[Review] Girls Like Us by Gail Giles

I just recently responded to a comment on this review, which stated that the writer of the comment was highly offended. I can’t imagine how this book which highly advocates for #metoo, before the hashtag was generated and gives such a powerful platform for the voiceless to be heard, would be offensive. Although the commenter has explained how this comes about because she is the mother of a special needs child, and the use of the word “retarded” is referenced in the text, I feel when writing for young adults, you have to show the issues authentically, not in a bleached out super hyper anti-bactarialized manner of expression. The impact would be missed. As I said in the reply to this comment, the issues in this book are very gritty but they were not presented to the reader in graphic contextualized depictions. It’s horrifying enough that people on earth exist that do such abusive things to youth. Please read my recent response to the comment for Girls Like Us by Gail Giles.

Brichi's Lit Spot

Candlewick.  223pp.  May 27, 2014. 9780763662677.  Grades 7 and Up.  Just finished reading this and I’m honestly choking back the tears.  I can’t believe how skilled the author’s handling of the main 3 characters’ dignities with such poignancy.  There’s Biddy whose mother abandoned her to a grandmother that was filled with nothing but hate and resentment for a baby that survived an oxygen deprived birth and grew up to survive 2 separate rapes.  There’s Quincy who grew up in one foster home after another after surviving a traumatic head injury from a brick that was caused by her mother’s boyfriend when she was six.  There’s Ms. Elizabeth, the senior citizen that took both girls under her wings and helped them to understand, at last, what family really means. That both girls have survived such a traumatic life of sexual,emotional, and mental cruelty and still look to a future is extraordinary for…

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