From Amazon.com
Kate Phillips--17 years old, unmarried, and pregnant--and her younger sister Tyler have been abandoned by their parents. Cancer took their beloved mother two years before, and their father has emotionally left them, choosing to spend his time with his new girlfriend and her two young boys, returning to his home and daughters sporadically to leave money and assuage his guilty conscience.
Tyler and Kate deliver Kate's baby girl all alone, in their quiet suburban house, their BMW silently parked in the garage. Kate insists that her baby's existence must remain hidden, but inevitably, the sisters' secrets are discovered, involving the police and children's protective services. Whether their father will retain custody of his two underage daughters, whether Kate will retain custody of her new baby daughter, and whether the father of Kate's child will remain out of jail are all questionable.
Jessica Barksdale Inclán's novel has a plot, pulled from contemporary headlines, that gives readers a true and unsettling view of American society and the low value placed on its children. While all the characters in the tale attempt to justify their actions, the essential selfishness of the adults comes through with disturbing clarity. Everyone pays a high price, but none more so than Kate and Tyler, whose youth and innocence are lost through the actions of adults who should have protected them--who, instead, use and abandon them. Powerful and poignant, Her Daughter's Eyes is an impressive debut. --Lois Faye Dyer
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A teenage pregnancy threatens to tear a troubled family apart in a debut novel as gutsy, appealing and confused as its heroines. Still mourning their mother's death from breast cancer, 17-year-old Kate Phillips, aided by her younger sister, Tyler, secretly collects baby paraphernalia from Goodwill, while hiding her pregnancy from everyone, even their father, Davis, who spends most of his time at his girlfriend's house. With a used copy of Dr. Spock and a little luck, the ingenious sisters deliver a healthy baby girl at home, naming her Deirdre, after their mother. Their secret is revealed when their neighbor, Sanjay Chaturvedi, the baby's father, hears the newborn at night. Once in love with Kate's mother, Sanjay had a short affair with Kate, his sons' babysitter. He confesses all to his wife, a physician, who brings the baby to the hospital and the situation to the attention of Social Services. As grueling as childbirth proves for Kate and Tyler, it is not nearly as painful as what follows, with Sanjay in jail, the baby in foster care, the girls in a residence and their father pondering how to show the court he can care for the family he has all but abandoned; only their own consciences and social worker Cynthia De Lucca can guide them. Fortunately, all participants in the domestic drama are well intentioned, and the authorities respect feelings and aims. But it is the plight of the teenage sisters, in all their clever foolishness, that strikes at the heart. While the denouement is improbably upbeat, the novel should be especially meaningful to young adult readers. (May)author interview in the form of a "Conversation Guide" this is the first in NAL's new line of women's fiction.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
