Throwaway Girl

by Kristine Scarrow

Overview

When your teen years are so messed up, how do you grow up happy?

Andy Burton knows a thing or two about survival. Since she was removed from her mother’s home and placed in foster care when she was nine, she’s had to deal with abuse, hunger, and homelessness. But now that she’s eighteen, she’s about to leave Haywood House, the group home for girls where she’s lived for the past four years, and the closest thing to a real home she’s ever known.

Will Andy be able to carve out a better life for herself and find the happiness she is searching for?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459714076
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	11/11/2014
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	12 - 15 Years

About the Author

Kristine Scarrow has a BA in psychology and has worked with the Saskatchewan Foster Families Association. She is also a freelance writer and editor. Kristine lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

What People are Saying About This

YA novelist Alice Kuipers

In this gritty YA novel, author Kristine Scarrow explores the hard life of a "throwaway girl." Sweet and vulnerable Andy doesn't matter to anyone — yet she shines with hope and resilience. As you travel with her through terrifying experiences and unbearable loss, you'll grow to love her in the way she's always longed to be loved. Scarrow takes on tough themes with her lucid prose, opening the reader's heart to Andy and the dark world she inhabits.

Editorial Reviews

An audience of grade 6 to 8 girls will find the language accessible and the fast paced plot entertaining.

Canadian Materials

Throwaway Girl is a rich, eye-opening novel that has the potential to create empathy in young readers. It introduces tough themes that reflect a harsh reality, but it always rings true, and Scarrow has created a believable character in Andy.

Quill & Quire

This is a darkly realistic, sometimes difficult book to read as Andy faces one challenge after another. It takes all of her courage and resolve to face the future with confidence. Well-written…

Winnipeg Free Press

Scarrow toggles each chapter of the story between the past – Bernice – and the present Andy. This works very well to create suspense in the plot. Both as Bernice and Andy our heroine struggles to make sense of the world, take care of herself and make herself worthy of love.

Resource Links

It’s a story not told often enough: the forgotten child, left to the resource-poor system, but the heart of the book does not bleed. Andy is sentient, not a victim, but more an observer, and her narrative unravels gently, awaiting its readers.

Globe and Mail

Scarrow toggles each chapter of the story between the past – Bernice – and the present Andy. This works very well to create suspense in the plot. Both as Bernice and Andy our heroine struggles to make sense of the world, take care of herself and make herself worthy of love.

NF) Resource Links (Pouch Cove

Throwaway Girl is a rich, eye-opening novel that has the potential to create empathy in young readers. It introduces tough themes that reflect a harsh reality, but it always rings true, and Scarrow has created a believable character in Andy.

An audience of grade 6 to 8 girls will find the language accessible and the fast paced plot entertaining.

Scarrow toggles each chapter of the story between the past – Bernice – and the present Andy. This works very well to create suspense in the plot. Both as Bernice and Andy our heroine struggles to make sense of the world, take care of herself and make herself worthy of love.

It’s a story not told often enough: the forgotten child, left to the resource-poor system, but the heart of the book does not bleed. Andy is sentient, not a victim, but more an observer, and her narrative unravels gently, awaiting its readers.

This is a darkly realistic, sometimes difficult book to read as Andy faces one challenge after another. It takes all of her courage and resolve to face the future with confidence. Well-written…

From the Publisher