The Home for Unwanted Girls

The Home for Unwanted Girls

Authors

Joanna Goodman

Publisher

HarperCollins

Publication Year

2018

ISBN

9780062834089

Pages

384 pages

Genre

historical

Format

novel

Item Type

Fiction

Annotation

In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility--much like Maggie Hughes' parents. Maggie's English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that don't include marriage to the poor French boy the next farm over. But Maggie's heart is captured by Gabriel Phénix. When she becomes pregnant at fifteen, her parents send the baby Elodie to an orphanage where she receives horrible treatment. Seventeen years later, Maggie, married to a businessman eager to start a family, cannot forget the daughter she was forced to abandon, and a chance reconnection with Gabriel spurs a wrenching choice. As time passes, the stories of Maggie and Elodie intertwine but never touch, until Maggie realizes she must take what she wants from life and go in search of her long-lost daughter, finally reclaiming the truth that has been denied them both.

Grade Level

9-12; Adult

Diversity Topics

Family Relationships; Culture/Ethnicity; Parental rights termination; Biethnic; losing parental rights; losing your child; losing your daughter; biethnic teenager

Main Character

female child; female teenager; adult female

Race/Ethnicities

White (Canadian; French)

Family Formation

mother and father; orphan

Keywords

orphanage; teenage pregnancy; government funding; search; Quebec; nuns; religion; mental institution; money

Diversity Impact

direct

The Home for Unwanted Girls

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