The "girlchild" of this raw straightforward debut audiobook is Rory Dawn Hendrix, whose life begins on the Calle de los Flores, a poverty-stricken neighborhood in Reno once envisioned to be a high-end development to serve as a playground for the rich.
It is the 1980s, long after the funding for the dream community dried up in a bad economy, and the Calle is now a collection of trailers with a truck stop, where Rory's mother Jo works. For a time Rory's grandmother also lives on the Calle; like Rory's own mother, her life was shaped by a teenage pregnancy, subsequent divorce and poverty, and life choices made mostly by the county social services agency.
Rory's grandmother tells her, "One of us has to make it out of here, and it's gonna have to be you".
Considering Rory's circumstances, it's a tall order. Her Mom often works the night shift and goes out drinking afterwards; Rory frequently finds herself left with virtual strangers to care for her, or worse, alone. To fill the time Rory reads The Girl Scout Handbook, completing projects and awarding herself badges as she achieves her goals. It's not long before Rory is reading everything she can get her hands on.
Then, one day at school, the "Briefcase Man" comes in and shows her some charts and graphs with her name at the top of all the squiggly lines, explaining to her that she's the smartest girl in the school. She soon finds herself at the County Spelling Bee, and it seems like she might really make it out.
"Girlchild" is not the first story if its kind, but it's honest and unpredictable, told in Rory's own voice, through social worker home visit reports, and sections of the Girl Scout Handbook. Some of the brief chapters consist of word problems that make no sense, reflecting the unsolvable problems in Rory's world.
Prior to publishing this novel, Tupelo Hassman's work had appeared in The Independent, The Boston Globe, Harper's Bazaar, and Literary Journal, among others. Hassman lives in San Francisco's East Bay, and was the first American ever to win London's Literary Death Match.
"I have the highest praise for this young author, who conquers difficult subject matter with poetic and descriptive prose. How does a teenager from an impoverished small town survive so many disadvantages? How does she break the chain of abuse and addiction, when her role models are only one or two generations away?"
—
Leslie (5 out of 5 stars)