Articles, Interviews, and Reviews
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By Francisca Goldsmith
The author’s Roosevelt High series (Juanita Fights the School Board, Tommy Stands Alone, etc.) turns to the issue of unwanted teenage pregnancy and explores how a 15-year-old Latina, her family, and her friends cope with it. Like other books in the series for the most part, Martinez, a counselor whose miscarriage and resulting depression parallel teenaged Celia’s discovery of her pregnancy and the attendant crises that raises, has an already established but unexplained relationship not only with Celia and her family but with all her friends as well.
While Celia’s problems, and how they affect others in her life, are clearly presented, the approach here is uncomplicated and linear: girl is used by young man, girl keeps her pregnancy a secret, girl is shunned by father when secret is discovered, girl is restored to family through the intercession of an understanding counselor who also gets girl into an idealized program for pregnant high school students. High school students themselves will not find Celia’s story very engaging, although their younger sisters could. On the other hand, Martinez’s story needs a mature audience to appreciate her psychological misery and the effect of the miscarriage on her marital relationship. Perhaps the best audience for this book would be adults learning to read English who have advanced beyond basic literary but who need a simple storyline to follow through a text and concerns that invite discussion. Francisca Goldsmith, Teen Services, Berkeley P.L., Berkeley, CA
J—recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.
Hispanic Link Weekly Report
Vol. 21 No. 34
Sept. 1, 2003
New Reads
Edited by Lisa L. Martínez
Teen Angel (Roosevelt High School), By Gloria L. Velásquez: Teen pregnancy is the topic of Teen Angel, the sixth book in the Roosevelt High School series. The book revolves around the beautiful young Celia, who is going into her sophomore year.
Boy-crazy Celia watches her favorite show “Teen Angel” and dreams about the cute boys on the shows. One day Celia visits her best friend Cassie and meets Nicky, an older boy who reminds her of the heartthrobs from her beloved show.
Celia experiences her first kiss and loses her virginity to Nicky and thinks she is on her way to true love.
When Celia finds out she is pregnant, Nicky departs, leaving her on her own. Author Velásquez uses this series to feature a multiracial cast of characters who face different social and cultural issues that affect young adults.
VOYA
February 2004
Teen Angel
When fifteen-year-old Celia Chavez sneaks out to meet her best friend Cassie’s Nicky for her first-ever date, she falls in love and cannot wait to go out with him again. On their second date, they have sex and she becomes pregnant. By the time Celia has to face the reality of her situation, Nicky has moved on to another girl and has returned to his Chicago home. Celia tells her sister, Juanita, and Cassie sends a letter to Nicky. Juanita tells their mother who then tells their father who orders Celia out of the house. Celia attends school while staying with her older brother in his apartment until she receives a mean letter from Nicky, who denies that the baby is his and calls her a whore. When word gets out about her predicament, Celia leaves school, vowing not to return. Counselor Sandra Martinez, who has just suffered a miscarriage, helps Celia gain admittance to an alternative school for teen mothers. Mr. Chavez relents, allows Celia to return home, and even praises her decision to continue her education. Ms. Martinez and her husband, Frank, will be godparents to the baby.
In this sixth title of the Roosevelt High series, the characters and situation are true to life. Although Celia is Latina, her situation transcends cultural borders. This book would be an excellent choice for classroom discussions and for reading groups.—Sherry York
Devon Ellington
Teen Angel
Teen pregnancy is a delicate, important issue. How can one discuss the possibility, probability, and consequences without preaching? How can one discuss the options? This book supplies some of the answers in a compelling form.
Celia is a young Latina woman from a strict, close-knit family. She is hooked on a soap called Teen Angel. When her best friend’s delinquent cousin comes to visit and shows interest in her, Celia confuses her life with the soap opera. The night she loses her virginity to Nicky is the night she gets pregnant. The boy dumps her after their encounter and leaves town. When Celia confides in her older sister, Juanita, her sister in turn confides in their parents, and Celia is thrown out of the house as an embarrassment. Her older brother, Carlos, takes her in.
Help comes from Sandra Martinez, a counselor Juanita knows. Ms. Martinez is reluctant to help at first because she is severely traumatized by the recent miscarriage of her own much-wanted child. However, she knows that without knowledge of options, Celia has no future, and that there are choices for Celia to continue her education and learn parenting skills.
Other writers would have opted for a tidy cohesion of the storylines. Sandra Martinez would have offered to adopt Celia’s baby and Celia would go back to being a teenager.
Fortunately, Velasquez does not take the easy way out. She gives equal weight to the obstacles both characters must overcome, both without and within. She never loses compassion for her characters, and she treats the situation with supreme integrity. In standing by her characters’ truths, she allows the reader to care even more deeply.
Velasquez created the Roosevelt High School Series to reflect modern diversity and encourage understanding and tolerance. This is the fifth book in her series, and one of the best young adult novels on the market today. It is difficult, hopeful and loving. It should be required reading in every high school in the country. May she write many more.