The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption
In an experimental work blending memoir and science fiction, transracial adoptee Shannon Gibney recalls experiences from her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and imagines what her life might have been like had she not been placed for adoption. Named Erin by her birth mother, Gibney was adopted by a white couple in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who name her Shannon. When she is old enough, Shannon seeks information about her white birth mother, with whom she develops a difficult relationship, and her Black birth father, who died when she was a young girl. As Gibney reveals memories of growing up the only Black child in a financially comfortable white family, a different, parallel timeline imagines Erin living with a casually racist mother who struggles with alcoholism. At times, a wormhole between the two allows Shannon and Erin to catch glimpses of each other. Sometimes, Shannon travels outside of these timelines, to a past where she meets her biological father. The narrative follows Shannon into adulthood and motherhood and through her treatment for breast cancer; her biological mother had warned her of her genetic predisposition. Integrating letters, adoption and medical records, family trees, and other documents, the threads of this work coalesce into a highly original exploration of family and identity. ©2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 14 and older
Age Range:
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Formats:
Biography, Autobiography and Memoir
Substantial Narrative Non-Fiction
Subjects:
Adoption
African Americans
Autobiography/Memoir
Identity
Illness and Disease
Multiracial Characters/Families
Speculative Fiction
Diversity subject:
Black/African
Publishers:
Dutton, Penguin Random House
Publish Year: 2023
Pages: 237
ISBN: 9780593111994
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 920 Gibney