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Baby Help - (Hamilton High True-To-Life) by Marilyn Reynolds (Paperback)

Baby Help - (Hamilton High True-To-Life) by  Marilyn Reynolds (Paperback)
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Last Price: 14.99 USD

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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>Melissa lives with boyfriend Rudy and their toddler. Rudy is good to her--except when he drinks, and then he hurts her. Melissa needs to learn what her choices are and how to have the strength to choose them.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>Melissa doesn't consider herself abused-Rudy only hits her occasionally when he's drinking-until she realizes the effect his abuse is having on their child. Finally Melissa leaves Rudy, and she and Cheyenne go to the shelter for battered women. As difficulties with group living arise, however, she misses the good times with Rudy. The clarity of Melissa's decision soon fades, and she finds herself again in a dangerous situation, more trapped than ever before.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><p>Grade 7 and Up. Melissa, a senior at Hamilton High School, lives with her child, the child's father, and his mother. The teen has convinced herself that Rudy's need to control and abuse her isn't really a problem, but when he turns on their daughter, she knows she must get out and get help. As with Reynolds's other titles, this offering is a bit didactic in its intent to raise the consciousness of readers about pertinent personal and social issues. The author is very successful in creating characters that YAs will relate to and be interested in. The plot development successfully depicts the protagonist's growing awareness of her situation. Her gradual understanding of her personal rights and the increasing severity of the abuse are realistic and familiarize readers with both the emotional and practical issues involved. The dialogue is authentic and is more likely to hold the interest of reluctant readers than nonfiction titles on this topic. The title is repeated throughout as the protagonist's baby's expression of the need to do things for herself, a not-so-subtle message that asks young people to stand up for themselves and take charge of their own futures. - School Library Journal</p><p>Gr. 8^-12. Being a teen mom, living with your boyfriend and his mother, and trying to finish high school are even more difficult when your boyfriend is physically and verbally abusive and his mother claims it's your fault. This is Melissa Fisher's life-a life she accepts until boyfriend Rudy begins the same abusive patterns with two-year-old Cheyenne. True to other books in her Hamilton High series, Reynolds carefully explores the problem of partner abuse, guiding Melissa through the complexities of identifying the problem, exploring ways to escape its destructive effects, and facing the reality of living with its solution. Although she occasionally verges on the didactic, Reynolds understands Melissa's dilemma: her need for love and support and a dad for Cheyenne, the pull to return to the patterns and security of old ways, and the legal ramifications of escaping them. Good parenting techniques are incorporated naturally into the narration. - Booklist</p><p>Reflects the realities in many women's lives. - Reviewer's Bookwatch The latest in the "True-to-Life from Hamilton High" series, Marilyn Reynolds' Baby Help is a novel of the nightmare of teen domestic abuse. A young mother doesn't see herself as battered because her boyfriend "only" hits her when he's been drinking... until he starts behaving abusively toward her daughter. That's when she realizes it's time to get out of the relationship - but after she reaches a shelter for battered women, she has second thoughts about leaving, which place her and her daughter's life in mortal jeopardy. Baby Help is a powerfully written fictional treatment of a very real and dangerous issue facing teens today. - Midwest Book Review</p><br>

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