Book Discussion: "The School for Good Mothers" by Jessamine Chan

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Registration for this event will be open from June 10, 2024 @ 5:30pm to July 8, 2024 @ 5:30pm.

Program Description

Event Details

Please pick up a copy of the book at the hosting branch.

Copies are available starting one month prior to the discussion, while supplies last.

Frida Liu, a 39-year-old Chinese-American single mother in Philadelphia, loses custody of her 18-month-old daughter, Harriet, after she leaves Harriet home alone for two hours on one very bad day. To regain custody, Frida must spend a year at a newly-created institution, where she practices parenting with bad mothers from all over the county. There, she learns to love an uncannily life-like toddler girl doll in order to demonstrate her maternal instincts and prove to her family court judge that she deserves a second chance. Frida is an outsider in every way: better educated, more affluent, and the only Asian. The mothers, whose transgressions range from benign to horrific, are under constant surveillance. If they don't pass all the school's tests, their parental rights will be terminated. Inspired by dystopian classics such as 1984, Never Let Me Go, and The Handmaid's Tale, the novel eviscerates the dominant American parenting culture, while highlighting the tragedy of state-sponsored family separation. Is there one right way to mother? Can a bad mother ever be redeemed? With warmth, heart, and dark humor, the novel tells a timeless story of a mother fighting to win back her child, and her struggle to hold onto her integrity while being indoctrinated.

Find the ebook and eaudiobook on Libby.

Disclaimer(s)

Accommodations

If you need accommodations for this class, please contact the Library as soon as you are able.

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Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.