It is obvious Sam loves Max with all his heart, but it is also apparent he is overwhelmed with all of his responsibilities. Sam is up every night feeding Max and squeezing in homework between changing diapers and playtime. From then on, this compelling story is about a 17 year old boy struggling through his teen years with a baby and the many chores that come with it. Now Sam has full custody of his son, which he decides to name Max, and has to take care of him all by himself. He decided he was going to take care of the baby himself and NOT put him up for adoption. The moment he lays eyes on his son he falls in love with him right away. When Sam comes to see his baby boy and visit Brittany in the hospital, he can’t believe his eyes. Sam got his girlfriend (now ex-girlfriend) Brittany pregnant a year and a half ago, but Brittany had planned on giving the baby up for adoption. The only person keeping him from doing all these activities is a baby boy named Max.

He is just like other boys his age He likes to play basketball, go to parties, and hang out with his friends after school. Sam Pettigrew, the main character and teen father, is a high school senior. “Hanging on to Max” takes a look into the everyday life of a teen father, and lets teens who read this see that it is more of a responsibility than it may seem. Viking Childrens Books, 13.99 (160pp) ISBN 978-4-8 Seventh-grader Jonah Truman, the undersized narrator of Bechards ( My Sister, My Science. Like the other five novels Bechard has written, she is trying to show teens that engaging in premarital sex has its consequences. In “Hanging on to Max”, Margaret Bechard is trying to get a point across to teens. Do the math and that is eighty-four pregnancies for every one-thousand teenagers.

In the year 2000, there were 812, 810 teen pregnancies.

Hanging on to Max by Margaret Bechard