Bumped

Thumped by Megan McCafferty is the sequel to Bumped a dystopian satire about a society where teenagers are encouraged to get pregnant.  The story alternates between the voices of twins Harmony and Melody who have told the world that they are both pregnant with twins and born on the same day.  Harmony has gone back to Goodside with her husband although she is pregnant with Jondoe's babies.  She is unhappy in this religious community and unwilling to conform.  Melody is part of a huge fraud, faking the most public pregnancy in the world.  The two have to come to terms with their decisions before the untruths blowup in their faces.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was a nice sequel to Bumped and it was a sequel, not a second book in a series so it had a nice and fulfilling ending at the end (something that's lacking in a lot of YA lit) that even packs a nice message at the end.  The book is satire and filled with a lot of tongue and cheek moments that had me giggling.  This series is unlike anything else on the market and one I would recommend to teens.

Appropriateness:  This dystopian tale much like others that have been on the market recently was built around a premise of the government controlling or encouraging teenage sexuality.  In this case teenagers are encouraged to become pregnant, to "bump" (have sex) and to give their babies away.  Even though sex and sexuality is the main premise of this book the content is still fairly tame.  There is one heavy makeout scene that is not descriptive.  The ultimate message of the book is a liberal sex ed philosophy, that sex should be meaningful and not done because of pressure from outside forces, that controlling sexual behavior (either way) isn't positive.   I did not find the content to be inappropriate for a middle school audience (although some may find the topic icky) and would recommend the book for ages 13+   I would take this book as an opportunity to have some frank discussions with your kid on teen pregnancy and the media's pressure to live in a sexualised society as the book really encourages those sorts of discussions.