Helpful Score: 9
From the first time I read a book by Ms. Wingate, she captivated me with her stories and writing. I was very excited to read this book and it far surpassed my expectations.
I am intrigued my fictional novels that are based on true stories. The facts are true but how they are made play out in the characters' stories lies in the hands of the author. Through Lisa Wingate's talent and writing skill, these individuals were literally brought to life, so much so I had to keep reminding myself they were fictional!
Until this novel I had never heard of the Tennessee Children's Home Society spearheaded by Georgia Tann. From the 1920's through 1950's, hundreds of children were kidnapped by abduction or trickery from loving and caring parents. Until they were adopted by wealthy or famous people, for a hefty fee, they suffered unimaginable physical abuse, sexual assault, neglect, and with some even death.
In 1939 a young girl, Rill, and her siblings lived happily in poverty on a house boat with their parents. While her father and mother were at the hospital welcoming another child they were snatched away and taken to one of Ms. Tann's âhomesâ. That was when the nightmare began. As if the heartbreak of being separated from their parents was not enough, Rill also felt the pain of trying to protect her younger siblings and keep them together in an environment of cruelty and violence.
My heart broke at the horrors these children encountered. I never imagined!
The chapters alternate from Rill's narrative to Avery Stafford in the present day. Avery is 30, wealthy, privileged and the member of a prestigious political family, totally opposite to Rill's experience. When Avery attends a nursing home tour a resident appears to recognize her. She returns to visit her. In a sepia photo in May Crandall's room she sees a family. One of the children strongly resembles her grandmother. She cannot get it out of her mind and begins to relentlessly seek out answers about her Grandma Judy's past. Could May be a part of that past? Due to dementia claiming her grandmother's once sharp mind she cannot ask her questions. It's all up to Avery. What secrets will she unearth? How will they change her and her family's lives? I couldn't turn the pages fast enough! An incredible book with an amazing story!
Thank you, Lisa Wingate, for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions I have stated are my own.
I am intrigued my fictional novels that are based on true stories. The facts are true but how they are made play out in the characters' stories lies in the hands of the author. Through Lisa Wingate's talent and writing skill, these individuals were literally brought to life, so much so I had to keep reminding myself they were fictional!
Until this novel I had never heard of the Tennessee Children's Home Society spearheaded by Georgia Tann. From the 1920's through 1950's, hundreds of children were kidnapped by abduction or trickery from loving and caring parents. Until they were adopted by wealthy or famous people, for a hefty fee, they suffered unimaginable physical abuse, sexual assault, neglect, and with some even death.
In 1939 a young girl, Rill, and her siblings lived happily in poverty on a house boat with their parents. While her father and mother were at the hospital welcoming another child they were snatched away and taken to one of Ms. Tann's âhomesâ. That was when the nightmare began. As if the heartbreak of being separated from their parents was not enough, Rill also felt the pain of trying to protect her younger siblings and keep them together in an environment of cruelty and violence.
My heart broke at the horrors these children encountered. I never imagined!
The chapters alternate from Rill's narrative to Avery Stafford in the present day. Avery is 30, wealthy, privileged and the member of a prestigious political family, totally opposite to Rill's experience. When Avery attends a nursing home tour a resident appears to recognize her. She returns to visit her. In a sepia photo in May Crandall's room she sees a family. One of the children strongly resembles her grandmother. She cannot get it out of her mind and begins to relentlessly seek out answers about her Grandma Judy's past. Could May be a part of that past? Due to dementia claiming her grandmother's once sharp mind she cannot ask her questions. It's all up to Avery. What secrets will she unearth? How will they change her and her family's lives? I couldn't turn the pages fast enough! An incredible book with an amazing story!
Thank you, Lisa Wingate, for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions I have stated are my own.
Helpful Score: 5
This is a gripping tale that spans generations. It is told from the perspective of 12 year old Rill in 1939 as she tries to protect her younger siblings when their lives are forever changed. Then to present day and the perspective of Avery, a successful attorney and senator's daughter engaged to her childhood friend who returns home to South Carolina when her father becomes ill. She becomes intrigued with an elderly patient in a care facility who recognizes a bracelet Avery wears that was passed down from her grandmother. This is a bittersweet tale both tragic and triumphant. It is frightening how much the real Georgia Tann and Tennessee Children's Home Society got away with decades ago and how many lives were affected by them! Shudder...
Helpful Score: 5
What an amazing story based on facts about children being stolen and placed in a facility called The Tennessee Children's Home Society where they were put up for adoption. This is the story of four children who were taken off the riverboat they lived on, and forced to live in deplorable conditions, and how they found their way back to each other years later. I love reading stories and finding out they were not altogether fiction. Highly recommend this book!
