Throwaway Daughter
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: March 1, 2017 5:44 PM | Last Updated: March 2, 2017
Ting-Xing Ye, with William Bell
When Canadian teenager Grace Dong-mei Parker sees the Tiananmen massacre on television, she is shocked. But she is even more shocked to find out that she was one of the baby girls abandoned when China introduced their one child policy. Her parents encourage her to explore her personal story and the story of her birth country. What unfolds is a moving and evocative book about history, identity and discovery.
Throwaway Daughter is for readers ages 12 and up.
From the book
No one seemed to understand what it was like to have no real birthday. Even Blackie, our Shih-Tzu, had one, noted on the form given to me when Mom put my name down as his adoptive "parent" when I was five years old. Never mind how that affected my understanding of the word adoption. Blackie's registration form even recorded his family history, the whole pedigree.
Lucky me. I had a made-up birthday — December 8, 1980, the day I was found on the steps of the orphanage. I could have been weeks old or a couple of days young; I didn't know and neither did anybody else. I might as well be a lake discovered by an explorer.
From Throwaway Daughter by Ting-Xing Ye, with William Bell ©2003. Published by Doubleday Canada.