Getting Free: 2

by Nigel Hinton

When fifteen-year-old Joanna finds herself pregnant, her sixteen-year-old boyfriend, Peter, wants to marry her . Joanna's "fire and brimstone" minister father wants her to have an abortion , so the couple runs away.

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1978

About the author

Nigel Hinton was born and educated in London. After two years in advertising, he worked as an English teacher for nine years. His first novel, Collision Course (winner of the Dutch Silver Pen Award) was written as a result of a challenge from one of his pupils. He began teaching part-time and also worked as a professional actor before concentrating on his writing.

Nigel is the ever-popular author the Beaver Towers series of stories for primary school readers (which has been adapted for TV), and, for secondary school readers, he wrote the Buddy trilogy. His novel The Finders won him the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Award.

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book growing up, I remember staying up until 4am finishing it before school in the morning. It is probably one that is more suited to teenagers but as most books do it made itself at home in my heart! Definitely should give it a chance if you like romantic novels that aren't too soppy and stay true to reality. Aimed mainly at 12-16 year olds.

[Dylan Bjustrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant surprise. I checked this out from my school library knowing nothing about it. There’s barely any information about this book online too (though it has a pretty sparse Wikipedia page).
The story of the novel moved very fast, and was never boring, though I do think the novel could have been longer, especially the ending. I feel like the scene where Jo agreed with Peter about turning themselves in could have been expanded upon, though the scene that we got wasn’t awful. It was actually written very well.
The two main characters, Peter and Johanna, were well written, and their relationship felt real and believable. I loved the whole idea of them running away from their parents due to how restricted they feel about the society that they live in, and also how their own parents perceive them. The reason that they both want to run away felt very real and relatable, especially to a teenager. The topic of teenage pregnancy that is a central plot focus of the novel I felt was handled well, and felt very progressive for the time the novel was written.
Overall this was a great hidden gem that I would recommend reading if you like discovering old hidden gems, or if you just want a good story about teenage runaways.