Helpful Score: 1
 This is a very readable book. The story holds you and the writing is good.
It is based on the Tennessee Children's Home (TCH) Adoption scandal when Georgia Tann sold children that had been given up and kidnapped to adoptive families. While waiting for sale the children were kept in deplorable conditions that included neglect, hunger, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Many of these children were not orphans. Friendly judges gave these children into the custody of the home. The adoptions were often not legal. Biological parents had not signed away custody, were not even aware what had happened to their children. Many of the parents who adopted from TCH were not screened and not fit.
Georgia Tann is the reason that, to this day, most adoptions are closed-with no contact between old and new families. The adults that the TCH children became had no way to trace their real families, nor did their grieving parents have a way to find them.
The given reason for this chaos, was that children in rich families have better prospects. Tann apparently really believed that she was helping children by moving them from poverty to wealth, regardless of the character of the adoptive parents. This remember, was the 1920s and 30s, before Hitler ruined eugenics. Many people were open in their belief that there were superior and inferior people. Surely a child would have a better chance being reared and influenced by a superior person.
This story tells of a family of children whose parents are tricked into signing adoption papers while their mother is in hard labor with the youngest. The children are removed from their custody and taken to a branch of the TCH. Always the oldest ones are trying to get home to their parents, but when they do things are not what they expect.
This story alternates with the story of a grand-daughter, a woman of class and privilege who is putting together this family history. She is horrified and intrigued as she goes along.
Eventually the story has a mostly happy ending.
I have read as much as I could get on the TCH scandal and Georgia Tann. I felt that the book has a little bit of PC revisionism that I didn't like. First, the book did mention that Tann saw children as blank slates, but not that her stated motive was to do her part to destroy the lower classes by giving their children to upper class parents. This is a very important point to the meaning of the story.
Another thing that annoyed me is that in real life a lot of the molestation was done by Tann and her friends. However, in the book, the one male character had to be the molester because in the PC culture women do not sexually abuse people (they must be victims not aggressors) and lesbians (which Tann was at least as pertained to her abuse of children) must never be portrayed as villains.
The story is worth reading in spite of this twisting, but it would have been even better had Wingate chosen to portray reality as it is (a theme in the end of the book).
It is based on the Tennessee Children's Home (TCH) Adoption scandal when Georgia Tann sold children that had been given up and kidnapped to adoptive families. While waiting for sale the children were kept in deplorable conditions that included neglect, hunger, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Many of these children were not orphans. Friendly judges gave these children into the custody of the home. The adoptions were often not legal. Biological parents had not signed away custody, were not even aware what had happened to their children. Many of the parents who adopted from TCH were not screened and not fit.
Georgia Tann is the reason that, to this day, most adoptions are closed-with no contact between old and new families. The adults that the TCH children became had no way to trace their real families, nor did their grieving parents have a way to find them.
The given reason for this chaos, was that children in rich families have better prospects. Tann apparently really believed that she was helping children by moving them from poverty to wealth, regardless of the character of the adoptive parents. This remember, was the 1920s and 30s, before Hitler ruined eugenics. Many people were open in their belief that there were superior and inferior people. Surely a child would have a better chance being reared and influenced by a superior person.
This story tells of a family of children whose parents are tricked into signing adoption papers while their mother is in hard labor with the youngest. The children are removed from their custody and taken to a branch of the TCH. Always the oldest ones are trying to get home to their parents, but when they do things are not what they expect.
This story alternates with the story of a grand-daughter, a woman of class and privilege who is putting together this family history. She is horrified and intrigued as she goes along.
Eventually the story has a mostly happy ending.
I have read as much as I could get on the TCH scandal and Georgia Tann. I felt that the book has a little bit of PC revisionism that I didn't like. First, the book did mention that Tann saw children as blank slates, but not that her stated motive was to do her part to destroy the lower classes by giving their children to upper class parents. This is a very important point to the meaning of the story.
Another thing that annoyed me is that in real life a lot of the molestation was done by Tann and her friends. However, in the book, the one male character had to be the molester because in the PC culture women do not sexually abuse people (they must be victims not aggressors) and lesbians (which Tann was at least as pertained to her abuse of children) must never be portrayed as villains.
The story is worth reading in spite of this twisting, but it would have been even better had Wingate chosen to portray reality as it is (a theme in the end of the book).
Historical fiction telling the true story of the Tennessee Children's Home written from alternating viewpoints of two charactersâAvery telling the story in current times, and elderly May Weathers
( originally Rill Voss) telling of her childhood experience at the adoption center.
It was hard to read of the child snatchings, fraud, and then the abuse that occurred in the home, with many deaths resulting that were hidden from families and authorities. It took decades before the state of TN addressed the crimes. Authorities and charities even recognized the home's director for promoting adoptions of poor children.
