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Giftchild
Penny adores her best friend Rodney.
He’s always there for her, and she knows they’d be the perfect couple—except that they’re still in high school, and she’s watched too many friends go through painful breakups. Besides, Penny has bigger things to worry about—like her mother, who desperately wants to have more children. After an endless string of miscarriages and failed adoptions, Penny’s mother is ready to give up hope.
But Penny has the perfect if she gets pregnant, she can give her mother the baby she’s always wanted. Penny’s sure this is the right thing to do, but only after she sets her plan in motion does she realize that sex will change her relationship with Rodney—in ways that she never expected. And the more she tries to fix things for her mother, the more she risks losing everything she wants for herself.
All Penny wants is for the people she loves to be happy. So why isn’t anything going the way that she planned?
He’s always there for her, and she knows they’d be the perfect couple—except that they’re still in high school, and she’s watched too many friends go through painful breakups. Besides, Penny has bigger things to worry about—like her mother, who desperately wants to have more children. After an endless string of miscarriages and failed adoptions, Penny’s mother is ready to give up hope.
But Penny has the perfect if she gets pregnant, she can give her mother the baby she’s always wanted. Penny’s sure this is the right thing to do, but only after she sets her plan in motion does she realize that sex will change her relationship with Rodney—in ways that she never expected. And the more she tries to fix things for her mother, the more she risks losing everything she wants for herself.
All Penny wants is for the people she loves to be happy. So why isn’t anything going the way that she planned?
267 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 24, 2014
12 people are currently reading
358 people want to read
About the author
Janci Patterson
57 books252 followersJanci Patterson writes fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary young adult novels. Janci lives in Orem, Utah, with her husband, Drew Olds, and their children. Janci's first science fiction novel, A Thousand Faces, is available for free from all e-book vendors. Visit Janci at her website, www.jancipatterson.com, to join her reader's group for access to another free novel, her middle grade Searching for Super, only available there.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 19, 2015
Review to come...
Content: If you read the summary then you know that there must be teen sex in this one (cause obviously that's required to get pregnant) but it was fade to black. Mild language.
Content: If you read the summary then you know that there must be teen sex in this one (cause obviously that's required to get pregnant) but it was fade to black. Mild language.
July 27, 2020
Oh my goodness, what an emotional rollercoaster!
This book was incredibly well-written. I never became frustrated with the pace or the characters, and the pregnancy stuff made me actually feel pregnant again (my youngest is six, so it's been a while). The story is bitter-sweet, and it will wring you out emotionally. So you've been warned. I cried.
The narrative was pretty heavy on the internal thought, but I didn't care at all, which is weird, because that is sometimes one of my pet peeves. So I'm impressed by the author's skills, is what I'm trying to say. I'm surprised this doesn't have more reviews on Goodreads! This book was recommended by Brandon Sanderson on Writing Excuses for goodness sake.
FYI this book features teen pregnancy, but it is pretty clean (fades to black before sex). I would actually recommend this story for teens. It deals with, like, every possible consequence of the main character's actions.
This book was incredibly well-written. I never became frustrated with the pace or the characters, and the pregnancy stuff made me actually feel pregnant again (my youngest is six, so it's been a while). The story is bitter-sweet, and it will wring you out emotionally. So you've been warned. I cried.
The narrative was pretty heavy on the internal thought, but I didn't care at all, which is weird, because that is sometimes one of my pet peeves. So I'm impressed by the author's skills, is what I'm trying to say. I'm surprised this doesn't have more reviews on Goodreads! This book was recommended by Brandon Sanderson on Writing Excuses for goodness sake.
FYI this book features teen pregnancy, but it is pretty clean (fades to black before sex). I would actually recommend this story for teens. It deals with, like, every possible consequence of the main character's actions.
May 15, 2020
This book. Wow. I did not see it going that way- I thought in the end Penny would just keep her baby and understand how the other mothers chose to keep their babies.
Penny’s mother has been through failed adoptions, miscarriages, and failed fertility treatments- each leaving her more broken than the last. Despite having two teenage daughters, she wants a baby. Penny realizes that she can help her mom by giving her a child, so she sets out to get pregnant at sixteen by her best friend Rodney. Only she doesn’t tell Rodney.
