GIRLS LIKE US Author: Randi Pink
Pub. Date: October 29, 2019
Publisher: Feiwel Friends
Pages: 320
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Description:
Set in the summer of 1972, this moving YA historical novel is narrated by teen girls from different backgrounds with one thing in common: Each girl is dealing with pregnancy.
Four teenage girls. Four different stories. What they all have in common is that they’re dealing with unplanned pregnancies.
In rural Georgia, Izella is wise beyond her years, but burdened with the responsibility of her older sister, Ola, who has found out she’s pregnant. Their young neighbor, Missippi, is also pregnant, but doesn’t fully understand the extent of her predicament. When her father sends her to Chicago to give birth, she meets the final narrator, Susan, who is white and the daughter of an anti-choice senator.
Randi Pink masterfully weaves four lives into a larger story – as timely as ever – about a woman’s right to choose her future.
Ola walked forward, intentionally ignoring the mess at her feet. She wanted to be read. She wanted to know if her and Walter’s picket fence would be white or red. She wanted to find out, once and for all, how many kids they’d have. She wanted to look into her beautiful future and know. She needed to know.
Ola looked at the old woman and smiled, she’d won. She was about to get read.
Mrs. Mac grabbed her hand tighter than Ola thought possible. She cried out in pain, but the old woman wouldn’t let go. The pain changed. It started as a simple squeeze, like when the nurse is taking blood pressure, and it turned into a heat like embers. Her hand burned so badly Ola felt tears streaming from the side of her eye. Just as quickly as she’d snatched her hand, the woman let go. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, but it felt like an hour.
Mrs. Mac stared wide eyed at the front of Ola’s neck. She squinted her blind eyes as if she was focusing in on a small bit of something near Ola’s Adam’s apple. “Lean in closer,” she said.
Ola leaned in a bit.
“Closer than that, you.”
She leaned in closer still.
Squinting at Ola’s neck, Mrs. Mac whispered, almost pitying, “You’ve got a heartbeat in your neck, gal.”
Izella leaped from her seated position and grasped her mouth in horror. But Ola had no idea what that meant. She grabbed her neck, thinking she’d been snake-bitten or rubbed too much into some poison oak. From the look on Izella’s face, it had to be bad. “What is it? What does that mean? What’s on me?”
“It ain’t what’s on you,” said Mrs. Mac. “It’s what’s in you. That garbageman already coming for you, child.”
Randi Pink is a proud student of University of Alabama at Birmingham’s creative writing program. In 2013, Randi gained her inspiration for her first novel when working on an assignment for a Children’s Literature course. Although it was originally titled “TOYA”, Randi’s first novel “Into White" was published in 2016 and can be found on the shelves of Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Read more about this novel here.
After publishing her first novel, Randi started got right to work on her second novel, “Girls Like Us”. Inspired by the passing of shocking policies for abortion and other threats to women’s rights in her home state as well as her nation, Randi decided it was time to humanize the faces behind abortion. “Girls Like Us” will hit the shelves in October 2019.
Randi continues to write every day, from short stories that you can find in Randi’s Room to personal writings for herself and her close network. Randi can be found promoting her next book, in her garden, and soaking up family time with her favorite people.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
10/28/2019 Geronimo Reads Excerpt
10/28/2019 Kait Plus Books Excerpt
10/29/2019 Southern Girl Bookaholic Review
10/29/2019 BookHounds YA Excerpt
10/30/2019 A Dream Within A Dream Excerpt
10/30/2019 BookishRealmReviews Review
10/31/2019 Starlight Reads Review
10/31/2019 Not In Jersey Excerpt
11/1/2019 Cuz I’m a Nerd Review
11/1/2019 Odd and Bookish Review
Week Two:
11/4/2019 Jena Brown Writes Review
11/4/2019 What A Nerd Girl Says Review
11/5/2019 Novel Novice Excerpt
11/5/2019 Lifestyle Of Me Review
11/6/2019 PopTheButterfly Reads Review
11/6/2019 Sometimes Leelynn Reads Review
11/7/2019 A Gingerly Review Review
11/7/2019 Here's to Happy Endings Review
11/8/2019 The Pages In-Between Review
11/8/2019 Do You Dog-ear? Review
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