After

by Amy Efaw

Overview

Who could do such a thing? Certainly not someone like Devon Davenport-a straight-A student-athlete with everything going for her. But in a moment of denial, desperation, and sheer panic, she did something that most people couldn't even imagine. And now Devon is being charged with attempted murder. In a skillfully crafted story, Amy Efaw takes readers through the days leading up to-and after-Devon's crime, painting an unexpected picture of a truly empathetic character caught up in an unimaginable situation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142415900
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	12/02/2010
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	8.48(w) x 11.68(h) x 0.95(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Amy Efaw (www.amyefaw.com) is a former Army officer and freelance journalist. She lives with her family in Denver, Colorado. This is her second novel.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

-Efaw captures Devon+s mortification, denial, and despair, shifting fluidly between her present experiences in a juvenile jail and the terrifying night a baby inexplicably arrived.+ -Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

-Efaw captures Devon+s mortification, denial, and despair, shifting fluidly between her present experiences in a juvenile jail and the terrifying night a baby inexplicably arrived.+ -Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Efaw assigns herself a seemingly impossible task . . . yet somehow pulls it off in this successful button-pusher.

Booklist

Devon, a perfect student and soccer star, can't explain how she didn't know about her pregnancy or how she could put IT, bloody and wailing, in a trash bag and carry IT out to a dumpster. Efaw captures Devon's mortification, denial and despair, shifting fluidly between her present experiences in a juvenile jail and the terrifying night a baby inexplicably arrived. As her no-nonsense lawyer pushes for answers, readers experience gripping flashbacks alongside Devon. Mounting tension culminates only when Devon finally faces her entire, horrific act. The author constructs powerful, pressurized scenes inside the girls' detention center as well, filling it with believable, disturbing characters, rigid rules and the metallic echoes of lock-downs. Authentic dialogue and pithy writing allow teens to feel every prick of panic, embarrassment and fear. They also quickly understand how Devon could delude herself for so long: No one would want to emulate Devon's mother, a salacious, brassy man-hunter who got knocked up as a teen. Young adults with smoldering parental resentment or with fixations on perfection will understand Devon's devastation at losing a cultivated future. (Fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews

How does an unlikable protagonist become a sympathetic heroine? This seems impossible in the case of Devon Davenport, a 17-year-old who has dumped her newborn into the trash. But narrator Rebecca Soler makes us care right from the beginning. She even sustains the listener’s compassion during Devon's time in a juvenile center. Soler conveys Devon's thoughts and observations in a flat deadpan tone, contrasting them with her mother’s too-cheery, too-bright dialogue. Devon's outward responses sound as dull and evasive to us as they do to her frustrated attorney. But Soler also expresses the inner Devon, who is filled with fear, confusion, and despair as she tries to find her way to self-awareness and hope. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2009 - AudioFile