Mahalia

KLIATT

This novel comes from an Australian writer and is set in Australia, near the rainforests, the coastline, in an especially beautiful place. Mahalia, the baby girl of teenagers Emmy and Matt, is, however, named after the American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. The story begins when Mahalia is five months old, Emmy has left, and 17-year-old Matt is alone responsible for the baby. He gets a stipend from the government, and for a few weeks takes refuge in his mother's home, where he and the baby are welcome. He feels however that he must take full responsibility for the baby, so he rents a room in a run-down house he shares with two strangers, Eliza and Virginia. The story continues with Matt and Mahalia over the next seven months, as the two bond tightly together, as Mahalia gets her first teeth, learns to crawl, stand, and walk, starts to say a few words, and is on her way to becoming her own person. When Emmy reappears and wants custody of Mahalia, Matt feels a pain that is unbearable, as he faces separation from his little girl. I realize that the YA reader who will love this book will be one who is interested in babies—not in a sentimental sense, but one who truly appreciates the wonders of a baby's first year of life. The community in which Matt lives appears to me as an American to be one that could be found here in the States in Northern California—we are talking about alternative lifestyles: musicians, artists, aging hippies. Matt is a musician who yearns to someday be part of a band; Eliza, his housemate who becomes very close to him, is a singer. Matt and his best friend Otis occasionally smoke some marijuana; Matt and Emmy are high school dropouts, even though they are clearlyarticulate and intelligent. Horniman writes with vivid details of the realities of everyday life, but she also writes with great respect for Matt, for Mahalia, for all her characters. She clearly portrays the poignancy of Matt's situation—his grief over his lost love with Emmy, his determination to be a good father to his baby, his need to find his own way in the world. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2001, Random House, Knopf, 178p.,
— Claire Rosser

VOYA

Seventeen-year-old Matt habitually skips school to make love with Emmy. Pregnant, she says, "We'll just love it," but leaves just months after Mahalia's birth. Matt loves Mahalia, and absent marketable job skills, spends days in Australian welfare offices on "detestable gray plastic chairs" to obtain a single-parent pension. Matt finds that he can spend "all day playing with a baby," but play does not augment a subsistence pension, and his parenting preoccupations bore friends. Adorable Mahalia approaches behavioral perfection but requires care, and at times, Matt considers her a "ball and chain." With emotional support from Eliza, a young woman at his lodgings; his mother; and others, Matt grows and muddles through. When Emmy, contrite, returns and demands to be a part of Mahalia's life, Matt makes a mature response. By now he is playing gigs with a band and hopes to make something of himself. Horniman's slowly unfolding account of Matt's inner journey will tire some readers, and her lyrical passages-birds are described as "a circlet of brown feathered flowers"-will annoy others. Teens enthralled with babies kicking, sucking, and squealing will delight in the unrelenting focus on Matt's discovery of Mahalia. Those seeking sharply delineated conflict and clear hard choices will find Margaret Bechard's Hanging on to Max (Roaring Brook, 2001/VOYA April 2002) more to their liking. The two novels make thought-provoking reading back-to-back. Few books explore male single parenting, and Horniman's account of Matt's approach to it is a welcome and recommended addition to literature. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High,defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003 (orig. 2001), Knopf, 208p

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Baby Mahalia is the love of her 17-year-old father's life. Her parents, Matt and Emmy, drop out of school and try to provide a home for her, but Emmy can't cope and leaves when the baby is five months old. Matt was raised by his mother and wants a different life for his daughter. When he moves back to his hometown, he's afraid that the temptation to rely on his mom to raise Mahalia will prove too strong, and he and the baby move into a rental house inhabited by a 22-year-old music student. While Matt struggles with the loss of Emmy and the stresses of taking care of a baby, he begins to realize that love will not conquer all. And while he fails at times to cope with everything, with the help of a new and an old friend, he ultimately succeeds and becomes a good man as well as a good parent. Like Margaret Bechard's Hanging on to Max (Roaring Brook, 2002), Mahalia explores a real and relatively ignored issue-the problems and emotions of a teenage father. Matt and Mahalia are winning, engaging, and genuine, as are all of the characters in this novel. It is set in contemporary New South Wales but there is much that would seem familiar to American teens. Certainly Matt's coming-of-age problems are universal. A poignant and memorable love story of a young father and his daughter.-Jane Halsall, McHenry Public Library District, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

In this Australian take on a teen-Dad-raising-a-baby story, newcomer Horniman offers readers a more literary and more emotional recounting than Margaret Bechard's Hanging on to Max (2002). Matt's daily schedule reflects the unending labor and delight that an infant brings, plus the sheer exhaustion of single parenting. Enchanted with his daughter, Matt fears that others will take over and labors to manage Magnolia all by himself. Learning that his caring for Magnolia doesn't mean that he must do absolutely everything is at the heart of his struggle. While the Australian setting is vividly depicted, it doesn't detract from the universality of the story, which is not told in first person, but by an omniscient narrator focused on Matt's point of view. Roommates, friends, parents, and most of all Emmy, Magnolia's mother, weave in and out of Matt's life and thoughts. Sometimes painful in its depiction of the absolute focus required by a baby, this is not a glamorized version of parenthood. Matt's choices are sometimes ridiculously incompetent, bordering on neglect, but the depth of his feeling for Magnolia provides him with an ability to learn how to do things better. The complexity that unfolds provides a depth unusual in a problem novel while remaining true to revealing the daunting labor involved in child-rearing. A refreshingly honest addition to the lean offerings depicting teen dads. (Fiction. YA)