This was a piece of history I had never heard of despite being from a nearby state. You will rejoice in what Avery is able to accomplish when her curiosity is sparked by a chance meeting with May and she delves into the secrets some families keep through the ages.
( originally Rill Voss) telling of her childhood experience at the adoption center.
It was hard to read of the child snatchings, fraud, and then the abuse that occurred in the home, with many deaths resulting that were hidden from families and authorities. It took decades before the state of TN addressed the crimes. Authorities and charities even recognized the home's director for promoting adoptions of poor children.
This was a piece of history I had never heard of despite being from a nearby state. You will rejoice in what Avery is able to accomplish when her curiosity is sparked by a chance meeting with May and she delves into the secrets some families keep through the ages.
This book took my breath away and showcased the horrific things that have gone on in the adoption world.
Although fiction, this story is a composite of some of the true stories of children who were taken by the very real Tennessee Children's Home Society. Centers on sisters who were stolen from their home while the mother was in the hospital. Brutilized while in the home and lied to, this was a heart breaking novel of the worst of the worst in orphanages.
This book is based on thousands of true stories. It's one story that spans a lifetime and it is hard to put down and go to sleep. It compels you to want to know more.
Really enjoyed this book. was easy to follow all the characters and timelines.
This was a fantastic book with just the right amounts of every component of a good story. It is based on the true story of the Tennessee Children's Home Society which from the 1920-1950s took poor children away from their families, abused them and sold them into adoption as if they were orphans. The chapters here alternate between the story of two women: Rill/May who in 1939 is living with her parents and siblings on a riverboat when the children are all captured and taken to the TN Children's Home Society. They are separated and sold off to wealthy families and she fights to keep them together. The other story is of Avery in present day. Avery is 30, a sharp and well educated powerful attorney from a prominent political family. Her beloved grandmother has dementia. When visiting a nursing home another woman seems to recognize her and Avery sets out to investigate why. Great characters, family secrets, a compelling story with true history mixed in, and even a little side romance. Satisfying read.
A well-written story based on tragic real life events, this heart-wrenching novel left me in a book hangover for days. The author takes you to the edge, then puts just enough hope in to keep the reader from despair. A story that needed to be told, with implications for generations. I really liked the present day end of the tale, with the added romance and intertwining of the two main stories. I didn't want to stop reading until I found out what happened to them all.
Recommend to readers who like southern fiction with difficult subjects, like poverty, child abuse, human trafficking, political corruption, and alcoholism.
4.5 stars
(An e-book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.)
Recommend to readers who like southern fiction with difficult subjects, like poverty, child abuse, human trafficking, political corruption, and alcoholism.
4.5 stars
(An e-book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.)
I never knew about the Tennessee Children's Home Society until I read this book. Although it is fiction, it gives you a tiny glimpse into a horrific time. It made me want to find out more, and I discovered that it was even worse than the book leads you to believe. With that said, this is such a great story. The subject is sad but in the end it is cathartic and warm.
Spellbinding book, a great read. Based on true documented events. It was difficult for me to put this book down. It pulled me in and kept me reading. Its amazing that this practice could have taken place in a society as ours, but it did. Its a shameful reminder of what some people will do for money.
Truely a 5 star rating if any book ever deserved it.
Truely a 5 star rating if any book ever deserved it.
If you like historical fiction, give this a try. Set in the late 1930's, a family with five children live on a shanty boat off the Mississippi. When a medical emergency comes up with his wife, husband/father leave to take his wife to the hospital. What follows is an emotional, heart wrenching story, based on actual facts The Tennessee Children's Home Society existed in Memphis run by Georgia Tann. Lauded at the time as the pioneer of modern adoption, what unfolds for the residents is harrowing for many. Children for sale, human trafficing. Tied in to a prominent political family's past it makes for a compelling read.
This is one of the saddest books I have read in a long time. The hideous things that the people at the Tennessee Children's Home Society did make me sick. But this is a story of strength, and family. I enjoyed the story taking place in the past more than the present day .
What.A.Book. Another to add to one of my favorites!
This is a heartbreaking story about the real life scandal involving the infamous Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage in 1920's through 1950's. Children of poor parents were kidnapped and sold to the elite after being brutalized at the home.
This is one of the most heart wrenching, painful and traumatic book I've read, a "can't put it down" book with the author's superbly written text which puts me in the story as if I'm experiencing it myself.
My only regret is that Georgia Tann, Director of a Memphis based adoption organization, sold these children all over the country and got away with it. She was brutal and merciless to the children even went so far as committing murder.
Eventually she died of cancer, but deserved much worse!
A MUST read!
This is a heartbreaking story about the real life scandal involving the infamous Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage in 1920's through 1950's. Children of poor parents were kidnapped and sold to the elite after being brutalized at the home.
