cover image Before Their Time: Four Generations of Teenage Mothers

Before Their Time: Four Generations of Teenage Mothers

Joelle Sander, Daryl Sander. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, $19.95 (188pp) ISBN 978-0-15-111638-6

A million teenagers become pregnant each year. Giving this statistic a human dimension, family therapist Sander ( Working with Teenage Fathers ) supplies the words and experiences of four minority women in one family from New York City. From four generations spanning the early 1900s to the late 1980s, the women detail their emotional histories and sexual activity. Although the focus is on the youngest, Leticia, the older family members, particularly the grandmother and great-grandmother, emerge as resilient women still imbued with their Southern heritage of valuing church and family. The stories are poignant and textured, centering around the frustrations of being poor and black, subject to family stresses, including abuse from men who often vanish abruptly from the women's lives. This collective testimony illuminates cycles of dependency in a personal way. (Nov.)