Name: The Girls We Sent Away
Rating: 5.0 (2 reviews)
Author: Meagan Church

About this book

Summary
Book Club Questions

Book Summary

A searing book club read for fans of Ellen Marie Wiseman and The Girls with No Names set in the Baby Scoop Era of 1960s and the women of a certain condition swept up in a dark history.

It's the 1960s and Lorraine Delford has it all - an upstanding family, a perfect boyfriend, and a white picket fence home in North Carolina. Yet every time she looks through her father's telescope, she dreams of the stars. It's ambitious, but Lorraine has always been exceptional.

But when this darling girl-next-door gets pregnant, she's forced to learn firsthand the realities that keep women grounded.

To hide their daughter's secret shame, the Delfords send Lorraine to a maternity home for wayward girls. But this is no safe haven - it's a house with dark secrets and suffocating rules. And as Lorraine begins to piece together a new vision for her life, she must decide if she can fight against the powers that aim to take her child or submit to the rules of a society she once admired.

Powerful and affecting, The Girls We Sent Away is a timely novel that explores autonomy, belonging, and a quest for agency when the illusions of life-as-you-know-it fall away.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

These questions were originally posted on the author's website at https://www.meaganchurch.com/bookclubs/

Lorraine hopes to become an astronaut in the Space Race, despite being a young woman in a time when those occupations were reserved for men. What was your biggest dream in life when you were young? Were you ever told that your dream would never be a reality? If so, how did that make you feel, and how did you overcome it?
There is a hierarchy in the Sunnymede neighborhood, and family image is worth everything. Where does Lorraine and her family land on that hierarchy, and how does that affect the way they react to her pregnancy?
Mr. Delford says that if Clint was man enough, he would have "dealt" with Lorraine's ...

Media Reviews

"A likely book-group and public-library choice." ―Booklist

"In this engaging, shocking, heart-wrenching story, readers are pulled along with Lorraine through the ups and downs of her pregnancy, optimistic for her future but saddened by its likely outcome. Fans of Church's The Last Carolina Girl will be clamoring to read this one." ―Library Journal

"Church's story gets deep inside Lorraine's head with tenderness and compassion...This is a heartbreaking tale of prejudice, shame and secret-keeping within families, and a sincere and moving account of one teenager's personal grief and inner strength." ―Historical Novel Society

"It's good to review how far women have come...The Girls We Sent Away is one example of the experience of millions of women during an unenlightened time in history." ―New York Journal of Books

This information about The Girls We Sent Away was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews

Heartwrenching, fabulous, tissues-needed book
It’s the 1960s.

What became of girls who found themselves pregnant and with no support?

We meet Lorraine Delford, an only child, a girl who was going to be valedictorian of her senior class, a girl who wanted to be an astronaut, a girl who did not want to be the typical mother, teacher, or secretary.

All her dreams were slashed when her boyfriend told her “if you want to keep it, you’re on your own.”

THE GIRLS WE SENT AWAY has a main character that you will love from the minute you meet her.

You will cheer for her and for her dreams, but your heart will break when she has to deal with her pregnancy and a mother that has always been critical and unsupportive especially when she needed her the most.

Lorraine gets sent to a home for wayward girls not really knowing her fate.

Ms. Church has written another heartwarming, but heartbreaking book that you won’t want to put down.

Ms. Church’s writing is pull you in and makes you feel the emotions of each character as well as the sentiments and feelings of this time in the 1960s.

Don’t miss this well-researched, poignant heartwrenching, fabulous, tissues-needed book. 5/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own

Bookworm Becky 1969

Spellbinding story
5.0
Naive, family image, shame…

17yo Lorraine is a senior in high school. She is an “it girl” - pretty, has a steady boyfriend, from a reputable family, a good student, and the sure-to-be class valedictorian. “Decency, modesty, and reputation” are of the utmost importance to her 1960s NC family.

When Lorraine becomes pregnant, her family sends her away to a maternity home for unwed girls. Here we learn of the daily manner of living, routines, rules, relationships ( and non-relationships), with others in the home. During her 3 month stay, Lorraine will often feel a sense of loss and despair.

But Lorraine can be feisty and braver than she thinks. What will be her fate? What does the future hold for her?

A moving, spellbinding story about families, relationships, shame, secrets, dreams, fear, loneliness, and heartbreak.

Beautifully written. Very descriptive writing. Lots of foreshadowing. Ex: watching the stars in the dilapidated farmhouse (p.42) and concerning secrets (p.54) to name just a few.

What an ending!

I highly recommend this unputdownable story!

I loved The Last Carolina Girl & now this book by this author. I will continue to read future books. Grab The Last Carolina Girl if you haven’t read it yet!

I attended Meagan Church’s author event in NC on 3-1-24. I enjoyed meeting her & enjoyed her stories about the drowning, her childhood home, and her children. A fun event!

Catch “This Week’s Best New Books” in Women’s World magazine . 3-18-24. This book is included! Congrats!

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After receiving a degree in English with a focus on creative writing from Indiana University, Meagan Church built a career as a storyteller and freelance writer for brands, blogs and organizations. Her fiction focuses on overlooked and oppressed women's voices from the past. A Midwesterner by birth, she now lives in North Carolina with her high school sweetheart, three children and a plethora of pets. To learn more about her writing, visit www.MeaganChurch.com, or follow her on Instagram and Twitter @mchurchwriter.

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