Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham - Review by Aubrey

Description via Goodreads,

A young girl sets out to save her sick mother and records her
adventures in quilt pieces.

Ludelphia Bennett may be blind in one eye, but she can still put in a good stitch. Ludelphia sews all the time, especially when things go wrong.

But when Mama goes into labor early and gets deathly ill, it seems like even quilting won’t help. That’s when Ludelphia decides to do something drastic—leave Gee’s Bend for the very first time. Mama needs medicine that can only be found miles away in Camden. But that doesn’t stop Ludelphia. She just puts one foot in front of the other. What ensues is a wonderful, riveting and sometimes dangerous adventure. Ludelphia weathers each challenge in a way that would make her mother proud, and ends up saving the day for her entire town.

Set in 1932 and inspired by the rich quilting history of
Gee’s Bend, Alabama, Leaving Gee’s Bend is a delightful, satisfying story of a young girl facing a brave new world.

First, Leaving Gee's Bend was a great book. It took me a while to get into it though, because I read a lot of YA fiction and not too much Historical YA Fiction, with that in mind it took me only about 30 pages to be drawn in. Once I got into the book though I felt like I knew exactly how the characters felt. How Lu (Ludelphia) felt when Rose was born. How she felt when Doc helped her.

Irene Latham has a beautiful way of writing, helping you feel exactly the way the characters feel. She helps you go back to the 1930s and understand what was going on.

I think that Irene should write another book in combination with this one, she has a beautiful way of writing and this book leaves you wanting more. Wondering what will happen in Gee's Bend with the Bennett family.

This book I loved so much because it shows one girl story of not giving up, not letting herself down or anybody else, showing how much she loved or loves her mother. This book made me laugh but mostly cry. If you need a short but breath taking book to read pick up Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham, I give Leaving Gee's Bend 4 mushrooms and hope to read more of Irene's work soon!

~ Aubrey