Editorial Content for The Girls Who Grew Big
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Leila Mottley writes books about women who she thinks are being ignored as they weather tough circumstances in a contemporary world.
In her second novel, THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG (which follows her heartbreaking debut, NIGHTCRAWLING), Mottley takes readers on a tour of the rundown Florida Panhandle, the forgotten beachside town of Padua, and the teen mothers who find a way to balance their babies and their hardscrabble existence with the joy of being young. She sees the girls in all their dimensions, not just as the ones who “grew big” but as the ones who dream big despite the reality.
THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG is narrated in individual chapters from the perspectives of different girls. It is a choice that makes even more apparent how awesomely unique and interesting each young woman is.
"THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG will take a vaulted place on your bookshelf for the rest of your days. Even on a second read, you will find it hard to put down."
Adela Woods is 16 and pregnant. She is sent to Florida from an upper-class upbringing in Indiana to live with her grandmother as she prepares for her baby and attends high school as a junior. She first meets Emory, the one girl in the school who bothers to befriend her. Emory brings her newborn to school with her, breastfeeds in the principal’s office, and valiantly continues her studies, staying at the top of her class.
Then Adela gets acquainted with the others. Simone, a poetic speaker with twins who weighs the possibility of an abortion when she finds herself pregnant again at 20, is the erstwhile leader of the Girls. They have banded together to help each other raise their babies, living out of the back of Simone’s red pickup. When Adela becomes privy to the ways in which they support each other, she locks in hard with the group --- against the wishes of her religious grandparents, who have nothing but disdain for the Girls.
The youthful exhilaration of watching these babies grow up, the chance to do better than their parents did regardless of the circumstances, the love that grows between the Girls, and the everyday concerns --- like boys, hygiene, and aspirations of greater experiences beyond Padua --- make THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG a winning, honest and charming but hard-edged look at their lives.
However, with Mottley’s remarkable linguistic ability, pitch-perfect dialogue and impressive characterization, the Girls refuse to be forgotten. She doesn’t shy away from painfully etched portraits of lives on the edge, and her outstanding writing skills bring them to life in a way that bears marks of inspiration from the likes of Jesmyn Ward, S. E. Hinton and Ntozake Shange.
Mottley has penned a beautiful story. Watching these young women handle their lives so carefully and recklessly brings to the plot a real sense of wonder and hope. She never lets us forget about their age, their backgrounds, the disgust, and inappropriate representation they reflect in the older “Christian” citizens of the town and its surrounding spots. With wit and electric zeal, the book is powered on everything stereotyped about such girls and pushes those labels off a building without a parachute.
THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG will take a vaulted place on your bookshelf for the rest of your days. Even on a second read, you will find it hard to put down.
Teaser
Adela Woods is 16 years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
Promo
Adela Woods is 16 years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
About the Book
From the author of the Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller NIGHTCRAWLING, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.
Adela Woods is 16 years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck.
The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.
Audiobook available; read by AhDream Smith, Erin Spencer and Khaya Fraites
