"There are people who think they have the whole 'tragic teenage pregnancy' thing figured out. they don't. they don't know squat, in fact, unless they've been there themselves."
Tracy Engelbrecht was a good South African girl. a normal girl. no difficult childhood. no broken home. no addicted parents. just a normal girl from a normal home. who fell pregnant at 14.
this book is her frank account of how she fell pregnant, how she told her family, friends and school, how she decided to keep her son, and how she is coped with motherhood, homework and dating.
it is also a story about how she grew up.
so many aspects of the story were close to home for me, i myself was 19 and unmarried when i fell pregnant. i married the guy, and my son is now 24. many issues in Tracy's story were so similar to mine.
this book was easy to read, and has a delightful balance between humour and depth. it had me laughing and nodding, and wiping the odd tear. it is written in an informal, chatty style, that is charming and amusing, and it feels like she is telling you the story over a cream soda float.
i would recommend this story for teenagers and their moms, as an easy-to-read illustration of consequences. it clearly shows that while some choices have a very high price, nothing that happens to us is so bad that we cannot deal with it with love, humour and hard work. and that sometimes, when we look back, the worst thing that ever happens to us, can be the best thing that ever happened to us.
in her words: "it is not a cautionary tale of a Good Girl Gone Bad or even of a Bad Girl Made Good... it's just a little story of changes and adjustment, of love and destiny. it is just my story. that should be good enough, I reckon."
but this book is also enjoyable and universal enough for a even wider readership. it is a lovely book. read it!
you can buy your copy of The girl who couldn't say no' here.
you can read more about Tracy's life on her blog here.
you can follow Tracy on twitter here, and you can follow me on twitter here.
