Last Carolina Girl

Fourteen-year-old Leah is poor but rich in love as she’s raised by her father in a rented cabin close to the North Carolina shore. When her father dies in a tragic accident, she’s forced to become the ward of a family hours away. Instead of a foster daughter, she’s a “helpmate” who sleeps on the porch and performs household chores rather than going to school. Leah tries to hide the “flashes” that cause her to freeze and zone out, as well as her homesickness for her cat and her childhood friend Jesse, but she never can please the criticizing Mrs. Griffin. When Leah learns the secrets that the Griffin family has been hiding, she confronts them in order to return to the life that she loved. In this debut, North Carolinian author Church tackles a troubling part of her state’s history—eugenics and the forced sterilization of thousands of people, mostly poor women. Narrator Susan Bennett easily portrays Leah’s naivete and coming-of-age with a soft Southern cadence, and the teenager’s heartbreak is clear to listeners, who will need to keep tissues handy.