Read this when
Foster
A girl spends one summer with people who actually notice her. That's the whole story. It's also everything. 🌾
Who it's for
A girl from a crowded, neglectful home is sent to spend a summer with the Kinsellas, a childless couple on a farm in Wexford, and for the first time experiences patient, attentive care.
Feelings it meets
What it is
In Claire Keegan's novella, an unnamed girl is sent in the summer of 1981 to stay with the Kinsellas, a couple who live on a farm in County Wexford, while her mother is expecting another baby. She has no idea when she will go home. In the Kinsellas' attentive care she meets a kind of nurturing she has not known in her own family, and slowly she flourishes.
Where to find it
In print; widely available from libraries (Libby/Hoopla) and as an audiobook. Still in copyright, so not on Project Gutenberg.
Before you start
Heads up: A child's drowning, in the past.
Age: Ages 12+
The road is lonely in its crowd for it is not loved.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 114
