In Fact or Fiction I recommend a fiction and nonfiction book on the same topic (and bonus this month – both books are by the same author!). This month you can choose a haunting novel about a former foster child investigating the disappearance of a missing girl, a poignant memoir about growing up in foster homes or both! Either way you’ll get an insightful look at lost girls, both real and metaphorical.
When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
Lost girls. Troubled girls traumatized by abuse and abandonment. Vulnerable girls struggling for love and acceptance. Detective Anna Hart knows about lost girls because she was a lost girl. It’s 1993 and after suffering a devastating personal loss, Anna returns to Mendocino, California, the one place she knew love and security as a teenager. Although she’s there to heal, the baffling disappearance of a 15 year-old girl pulls her back to what she does best – finding lost girls. Soon more girls are reported missing, but Anna must deal with her own demons before she can find the girls and stop the predator.
Haunting and suspenseful, Paula McLain’s When the Stars Go Dark is a compelling crime novel as well as an exploration of childhood trauma.
Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses by Paula McLain
As Teresa, Penny and Paula gazed up at their new foster family, Bob and Hilde Lindbergh and their daughter Tina, Paula couldn’t help but think that nothing was odder than being introduced to your new family of complete strangers. The Lindberghs would be the sisters’ fourth and final foster family. On that first afternoon at the Lindberghs’ dry and dusty house in the country, the scrappy trio of sisters, scrawny, bed-wetting, devoted to each other, had no idea what the future might be. There might be kindness or indifference or abuse – who knew? They were strangers meeting strangers. Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses is Paula McLain’s humorous but poignant memoir of life as a foster child.
Julie Nelson
Constant reader, book selector, shameless promoter of good reads - these are just a few of the things I do as a Collection Development Professional. I love sharing the hidden gems in our nonfiction collection!