Unpregnant

Quick Picks

1. Bibliography
Hendriks, J. and Ted Caplan. 2019. Unpregnant. New York, NY: HarperTeen. ISBN 9780062876249

2. Summary
Veronica Clarke is a star student, a member of the National Honor Society, will be attending Brown University after graduation, and always cared about what others thought of her, especially her group of friends, Kaylee, Jocelyn, and Emily. Only one thing went wrong for her: she has found herself taking a pregnancy test in a restroom in her high school. Unfortunately, her secret was shared with Bailey Butler, an outsider who used to be best friends with Veronica, when she found Veronica’s test on the floor and peaked through the top of the restroom to see who it belonged to. Veronica, not wanting others to find out, planned on telling her boyfriend, Kevin Decuziac, about her pregnancy and wanted him to take her to Albuquerque so she will be able to get an abortion without her parents consent. Her plan was put on hold when Kevin proposed to her and exposed his truth of how he planned on getting Veronica pregnant by poking holes into their condoms. Veronica then had no other choice but to turn to Bailey, the only other person who knew about her pregnancy. After convincing Bailey to go on this trip with her, the two set off to Albuquerque. On their journey, they went through many obstacles. Kevin follows them on their journey and they have to try to escape him multiple times, Bailey’s car gets stolen, and they almost get killed by cows. As they continue their journey on foot, they find a strip club and decide to go in to find someone who can take them to Albuquerque. In the strip club, they meet a stripper, Sapphire, and they tell her their reasoning for needing a ride to Albuquerque. Sapphire agrees to help, but convinces them to rest in her house. Here, Veronica learns that Sapphire and her boyfriend, Dwayne, are activist against abortion and help Kevin find his way to them in hopes that they can change Veronica's mind. Veronica and Bailey are able to escape, and they continue their journey walking, until they come across a small town with a limousine rental company and decide to rent a limo to finish their route to Albuquerque. Before arriving to the abortion clinic, Veronica and Bailey get into a fight and Bailey gets out of the limo. Veronica continues to the clinic until she realizes she can not handle this alone. She then moves her procedure time to later in the day, and tries to find Bailey, and when she finally does, the two go together and Veronica goes through with the procedure. After, as they are eating in a restaurant, they find Kevin is also there and decide to steal his car and use it to travel back home. Back at school, Veronica decides that she does not to be seen as “perfect” and tells her friends of her abortion and leaves them behind as she joins her true best friend, Bailey.

3. Discussion
I loved reading this book, and I could honestly say that I could see myself rereading it time and time again. It had a great storyline, and I was happy for Victoria as she stood up for herself and learned to be true to herself and who she could actually call a friend.

Even though this book discusses topics such as teenage pregnancy and abortions, there is still a story about a teenager finding herself and being true to who she is. This would be a great book to read to high school students because that is the age students are struggling to find themselves and are wanting to be popular and well liked by others. After reading this story, they may learn that popularity and being liked by others is not what is important in life, and rather should try to stay true to themselves.

4. Connections
As I mentioned before, even though this story discusses some risky topics, I believe this book can be read in a high school classroom. Discussions can be made about character development, and students can follow Veronica throughout the story and see how her character grows and changes.

While I was reading the book, I thought to myself that this could be a great movie. It has laughter, sadness, and a lot of drama. After reading the book, I learned that it is going to be a movie on HBO Max and is said to be released sometime in 2020.