I don't teach high school anymore, but I can't break the habit of looking for companion texts for books (my own and other). A while back, this description of The Pregnancy Project came across my screen via the School Library Journal blog:

Rodriguez, now 18 and currently attending college, shares her experiences and insights in The Pregnancy Project (S&S, Jan. 2012; Gr 8 Up), a memoir written with Jenna Glatzer. Rodriguez begins by revealing to readers the more personal side of her experiment, candidly describing her mother's experiences (she had her first child at age 15) and struggle to raise a family as a single parent; her siblings' tendency to "repeat the cycle" and become teen parents themselves; and her own determination not to follow in their footsteps but to instead focus on her education and seek out a better life.

Teachers, The Pregnancy Project is just BEGGING to be used alongside What Can't Wait. Literature circles, anyone? If I were still in the classroom, I'd love to use this as a non-fiction accompaniment... I'd serve both books up with a side-dish of Ball Don't Lie by Matt de la Peña and Hanging onto Max, which give (respectively) a pregnancy scare and teen parenting from the dude's POV. And of course, another favorite is The First Part Last by Angela Johnson.

More about The Pregnancy Project here. Teachers, keep emailing me to let me know how you are using What Can't Wait and The Knife and the Butterfly in the classroom. I love hearing all about it!