This is one of the most heart wrenching, painful and traumatic book I've read, a "can't put it down" book with the author's superbly written text which puts me in the story as if I'm experiencing it myself.
My only regret is that Georgia Tann, Director of a Memphis based adoption organization, sold these children all over the country and got away with it. She was brutal and merciless to the children even went so far as committing murder.
Eventually she died of cancer, but deserved much worse!
A MUST read!
Could not put this down! Great read!
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
This story is told in past and present. The past is May's story. How she grew up on a riverboat, a river gypsy, her and three sisters and a baby brother. Until they were taken away one night when her parents had to leave the boat.
The present is told by Avery Stafford. A woman who lived in the limelight of being raised in a wealthy family with a father who's a senator. And she was being groomed to one day take his place.
Everything changed when an older woman in a nursing home seems to recognize her. It sets Avery on path that she must follow, must see where it leads. Even if it shakes her perfectly manicured world to its core.
I loved this story. It stirs so many emotions. Seeing the mistreatment of young children in the orphanage and the woman who smoothly lies to make a profit from their lives. The sadness of families being torn apart. Yet, how sometimes the past must be faced before we can move on to the future. Another well written story by this author.
**Tissue alert!
**Received from publisher for an honest review
This story is told in past and present. The past is May's story. How she grew up on a riverboat, a river gypsy, her and three sisters and a baby brother. Until they were taken away one night when her parents had to leave the boat.
The present is told by Avery Stafford. A woman who lived in the limelight of being raised in a wealthy family with a father who's a senator. And she was being groomed to one day take his place.
Everything changed when an older woman in a nursing home seems to recognize her. It sets Avery on path that she must follow, must see where it leads. Even if it shakes her perfectly manicured world to its core.
I loved this story. It stirs so many emotions. Seeing the mistreatment of young children in the orphanage and the woman who smoothly lies to make a profit from their lives. The sadness of families being torn apart. Yet, how sometimes the past must be faced before we can move on to the future. Another well written story by this author.
**Tissue alert!
**Received from publisher for an honest review
Slow start, but once I got into the book, I felt drawn to the story.
The book was engaging from beginning to end. To think that woman got away with it in America and was never punished is unbelievable. It is not a book that is enjoyed as such, but one that keeps the pages turning hoping that things will be resolved. It is extremely hard to put down, but well written.
Written as an intriguing mystery, and based on actual history, this novel rates five++ stars. It is the heart wrenching story of the Tennessee Children's Home Society and the powerful woman who ran it. It was hard to put down as the narration switches back and forth between a modern day woman digging into her family's past, and one of the victims whose entire life was altered by unforgivable events. Georgia Tann kidnapped numerous children from the indigent and ignorant families she met, by false and criminal means, and became rich while securing their "adoptions" for money. A tragic story about real people. D.
Wonderful book about a family with five children who lives on the river. While the father has to take the mother to the hospital, the children are taken by the Tennessee Children's Home Society and tells of what the children endure. Based on a real life scandal.
Couldn't finish it. Was a waste of time. It is written as a novel, not history of the time when kids were stolen and then sold for adoption. The writing style left me cold. The way the story keeps jumping back an forth between the past and the present is hard to follow. Written like a chick book
A well written tale about illegal adoptions and untold cruelty in the 1930's through the late 50's. Based on a true situation in Memphis back then. The story weaves present day masterfully with yesteryear and it is finally revealed how this particular family made it through.
Wingate uses the historical framework of a corrupt adoption system in Tennessee to tell the story of a fictional family torn apart by a system that saw the children of poor and often uneducated parents as commodities to be sold to the highest bidders.
Rill Foss is left in charge of her four siblings when their father makes a frantic trip to get their laboring mother to a hospital. In the adults' absence, the children are removed to an orphanage where they are systematically stripped of their identities and separated under the auspices of the "Tennessee Children's Home Society".
Their story is revealed piecemeal when the daughter of a prominent political family in modern-day South Carolina begins trying to understand the actions of her grandmother, whose dementia is stealing memories she may or may not have ever intended to share.
Rill Foss is left in charge of her four siblings when their father makes a frantic trip to get their laboring mother to a hospital. In the adults' absence, the children are removed to an orphanage where they are systematically stripped of their identities and separated under the auspices of the "Tennessee Children's Home Society".
Their story is revealed piecemeal when the daughter of a prominent political family in modern-day South Carolina begins trying to understand the actions of her grandmother, whose dementia is stealing memories she may or may not have ever intended to share.
An engrossing novel inspired by shocking real events?the kidnappings and illegal adoptions of children conducted by the notorious Tennessee Children?s Home Society?Before We Were Yours is a poignant, uplifting tale for readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale.
