By Rita Garcia Williams
This young adult book begins with the abortion of 14-year-old Gayle Ann's second child. As a young adult librarian at the time I picked up this book, I wasn't sure it would be one I'd want to recommend to 12-year-olds and almost didn't read it, but I'd have missed a really touching and realistic story. Gayle's widowed mother takes the law into her own hands and sends her daughter from the streets of Brooklyn to her southern roots and her brother's straight-laced family. Though Gayle dislikes her chores, her cousin Cookie's Christian gospel music, and almost everything else, she finally gives in to the love they give her and her baby boy. The language and reactions are very realistic. Aside from the heartbreak of a teen undergoing an abortion, I highly recommend this story about the redeeming love of faith and family, because it was Jesus's love that motivates Cookie's family to reach out and care for Gayle.
Award winning author Williams continues to publish teen and children's literature, much of it set in the American south.
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