Ginny Moon

Title: Ginny Moon

Author: Benjamin Ludwig

Publisher: Park Row Books

ISBN: 9780778330882

Length: 364 + Reader's Guide

Obtained: Library copy

Comments:

I had been interested in this book from the first I saw of it in the professional journals, but I had also been putting it off.  Then it was time to select a book club selection and I chose this.

I read it Monday, and I cried/sobbed through most of it.  I'm already pretty emotional and sensitive when it comes to the stories I read and watch.  But on top of that, Ginny is autistic and shares some characteristics with my oldest nephew.  Of course much of Ginny's story is very different from my nephews and that caused yet more crying.  She fears for her "baby doll" who was left behind when she was taken from her mother at the age of nine.  So she is trying to track down and get back to her birth mother - despite the extreme abuse and neglect she went through while under her mother's care.  But her adoptive "forever" parents are about to have a birth child of their own, and don't seem to know how to handle a teenage autistic girl who they worry will mistreat the new baby.

The emotions run high on all levels, making this a gripping read (I was tempted to skip to the end because the tension was so intense for me).  It also made for some interesting discussion in the book club.  No one said they disliked the story, quite a few said they wished they had read it sooner.  But there was some debate on which characters are most sympathetic and relate-able.