Dancing Naked

"I think I'm pregnant." Derek stared at her, stunned. She stared back. He finally found his voice. "You say you think. You don't know for sure?" "I'm almost three weeks late." "That's it?" Derek brushed by her. "I hear my sisters talking all the time. That's no big deal." "It's a big deal for me." Kia is sixteen and pregnant. Her world crumbles as she attempts to come to terms with the life growing inside her and what she must do. Initially convinced that abortion is her only option, Kia comes to understand that for her, the answers are not always black and white. As the pregnancy progresses, Kia discovers who her real friends are and where their loyalties lie. It is through her relationship with the elderly Grace that she learns what it means to take responsibility for one's life and the joy that can come from trusting oneself. Faced with the most difficult decision of her life, Kia learns that the path to adulthood is not the easily navigable trail she once thought, but a twisting labyrinth where every turn produces a new array of choices, and where the journey is often undertaken alone. Dancing Naked is Shelley Hrdlitschka's third novel for young adults and her most ambitious and emotionally revealing to date. Pulling no punches, she covers some of the last taboo territory in teen fiction, sensitively and without sensationalism. Her other novels, Disconnected and Tangled Web, have both been well received and also deal with the issue of adoption and personal growth.