Before We Were Yours, By: Lisa Wingate

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Before We Were Yours, Lisa Wingate, Historical Fiction

5 Stars

Gripping, rending and warming ‘before we were yours’ consists of a dual narrative, set in both the 1930s and the present day. The foremost plot is the haunting truth of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. The book is packed full of adventure and frequent coincidences, which leave you wanting to read more and more.

In this book we get to spend time with the Foss family that lives on a shanty boat on the Mississippi in 1939, moving north and south on the river along with the seasons. Their level of poverty is hard to imagine, but the family of five children and their parents are all supportive of each other. There is music, singing, storytime, and a group effort to find fish, frogs or whatever to eat. There is even a rudimentary community among the shanty boat dwellers; they travel along the same routes and tie up in the same areas, then move on.

An unexpected complication with the mother’s pregnancy, where both and the new baby could die, forces the father (In an attempt to save his wife) to boat over in a skiff to the city, seeking help at a hospital. But before they can return, the children are rounded up by the police and hauled off to Georgia Tann’s orphan facility. Because this is a this-and-now type of story, we get to figure out what happens to these kids as well as what happened to their parents. Little by little, we also get to connect the dots between the present-day characters, and the Foss children who were stolen from their parents.

In real life, Georgia Tann renamed children before adoption and destroyed records so that parents who thought they were allowing their kids to be temporarily looked after, or whose children were literally snatched off the side of the road, would never be able to find them.

The plot is incredibly well-written and unique. It just may be a little hard to follow in the first few chapters, but it is definitely well worth the read.

The one thing that sticks with you after the book? The bonds of family, the power of family secrets and the inhumane system created by Georgia Tann to sell children. If you enjoy historical fiction, you will LOVE this book.

I hope you found this blog valuable, I enjoyed writing this. Feel free to comment down below for any inquiries, and your opinions. Thanks for reading.

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