Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
This book is very interesting!! I would consider it Historical Fiction. It is a story about Georgia Tann and her Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society. This is a real true person and place. Look her up lots will appear. The story you read in this book is about fictional characters but the events that take place in this book are events that happened to real kids in this home. It took me a very long time to read this book. Two reasons 1) I kept thinking it was going to rip my heart out and 2) school started and it is hard for me to get back into the routine of reading when I have so much to think about beginning a new year! I will admit that this book got slow at some point. That is when I just read a chapter a night. Then about chapter 16 or 17 in picked up. It is written to where you are in the present one chapter then you are in the past. I found myself wanting to be in the present and I just didn't want anymore of the past! Then all of sudden I couldn't put it down because I was engrossed in what was happening in both present and past. It's appalling to think this actually happened and this "orphanage" actually existed. We always think we live in a terrible world today but this is proof it was a terrible world then. Georgia Tann sounds like a very horrible, greedy, selfish woman. At the end it gives other nonfiction books that are about this topic. I have been looking at each one. I was hopeng I could check one out online. I am not having any luck finding them to check out but you can buy them all on Amazon. One book with the actual accounts of children who were a victim of the Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society is $64.00. You will also learn of the famous people who were involved. Joan Crawford is one and we all know her story from the book Mommy Dearest. Which was a very horrible story to read. After reading this I am not surprised they were connected. Lisa Wingate did an incredible job of researching and putting this together. This is a good book to read to learn about America's past but the way it is written you do not feel like you are reading factual information you are just reading a story about family. I finished the book this morning and it is sticking with me. I can't believe this really happened! I highly recommend the book and when it seems to slow down, "just keep reading!" You will not be disappointed.
Rating: I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.