Bonnie Leadbeater

Having been nineteen years old when I had my son, I know first hand the struggles young mothers face. Growing Up Fast: Re-Visioning Adolescent Mothers' Transitions to Young Adulthood caught my eye when I first saw it and I was eager to delve into this book. I have to say, although in the preface the Bonnie J. Ross Leadbeater says she hopes not only academic researchers but also young mothers read her book, I felt like this one is aimed at academics and students studying this topic. I found I had to hang in to finally get to the meat of the book, even past Chapter 1, which although titled "Beyond the Stereotypes", was really mainly narrative explaining what the rest of the chapters would be about.

This book has snippets of interviews and follow ups of young teenaged mothers. There are statistics and plenty of research here on single, young mothers and I definitely think this is a good one for, as I mentioned, academics and students studying this topic. Policy reform, welfare, abusive relationships, education and poverty are all discussed here, but unless I missed it, I did not see the author touch on the topic of these young mothers fathers. Not their children's fathers, their own fathers, whose roles I think plays a huge part in adolescents having babies.

I received my free copy of Growing Up Fast: Re-Visioning Adolescent Mothers' Transitions to Young Adulthood, via AmazonVine. This review is my honest opinion, I received no compensation for reading and reviewing this book.… (mer)