Mahalia is an emotive story about two young lovers who find themselves having a child.  Emmy finds that Motherhood is too much for her at the tender age of seventeen and decides to run from it all, leaving Matt to pick up the pieces and care for Mahalia.

The story develops quite strongly and I was able to quickly develop empathy for each character through the strong portrayal that Horniman delivers.

During the year that Emmy is away we see Matt's character grow strong as he nurtures and cares for their daughter, Mahalia.  He moves out of his mother's house and into a share house with Eliza, who helps him to care for Mahalia.  A supportive and close relationship forms between these two characters.  Eliza is a strong character and this helps Matt grow from a weak and vulnerable character at the beginning to be a strong and caring father over the course of a year.  When Emmy returns to resume her role in their little family a year later, she finds that she is somewhat shut out from Matt and Mahalia's life.  Emmy's return is what Matt had thought he had wanted but somehow he knows that she hadn't returned for him.  Matt had believed that loving Mahalia would be enough, but he soon finds that there is a lot more to parenting than he had ever expected.

The characters seem to grow over the course of the story.  However, by the end of the book I felt that it needed an extra element or twist to finish it off as the ending was too predictable.  Still, it is easy to see why this book has been short listed this year (2002) for young adults as it delivers a strong message about young parenting and families in our ever increasingly diverse society.

Throughout the course of the book, Horniman asks us to consider the life of a young parent, or any parent for that matter, as Matt tries to find his place as a father and Emmy as a mother.  Horniman also questions the role of a single parent, whether it is a mother or father.  Throughout most of the book, Matt assumes responsibility for Mahalia and because of this he is seen as the stronger parent.  While Emmy is not necessarily weak, she is stronger in different ways.  At times Matt feels that he has been abandoned by Emmy.  At the beginning he often finds himself remembering their past but, as the year progresses, these 'flashbacks' occur less and less as he finds himself forgetting their past and moving toward his and Mahalia's future.  The book ends on a hopeful note, with no easy answers given, leaving their future open. 

Overall, I thought that the story was thought provoking and would thoroughly recommend Mahalia as a novel for young adults.

 Review by Annemarie Holmyard

© 2002 Annemarie Holmyard