-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
by Han Nolan
A thought-provoking and courageous new novel by National Book Award winner Han Nolan.
Nobody gets away with telling Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant sixteen year-old, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the baby's father and work at his family's summer camp for overweight kids. Despite her initial reluctance to help out, Elly is surprised that she actually enjoys working with the campers. But a tragedy on the very day her baby is born starts a series of events that overwhelms Elly with unexpected emotions and difficult choices. Somehow, she must turn her usual obstinance in a direction that can ensure a future for herself - and for the new life she has created.
"Starred Review. Nolan presents a sensitive look at the difficulties of teen pregnancy...Drawing in both reluctant and avid readers, this novel is an uplifting page-turner with a great deal of heart." - School Library Journal
"Readers will love Eleanor's openness and admire her strength in dealing with hard choices and unexpected disasters." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. As revealed in her first-person narration, Elly is passionate, smart-mouthed, rebellious and completely endearing. Secondary characters are similarly well-crafted, refusing to fit into stereotypes. Readers may feel like laughing, crying and grinding their teeth in frustration, but they will always feel like they are in the experienced hands of a master storyteller." - Kirkus Reviews
"How Elly plows through this complex morass both before and after the baby arrives makes for not only a strong story but a subtle object lesson as well." - Booklist
"The combination of camp story and problem novel give the book high appeal, and the characters are complex and sympathetic, particularly Elly as she works through her issues and grapples believably with the forced onset of adulthood." - Bulletin
This information about Pregnant Pause was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Han Nolan is the author of the National Book Award-winning Dancing on the Edge, the National Book Award finalist Send Me Down a Miracle, and numerous other acclaimed novels for teen readers. She and her husband live on the East Coast.
If you liked Pregnant Pause, try these:
by Quiara Alegría. Hudes
Published 2025
The story of a runaway mother's ten days of freedom—and the pain, desire, longing, and wonder we find on the messy road to enlightenment—from Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes.
by Rufi Thorpe
Published 2025
A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman's attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Published 2021
From the New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award title The Poet X comes a dazzling novel in prose about a girl with talent, pride, and a drive to feed the soul that keeps her fire burning bright.
We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
