Baby Girl
Young, angry, and pregnant, Sheree has run away. In a lengthy letter, she tells her mother why she left. The litany is long: her mother's smoking and sexual encounters with men, her father's absorption with his young son and wife, her friend Ange's abortion, and Damon, the 25-year-old drug dealer who has stolen her heart and self-respect. Even Austin, her high-school buddy who refuses to show romantic interest in her, gets a mention. Then Sheree's mother responds with a letter of her own, begging her daughter to return, start over, and raise her child at home. Sheree's story is an unfortunate, far-too-typical scenario of children raising children, absent fathers, and women using their bodies to gain money and power. The author worked in a homeless shelter for women, and in this powerful novel, the voices and situations ring with authenticity, and the ending is grim but honest.Frances BradburnCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved