Juno

Sixteen year-old Juno MacGuff is the type of girl that beats to her owndrummer, and doesn't really care what others may think of her. Shelearns that she's pregnant from a one-time sexual encounter with herbest friend, Paulie Bleeker. Juno and Paulie like each other, but don'tconsider themselves to be exclusive boyfriend/girlfriend let alone beready to be a family complete with child. Although she would rather notbe pregnant, Juno is fairly pragmatic about her situation. Althoughthere, Paulie really leaves all the decisions about the baby to Juno.Initially she decides that she will have an abortion, but that'ssomething that she ultimately cannot go through with. So she decides tohave the baby and give it up for adoption. But first she has to tellher father, Mac, and stepmother, Bren, that she is pregnant. Althoughthey would have preferred if Juno was on hard drugs or expelled fromschool, Mac and Bren too are pragmatic about Juno's situation. The nextstep is to find prospective parents for the yet unborn child. In thePennysaver ad section, Juno finds Mark and Vanessa Loring, a yuppiecouple living in the suburbs. Juno likes the Lorings, and in somerespects has found who looks to be a kindred spirit in Mark, with whomshe shares a love of grunge music and horror films. Vanessa is a littlemore uptight and is the one in the relationship seemingly most eager tohave a baby. On her own choosing, Juno enters into a closed rather thanopen adoption contract with the Lorings - meaning she will have nocontact with the baby after she gives it up. During the second andthird trimesters of Juno's pregnancy which she treats with care butdetachment, Juno's relationships with her family, with Paulie, and withthe Lorings develop, the latter whose on the surface perfect life maskssome hidden problems. Written by Huggo