unmarried mothers

Chicago, 1979. Halfway through her senior year of high school, Pryor discovers that she is pregnant-- a fact her parents are determined to keep a secret from her friends, siblings, and community forever. Driving across three states, her mother drops her off at what Liz thinks is a Catholic home for unwed mothers but is, in truth, a locked government-run facility for delinquent and impoverished pregnant teenage girls. She's alone and terrified, a fa girl from a privileged, sheltered background living amid tough, street-savvy girls who come from the foster care system or juvenile detention. As Pryor develops a bond with the other girls, she begins to question everything she once held true.

A day-by-day account of the life of a fourteen-year-old pregnant teenager who struggles with the decision of whether or not to keep her baby and her feelings for the father of the unborn child.

Katy, the precocious ten-year-old daughter of the town doctor, befriends a boy who doesn't talk and is regarded as "touched in the head.".

When baby Gabriel's health takes a turn for the worse, the lives of those involved are forever changed.

When baby Gabriel's health takes a turn for the worse, the lives of those involved are forever changed.

Alternates between two stories--comtemporarily, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting Amsterdam at the request of his English grandmother--and historically, nineteen-year-old Geertrui relates her experience of British soldiers's attempts to liberate Holland from its German occupation.

In 1979, Liz Pryor, a seventeen-year-old girl from a privileged family in the Chicago suburbs, discovers she is pregnant. Her parents are horrified and determined that none of her friends, siblings, or community ever know about it. They drive her three states away and force her into residency in a government-run facility for delinquent and impoverished pregnant teenage girls. A fish-out-of-water, Liz is forced to question everything she thought she knew about life, and comes out of the experience a changed woman.

Ruth Hilton, an orphaned young seamstress, is taken in by Henry Bellingham, who offers her shelter when she loses her job and home; but when he deserts her, she must face some difficult choices.

A biography of Philomena Lee and Michael Hess who were reunited fifty years after Philomena was forced to give him up for adoption by the Catholic Church.