Malorie Blackman's new books tackles teenage pregnancy from an unusual perspective - that of the father.Dante is a good boy, mostly. He studies hard, he's nice to his girlfriend. Ok, so he fooled around once at a party with his then-girlfriend Melanie, but that was almost two years ago and they were both drunk. It didn't mean anything, and she moved away afterwards anyway.
On the day his A level results are due, Dante answers the door to Melanie, holding a baby. She tells him that this is his child, conceived during that party. She asks him to babysit, just for a little while, just while she goes shopping.
And then she calls to tell him she can't cope any more, that she wants him to look after Emma for a while.
At first Dante completely fails to deal with it. But he gradually begins to step up and take responsibility, and the evolution of his feelings makes for fascinating reading. Emma impacts not only his life but that of his father and brother, and watching the effect she has on this family of near-strangers is the best part of the novel. Each member is battling his own demons, but Emma manages to bring them all together.
This is a lovely read.
I woke up to the sound of plaintive mewling, like next door's cat was upset or something. Eyes closed, I mentally swatted away the noise. Then I remembered. When I managed to will my eyes open, Emma was standing up, holding onto the sides of her cot, watching me. Throwing back my duvet, I stumbled out of bed. The closer I got to her, the more the smell hit me. And the smell was appalling. I mean really, really bad in a throat-catching, nose-blistering way. I didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know I was about to be hip-deep in baby poo.
Damn it, I didn't sign up for this.
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