Rodney has been in love with Penny for years and when he find out what she has done he doesn’t know how to feel. Penny realizes the situation isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. At seventeen weeks Penny starts bleeding internally and delivers her son shortly after with Rodney by her side. They hold him, Rodney takes pictures of him, and Penny names him Gabriel. This scene is so real and so touching - I definitely cried.
Penny grows up quick from being the naive girl to a much more understanding friend and daughter. She loves her mom a little too much, at the risk of her own happiness, and then realizes how detrimental that is to her health.
I hated Penny’s mother and she seemed very self-centered throughout the whole novel, even in the end. She isn’t a good mother to either daughter. Penny’s character goes through a major transformation as a result of what happens to her and, even though she was so naive at the start, I loved and felt for her. Rodney was such a pushover! He stood up for himself a bit, and was so sweet, but I would have liked him to have more of an opinion about what is happening.
The end with Penny and Rodney being able to just hold each other was so nice. Rodney gives Penny a locket with the picture of their son inside and they talk about their future.
Penny’s mother has been through failed adoptions, miscarriages, and failed fertility treatments- each leaving her more broken than the last. Despite having two teenage daughters, she wants a baby. Penny realizes that she can help her mom by giving her a child, so she sets out to get pregnant at sixteen by her best friend Rodney. Only she doesn’t tell Rodney.
Rodney has been in love with Penny for years and when he find out what she has done he doesn’t know how to feel. Penny realizes the situation isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. At seventeen weeks Penny starts bleeding internally and delivers her son shortly after with Rodney by her side. They hold him, Rodney takes pictures of him, and Penny names him Gabriel. This scene is so real and so touching - I definitely cried.
Penny grows up quick from being the naive girl to a much more understanding friend and daughter. She loves her mom a little too much, at the risk of her own happiness, and then realizes how detrimental that is to her health.
I hated Penny’s mother and she seemed very self-centered throughout the whole novel, even in the end. She isn’t a good mother to either daughter. Penny’s character goes through a major transformation as a result of what happens to her and, even though she was so naive at the start, I loved and felt for her. Rodney was such a pushover! He stood up for himself a bit, and was so sweet, but I would have liked him to have more of an opinion about what is happening.
The end with Penny and Rodney being able to just hold each other was so nice. Rodney gives Penny a locket with the picture of their son inside and they talk about their future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2024
GiftChild by Janci Patterson is a realistic novel about a young woman who doesn’t want to date in high school, because high school relationships never last. Her mother is a perfect example – she got pregnant as a teenager, got married – and quickly divorced. Her mom now desperately wants a new baby – but she is repeatedly heartbroken when she can’t get pregnant with her new husband, and all their adoption possibilities keep falling through. Penny decides she has the perfect solution – she, at 16, will get pregnant and give the baby to her mother. However, she doesn’t discuss her plan with her mother, or her best friend Rodney before they have sex. Penny’s older sister warns her that her relationship with Rodney will be very different if they sleep together – but it’s only after the fact that she realizes how true that is, as things get very complicated, especially because Penny does get pregnant after their first time. The thing I liked most about this book is the exploration of Penny’s relationships with Rodney, her mother, her step-father, her sister. All of them grow more complex throughout the book. If you like a realistic novel with characters in difficult situations, you might enjoy GiftChild.
September 18, 2015
4.25 for quality, 3.5 for enjoyment—I was reading it in e-book format, which makes it harder for me to focus, and it's out of my preferred genres, but I'd heard it was really good. It definitely is. I read it in about 7 hours. This family is so damaged. There is so much heartbreak in this story; you could really feel for Penny and Rodney. Ms. Patterson has done an amazing job in showing the stress and pain caused by infertility, not to mention the confused logic that comes out of teenage minds.
A big part of me wishes there had been two viewpoint characters—I would have loved to have Rodney's feelings on pretty much the entire story, and I could have used an occasional break from Penny's naval-gazing and controlling behavior. But overall, a great story, and I look forward to reading more of Patterson's work (hopefully in other genres than contempo-YA).
A big part of me wishes there had been two viewpoint characters—I would have loved to have Rodney's feelings on pretty much the entire story, and I could have used an occasional break from Penny's naval-gazing and controlling behavior. But overall, a great story, and I look forward to reading more of Patterson's work (hopefully in other genres than contempo-YA).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews