Throwaway Daughter by Ting-xing Ye

This dramatic and moving YA novel has been written by Ting-xing Ye, internationally acclaimed author of A Leaf in the Bitter Wind, working together with her husband, William Bell, author of the award-winning novels for young adults Forbidden City, Zack, and Stones. Ting-xing Ye hails from China and tells this story with a well informed voice. Throwaway Daughter is the impressive story of Grace Dong-mei Parker, a typical Canadian teenager until the day she witnesses the Tiananmen massacre on television. Horrified, she sets out to explore her Chinese ancestry, only to discover that she was one of the thousands of infant girls abandoned in China since the introduction of the one-child policy, strictly enforced by the Communist government. But Grace was one of the lucky ones, adopted as a baby by a loving Canadian couple. With the encouragement of her adoptive parents, she studies Chinese and travels back to China in search of her birth mother. There she manages to locate the village where she was born. At first no one is willing to help her. However, Grace never gives up and finally is reunited with her birth mother, discovering through this emotional bond the truth of what happened to her almost twenty years earlier. Although the account is fictionalized it is very realistic and believable. A fascinating read and an eyeopener to a different culture.

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