Play Book Tag discussion

Before We Were Yours begins in 1939 on a Mississippi River shanty boat, the Arcadia. The Foss family, parents Queenie and Briny, and their five children, Rill, Camilla, Lark, Fern and Gabion, make their lives on the boat. When birth complications require Queenie and Briny to leave the boat, things go terrifyingly wrong.

The story then switches to the present day where we meet Avery Stafford, who has returned home to help her senator father during a health crisis. She stumbles across an old woman named May Campbell who lives in a nursing home while visiting her grandmother, Judy. May seems familiar to Avery and she sets out to find out how May and her grandmother know each other.

This book is based on the true life story of orphanage director Georgia Tann, who stole poor children, mistreated them, and placed them for adoption with wealthy clients—including Joan Crawford and June Allyson. Children were terribly abused, even killed, and then sold to the highest bidders.

While the modern day story isn't nearly as riveting as the 1939 narrative, both are necessary to bring the story fully to a conclusion. Although there were times when my eyes filled with tears, there were also times when I felt the emotional high of finding out what eventually happened to the Foss children. Lisa Wingate created vivid characters who told the story of a real life tragedy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and my local book club gave it a 5 Star rating. I would heartily recommend it and encourage everyone not to skip the author's notes at the end.

I mostly agree with you about the two stories on this one--I liked the present day story, but obviously the 1939 story was more riveting and it really had to be, IMO.

In any event, this was my first Wingate novel and out of the 3 I've read I like it best, although I did rate another one 4 stars.

I really enjoyed this one when I read it last year. I also read The Book of Lost Friends by Wingate a couple of months ago, and enjoyed it nearly as much as this one.