, smart, atelethic, goal-oriented 15 year old girl. Everything is going for her unitl one day while babysitting she meets a guy. They end up doing the nasty, which is Devon's first and only time, then she decides she will never talk to him again. She is ashamed of herself. She vowed she wouldn't be like her mother-no sex, no relationships until way later in life. She has goals for her future. Something happens after she looses her virginity, she inverts, she starts lying to everyone, including herself. Months go by and she notices herself not feeling good, dragging. She will not admit IT to herself. One night while her Mother is working, she gets sick. So she thinks. She has stomach problems, but not really. She is pregnant and at this moment she is in labor. She panics. She cuts the cord with fingernail clippers. She dumps the baby in a bag. She takes IT out. She goes to sleep. No one knows. Only someone finds this baby screaming, and IT lives. The police eventually track it back to her and she ends up in prison. Will she be considered in trial as an adult or Juvienile? What will people say about her? What is going to happen to her future?


This is another book that I will chant "READ IT, READ IT, READ IT!" 
Seriously, this one doesn't feel like a Young Adult book, this has relevance. This book matters. This book opened my eyes and changed my opinion. Do I like it that the girl dumped her baby off? NO! But, I do see what was going through her mind and can't help but feel sorry for her. Good people can do bad things.... Should she be punished? Yes. Like an Adult? No.

Sidenote: I am not endorsing baby dumping!!! There is no excuse for that. I really don't understand why these mothers wouldn't at the very least find a hospital or orphanage or somewhere/someone to give that innocent life to instead of just leaving it there to die!!!!