Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon-Debbie Fuller Thomas

Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon
Debbie Fuller Thomas
Moody, Jun 2008, $13.99
ISBN: 9780802487339

The last two years have been very rough for Marty Winslow and her family. Her daughter Ginger died from Niemann-Pick disease, which makes no sense since neither of her parents are carriers. Ginger could not have been their biological daughter; affirmed by a blood and DNA test that proved conclusively she belonged to another family as a second mother gave birth at the hospital that same night as Marty did. That child Andie is given into the custody of Marty because her parents died and she was prohibited from moving into her grandparents’ senior citizen trailer home community.

It is not easy for Andie to move in with her biological mother and her two biological sisters, who are all strangers to her. The oldest sister Deja resents her and the younger sibling Winnie tries too hard to welcome her. Each misbehaves in their own way and Marty tries to cope with bringing her three daughters into a family unit.

All of the major characters are feeling a lot of anguish and pain inside their hearts; how each copes lifts this memorable work from being an ordinary soap opera and overcomes the stigma of insuring no rivals for the parenting of Andie. She especially struggles with going to a stranger even if she shares DNA with that woman as she refuses to accept her grandparents are realistic as they know they are to old to care for her although they love her; this adds to her feeling of being alone even with two sisters and a mom who insists she is not a replacement for Ginger. This is a deep five tissue box tearjerker.

Harriet Klausner

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