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Throwaway Girl

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Since she was thirteen years old, Andy Burton has learned about survival at Haywood House, a group home for girls. Now almost eighteen, Andy must find a new home. Can she build a life for herself a...
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  • 11 November 2014
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When your teen years are so messed up, how do you grow up happy?

Andy Burton knows a thing or two about survival. Since she was removed from her mother’s home and placed in foster care when she was nine, she’s had to deal with abuse, hunger, and homelessness. But now that she’s eighteen, she’s about to leave Haywood House, the group home for girls where she’s lived for the past four years, and the closest thing to a real home she’s ever known.

Will Andy be able to carve out a better life for herself and find the happiness she is searching for?
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Price: $12.99
Pages: 184
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Imprint: Dundurn Press
Publication Date: 11 November 2014
Trim Size: 8.00 X 5.00 in
ISBN: 9781459714076
Format: Paperback
BISACs: YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family & home stories, YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Girls & Women, Children’s / Teenage personal & social issues: Self-awareness & self-esteem, Children’s / Teenage personal & social issues: Family issues
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Throwaway Girl is a rich, eye-opening novel that has the potential to create empathy in young readers. It introduces tough themes that reflect a harsh reality, but it always rings true, and Scarrow has created a believable character in Andy.

An audience of grade 6 to 8 girls will find the language accessible and the fast paced plot entertaining.

Scarrow toggles each chapter of the story between the past – Bernice – and the present Andy. This works very well to create suspense in the plot. Both as Bernice and Andy our heroine struggles to make sense of the world, take care of herself and make herself worthy of love.

It’s a story not told often enough: the forgotten child, left to the resource-poor system, but the heart of the book does not bleed. Andy is sentient, not a victim, but more an observer, and her narrative unravels gently, awaiting its readers.

This is a darkly realistic, sometimes difficult book to read as Andy faces one challenge after another. It takes all of her courage and resolve to face the future with confidence. Well-written…
Kristine Scarrow has a BA in psychology and has worked with the Saskatchewan Foster Families Association. She is also a freelance writer and editor. Kristine lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.