Plan A

August 15, 2023
The personal price of abortion bans. Sixteen-year-old Ivy lives in Paris, Texas, an insular town with a fake Eiffel Tower and a culture of megachurches. She proudly works as an assistant manager at Euwing's Drugs; she's also a diligent student with plans for college who one day hopes to see the world. But when she gets pregnant, Ivy knows it could spell the end of her ambitions. People in her town are vitriolically antiabortion--and abortion in Texas is illegal after six weeks. She tells her boyfriend, Lorenzo, and he and Ivy's mother organize a plan to drive to Oregon, where Ivy's indomitable grandmother lives, to get an abortion. What ensues is both a poignant road trip through towns named after world cities so Ivy can, after a fashion, experience seeing the world and a searing reflection on the contrasting states of affairs around abortion access and community attitudes. Over the course of the trio's journey, Ivy learns of other people's abortion stories--and that one in four women gets one. This extraordinary story scrutinizes, through Ivy's first-person, present-tense narrative, some of the historical and contemporary efforts to control women and the ways women have either been accessories to or have rebelled against them. The book offers a powerful argument for choice, bolstered by an exploration of women's oppression and strength, told through a personal lens: It's an individual story through which many readers will find universal commonalities. Main characters read white. Brilliant and multilayered; an absolute must-read. (Fiction. 12-18)

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Starred review from September 4, 2023
A pregnant 16-year-old in an ultraconservative town reckons with contemporary affairs surrounding abortions and bodily autonomy in this timely novel by Caletti (The Epic Story of Every Living Thing). When high school junior Ivy learns that she’s pregnant, she knows she wants to get an abortion, but the procedure is illegal after six weeks in Texas. With her mother’s support, Ivy and her steadfast boyfriend Lorenzo prepare to road-trip to Oregon, where her grandmother lives, for the operation. Before she leaves, however, a classmate discovers her secret, and soon, the whole community knows of Ivy’s plan. Lorenzo decides to make the trip an around-the-world adventure, planning stops in cities such as Rome, Tex.; Lima, Okla.; and Moscow, Kan., to visit friends and relatives along the way. Through them, Ivy learns about other people’s experiences with abortion. The cruelty that Ivy is subjected to by her community is sometimes difficult to read, but her surety of her right to choose never wavers. Through Ivy’s frank first-person narration, Caletti offers a matter-of-fact exploration of abortion and its use cases, interweaving myriad perspectives on pregnancy and body agency with a deft and nonjudgmental approach. Main characters read as white. Ages 14–up.

October 1, 2023
Grades 10-12 *Starred Review* Caletti (The Epic Story of Every Living Thing, 2022) dives into the evergreen zeitgeist of reproductive rights through Ivy's story in Plan A. After teen Texas resident Ivy finds herself pregnant by unexpected means, she heads out on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, Lorenzo. While she has her mother's support, Ivy knows not everyone will be happy with her choice, like Lorenzo's father. But as she travels, she increasingly learns that it is her choice and she is far from alone in the long history of people seeking abortions. Plan A nails several elements, from the true-to-life and engaging voice to the tight handle on the nuance in the people who hold contrasting opinions and even the seemingly contradictory but simultaneously simple and complex issues of all varieties involved in abortion rights. Meanwhile, Caletti deftly manages a tender love story at the hurricane's center. Narrator Ivy maintains mystery around the specifics of her pregnancy for much of the book, building tension and a deeper level of investment in Ivy in a story that could happen to anyone. Characters throughout are dynamically painted with detail, as well as Ivy's sharp observations. Readers who enjoyed Juniper's independence and the take on a timely medical issue in Marisa Reichardt's A Shot at Normal (2021) will also appreciate Plan A.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2023

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Ivy DeVries has a plan. She is Assistant Manager of Euwing's Drugs, gets good grades, knows where she will go to college, and has money saved up so one day she can leave her tiny town of Paris, TX. But she also has a problem. She is exactly six weeks and one day pregnant-and abortions after six weeks are illegal in Texas. After talking with her mom, they decide that Ivy and her boyfriend, Lorenzo, will go on a road trip to visit Ivy's family in Oregon, where she will be able to get an abortion. The trip is messy and complicated-they get on each other's nerves; Lorenzo's dad tracks them down and tries to stop them. As they travel across the country and stay with relatives and family friends, women start opening up to Ivy about their own experiences with abortion. While Ivy never wavers in her certainty that an abortion is the right choice for her, the community that is created through the sharing of stories helps illustrate just how common abortion is (and always has been). Whenever a plot point strains credulity, Caletti cleverly breaks the fourth wall to address it head-on. But what really makes this story shine are the main characters. They are relatable and multifaceted, and the ways in which they love and support one another other feels deep and meaningful. Characters default to white, though the race of Lorenzo, who has the surname Bastimentos (Bastimentos is an island in Panama), is not clear. VERDICT An accessible, powerful portrayal of the importance of choice. A must-read.-Katie Patterson

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2023
Ivy, sixteen, is pregnant and scared. In conservative Paris, Texas, she knows she can't disclose her condition -- or her desire to have an abortion, which is illegal in Texas after six weeks. The accidental reveal of her pregnancy, and the judgment and hatred that follow, only make her more resolved. Ivy and her boyfriend, Lorenzo (who isn't the father), drive to Ivy's grandmother's house in Oregon, where Ivy can get the procedure done safely. During their "abortion road trip love story," they "travel the world," with stops in Lima (Oklahoma) and Genoa (Colorado) and visits to the Wonder Tower and the Pillars of Rome. As in The Epic Story of Every Living Thing (rev. 9/22), Caletti approaches a provocative subject with humanity, nuance, and compassion; here, Ivy's story is deeply personal but also contextualized within women's stories throughout history. "We should have all the choices, every possible choice, when so much hasn't been our choice," her mom's friend, who herself had an abortion, tells her. "Agency over your own body is, like, the smallest, most basic right." While this message is the story's focus, Ivy's journey is also full of beauty: great music, a new closeness with Lorenzo, and an appreciation for the wonder of the natural world. There is much more to Ivy than the "bundle of cells" inside her -- which, of course, is the point. Rachel L. Kerns

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)