Providence

January 6, 2014
Sixteen-year-old Becky runs away from her abusive father, eight younger siblings, and a hard life on her family’s South Carolina farm by jumping a train, where she finds an abandoned infant. Becky and “Baby Girl” land in a small town in Georgia, where Becky meets elderly shop-owner Rosie, who immediately gives Becky a job and soon takes her and the baby into her home, too. Becky’s artistic streak, work ethic, and optimism serve her well in the initially unfriendly town—she improves sales at the store and develops a crush on a handyman. But her father’s harsh and cynical words are ever-present in her mind, nosy townspeople suspect that Becky isn’t Baby Girl’s mother, and Rosie’s health fails, causing Becky to second-guess the happiness she’s found. Despite the hardships Becky faces, debut novelist Cocca offers a rosy picture of small-town life, with Becky’s personality and narration bordering on Pollyannaish. Her remarkable and constant luck comes across as unlikely and, similarly, the ending is disappointingly tidy. Ages 14–up. Agent: Karen Grencik, Red Fox Literary.

January 15, 2014
Southern manners abound in this predictable debut, in which a girl on the run takes on an abandoned baby and is helped in turn by an elderly woman who owns a secondhand shop. Sixteen-year-old Becky is a good girl who helps take care of a slew of younger siblings. But when a boy stopping by to see her inadvertently burns down her family's barn, the anticipated wrath of her father causes her to light out--taking with her some meager savings and hopping aboard a freight train, where she discovers the baby. Overcome with tender feelings for the infant, she stumbles into the role of adoptive mom, despite having nowhere to live. While there is plenty of tension to sustain readers, including Becky's worry that others may discover the baby is not her daughter and an eventual bid for the little girl's custody by a local woman who has experienced a terrible tragedy, it feels melodramatic due to the overabundance of coincidences and characters that play to type. Yet, to its credit, Becky's sweet-as-honey first-person narrative voice suits the dialogue-driven story well--she is an uncomplicated heroine, resourceful and completely without self-pity. Teens who take a special interest in realistic fiction may want to check this one out, but its appeal otherwise will likely be limited. (Fiction. 12-16)

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March 15, 2014
Grades 7-12 After hopping a freight train, Becky finds a newborn baby in the corner of the car. She is fleeing the harsh responsibilities of her hardscrabble South Carolina farm life, which seems to hold no future for her. And yet, as the oldest of 10, Becky's well-honed maternal instincts kick in, and she selflessly takes on the ominous responsibility of caring for Baby Girl. The railroad tracks take them to Watson's Grove, and Becky embarks on a new beginning, landing into the soft and trusting world of Rosie and her resale shop, Secondhand Rose. Becky adeptly makes herself indispensable with her artistic handiwork, while darling Baby Girl, aka Georgia Rose, warms every heart in town. Rosie, Becky, and Georgia Rose create a family built of mutual need, love, and kindness in this gentle tale of life in nostalgic small-town America. In her debut novel, Cocca portrays a community of sympathetic characters in Watson's Grove, Georgia, who believe in the promise of life's second chances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)