Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

Absorbing from first page to last, this sensitively written novel explores how a teenager’s crisis rocks her life as well as the lives of others. Ellie wants a boyfriend, but what she gets instead is a series of meaningless hookups, the fourth of which leaves her pregnant. Unable to go to her parents for comfort and guidance, she turns to her best friend, Corinne, and Liz, the compassionate mother of Ellie’s childhood friend, Caleb. While rumors about her condition spread, Ellie has no idea how profoundly her pregnancy and her decision about whether to have the baby affects the baby’s father, Josh, whom she has avoided ever since he abandoned her after their only sexual encounter. Meanwhile, Corinne and Caleb are drawn together by their shared concern for Ellie. Offering four equally sympathetic viewpoints, Knowles (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Lessons from a Dead Girl) eloquently expresses the pain of lost innocence (“Their words made me feel beautiful. Irresistible. Even powerful for that one brief moment before it was over. But I was none of those things. I was nothing”) and the longing to feel loved. Ages 14–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Aug.)

ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

When Josh, 16, has sex with Ellie, it is his first time, and he is thrilled to boast to his mates that he is now elevated from virgin geek to ultrastud. But after Josh's condom falls off, Ellie finds herself pregnant. At first she plans to have an abortion. Then she changes her mind, goes through the pregnancy and painful childbirth, and gives the baby up for adoption. At school the word slut is scratched on her locker, but she does get support from her best friend, Corinne, who calls herself Miss Horny Forever Virgin, even as she has a fun romance with Caleb. Told in the alternating first-person narratives of four high-schoolers over nine months, Knowles' novel unveils surprises to the very end about family, friends, love, and sex. The simple words are eloquent about being together and alone at the same time, and because there is no easy resolution, readers, whatever their personal choices and values, will be caught up in the contemporary drama of strength, shame, and heartbreak.

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

After a "one-time thing" with Josh, Ellie gets pregnant. The story then explores the pregnancy's consequences from the perspectives of Ellie, Josh, and their friends Caleb and Corinne. Despite dull protagonists (there's not much to Ellie beyond her low self-esteem), the book effectively communicates emotional situations and the sobering possible effects of teenage sexuality.

Kirkus Reviews

A heartbreakingly honest, measured work of fiction about a teen's unintended pregnancy is narrated in four voices in this latest from Knowles ( Lessons from a Dead Girl , 2007). Ellie, Josh and their respective best friends Corinne and Caleb have known each other since they were young kids playing together at the park. Caleb, in fact, has nursed a quiet crush on Ellie for years and has been troubled by her worsening reputation as she ping-pongs from one guy to the next in a futile attempt to feel loved. He is both angry and hurt when Josh suddenly pursues her at a party and then casts her aside literally the minute after they have sex. With so many protagonists in the mix, it is no small feat that each character is fully developed and multidimensional—there are no villains or heroes here, only kids groping their way through a desperate situation. While the story never completely succeeds in shedding its problem-novel tone, it is nonetheless finely executed—a moving tale with a realistically unresolved ending. (Fiction. 13 & up)

School Library Journal (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Gr 9 Up-Ellie has sex with boys who make her feel wanted and beautiful and then never call again. Even seemingly decent Josh, a virgin, leaves right after their tryst and never speaks to her again. It turns out the condom "slipped off" (?) and she gets pregnant. The next nine months are narrated by four charatersEllie, Josh, and their best friends, Corinne and Caleb. Ellie's and Josh's families are filled with stock dysfunctionfrom Ellie's shrill, uptight mother and perfect-on-the-outside home to Josh's washed-up, hard-drinking father and hapless mother. The plot of this novel is tired, but Corinne and Caleb, at least, are mercifully convincing and thoughtful. Each, of course, comes from a stable family. Caleb's single mother is the novel's moral center. The blaring contrast between stable kids from loving families versus lost kids from dysfunctional families oversimplifies a complex subject. Knowles writes fluidly, and though Caleb's and Corinne's scenes shine, Ellie and Josh never engage enough to set Jumping Off Swings apart in the genre. Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library

Voice of Youth Advocates

Sixteen-year-old Ellie hooks up with guys hoping to feel the love that she does not get from her parents. She only feels it for a moment, and then they leave her. She thinks Josh may be different, but after they have sex, he goes back to the party and brags to his friends. Ellie's subsequent pregnancy changes her life as well as that of Josh and their best friends, Caleb and Corrine. Knowles explores the effects of Ellie's pregnancy from each character's point of view through alternately narrated chapters. The voices and reactions are honest: Josh feels shame for how he treated Ellie, but still does not talk to her. Caleb and Corrine try to support both of them, while feeling guilty for being happy with each other. Ellie is scared and feels worthless. Their peers in school treat Ellie as a slut, but Josh is hailed as a stud. Caleb's mother provides the emotional support that Ellie is missing from her parents. This powerful novel shares how four teens work through a crisis that ends in a loss of innocence for all of them. Through each one's voice, the reader sees how their family history has formed them and determined their reactions to the situation. The story tugs at the heart as the teens deal with the roller coaster of emotions that an unwanted pregnancy causes in this cautionary tale that does not preach too loudly.ùDeborah L. Dubois.