In HTSAL, we get to see two very different points of view of the same adoption story line – a pregnant teenage girl contemplating giving her baby up for adoption, and a teenage girl in the family she chooses to adopt her baby.So many good things are happening in this book – alternating viewpoints (which I love, if you haven’t noticed by now), hugely relevant subject matter for so many teenagers and their families, and this compelling story of love and compassion that simply must be read.

While the subject of teen pregnancy might seem like a high school only topic for some parents and teachers, Zarr is able to handle this topic without sensationalizing it – I’d be perfectly comfortable with having this in my middle school classroom, which is at a pretty conservative school. On the flip side, this book is written so well that high school and college readers wouldn’t feel at all like they were reading a young readers type of book.

I’m really a huge fan of Sara Zarr, so I’ll be highlighting her more completely in a Friday Favorite coming up soon. For now, though, I wanted to give How To Save A Life its very own blog shoutout because it’s just that amazing.

~Melissa