Girls Like Us Hardcover - 2014

Media reviews

In compelling, engaging, and raw voices, 18-year-olds Biddy and Quincy, newly independent, intellectually disabled high-school graduates, narrate their growing friendship and uneasy transition into a life of jobs, "real world" apartments, and facing cruel prejudice. ... Biddy and Quincy share deep secrets and narrate lives heartrendingly full of anger, abandonment, and abuse... But with the help of patient Elizabeth and the support they gain from each other, they are empowered to move forward with strength and independence. Giles offers a sensitive and affecting story of two young women learning to thrive in spite of their hard circumstances.
—Booklist (starred review)

Giles’s background teaching special education students informs this blunt, honest, and absorbing story about two young women overcoming challenges that have less to do with their abilities to read or write than with how society views and treats them. In short, alternating chapters, the girls narrate in raw and distinct voices that capture their day-to-day hurdles, agony, and triumphs. The "found family" that builds slowly for Quincy, Biddy, and Elizabeth—with no shortage of misunderstandings, mistrust, or tears—is rewarding and powerful.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The story is told with both gentleness and a humor that laughs with, not at, the two girls. ... [T]he warmth, conflict and mutual caring that develop among Quincy, Biddy and elderly Miss Lizzy is authentic and genuinely moving. A respectful and winningly told story about people too often relegated to the role of plot device—bravo.
—Kirkus Reviews

The book gives memorable voice to underrepresented young women.
—The Horn Book

Girls Like Us is a quick, enjoyable read that is hard to put down. The author draws readers in with deep, meaningful characters who play on sympathies. ... The book is well written, with believable scenarios and dialogue most readers will enjoy. Girls Like Us will remain with readers long after they finish this story.
—VOYA

Citations

• Booklist, 05/01/2014, Page 93
• Booklist Ed Choice Youth, 01/01/2015, Page 16
• BookPage, 06/01/2014, Page 0
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks, 06/01/2014, Page 518
• Horn Book Magazine, 05/01/2014, Page 85
• Hornbook Guide to Children, 07/01/2014, Page 0
• Kirkus Reviews, 04/15/2014, Page 0
• Publishers Weekly, 03/10/2014, Page 0
• PW Children's Starred Reviews, 12/01/2014, Page 87
• School Library Journal, 06/01/2014, Page 120
• Voice of Youth Advocates, 06/01/2014, Page 0