Before We Were Yours

by Lisa Wingate, 2017

This book was the February selection for our Old Town Library Book Club. It’s historical fiction about the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, a real organization, and children stolen and taken to an orphanage in Memphis. The truth is that many children were stolen or taken away from their parents under duress and false pretenses and kept in abusive children’s homes until they were adopted at exorbitant costs or died from abuse or neglect. Georgia Tann, the real-life leader of homes in Memphis, got away with this type of abuse for decades (1920s-1950). This horrible chapter of our history is brought to life through the story of Rill, the oldest of 5 children kidnapped off of their shanty-boat by corrupt police after their mom and dad have to go to a hospital to save the mom’s life while trying to birth twins. I liked her descriptions of the South, the river, the shanty-boat, Edisto Island, the cottage in Georgia. She’s a good writer, but the love story between modern day Avery and Trent was formulaic. The harrowing events in the orphanage were painful. Praying for all the young children in this dark world who are stolen away from their parents and abused. O God, be with them, guard and protect them, be their light in this awful, evil, dark world. Thankful to people who work to save them.