Under what circumstances would you sell your baby? Would you do it to have a better life or to get a better education? Would you do it to save someone else or yourself? What about if you were only 16 years old?
In November Blues, the sequel to Battle of Jericho, November, a 16 year old, begins her senior year pregnant. As a goody Two Shoes, all-A student, no one expects this from November. November is very disappointed in herself because she knows that her mother thinks she is perfect.
November Blues started off with an engaging open statement. Draper kept the reader wanting to read more. I can relate to everything this high school girl was going through: boys, drama, and school. Any female in high school should read this book because it is a situation everybody can relate to. As a teenager, it takes a really good book to want me to keep reading, and this one is a must read. However, this book felt unrealistic because the first thing that popped in my head was abortion. November never thought about even taking a look at abortion or adaption. It seems to me like she was focusing herself to go through the pregnancy, even though she didn’t want to tell her mother or be seen with a big stomach. Draper’s books are young adult, and I felt like this wasn’t what would happen in reality. For example, Her mother just automatically was happy about it. My friends’ or my parents would had been ready to hurt me or tell me about how I shouldn’t do this to myself.
Sometimes I wonder, “What if this happened to me, and I didn’t have any support from my friends or family, would I have reacted the same way as November? I think I would have gotten an abortion because I wouldn’t have been ready to have kids. But unlike November, she handled this situation very well. Maturity isn’t based on age, it’s based off knowledge, and November wasn’t looked at as an adult dealing with an adult situation. I feel that this book affected me in many ways because this could be me and I wouldn’t know what to do. Overall, this book was outstanding, and I would recommend to teenagers, mainly females, who went through or even knows someone who went through what November went though.