The School for Good Mothers

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / General / Chan, Jessamine
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Chan, Jessamine	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Chan, Jessamine	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Chan, Jessamine	4-week checkout	Due 05-15-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Chan, Jessamine	4-week checkout	Due 04-29-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Chan, Jessamine	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024

"Set in near-future America, The School for Good Mothers introduces readers to a government-run reform program where bad mothers are retrained using robot doll children with artificial intelligence. Protagonist Frida Liu, a 39-year-old Chinese-American single mother in Philadelphia, loses custody of her 18-month-old daughter, Harriet, after she leaves Harriet home alone for two hours on one very bad day. To regain custody, Frida must spend a year at a newly-created institution, where she practices parenting with bad mothers from all over the county. There, she learns to love an uncannily life-like toddler girl doll in order to demonstrate her maternal instincts and prove to her family court judge that she deserves a second chance. Frida is an outsider in every way: better educated, more affluent, and the only Asian. The mothers, whose transgressions range from benign to horrific, are under constant surveillance. If they don't pass all the school's tests, their parental rights will be terminated. Inspired by dystopian classics such as 1984, Never Let Me Go, and The Handmaid's Tale, the novel eviscerates the dominant American parenting culture, while highlighting the tragedy of state-sponsored family separation. Is there one right way to mother? Can a bad mother ever be redeemed? With warmth, heart, and dark humor, the novel tells a timeless story of a mother fighting to win back her child, and her struggle to hold onto her integrity while being indoctrinated"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Look into the future submitted by bcartm01 on June 17, 2022, 11:03pm Writing a review for this book is difficult, there is so much to say about it. Overall I really enjoyed this book. It had me looking back on my own decisions as a mother and painfully sympathizing with some of the mothers in the book. I loved the ending. This is an interesting and thought provoking work of fiction.

Dystopian submitted by pamhockey25 on August 8, 2022, 11:52am This book was not what I was expecting, but it was thought-provoking. Frida definitely needed some professional help after leaving her infant daughter home alone for two hours, but what she's subjected to as a result is very extreme. The book looks at expectations mothers must meet and the judgment people pass on them.

Thought provoking submitted by tlexcen on June 26, 2023, 8:16pm Although there was a lot I didn't like about this book, the subject matter made for a good discussion for book club. Everyone had a opinion and much to say.

Haunting submitted by khrobinson on July 24, 2023, 10:29pm This was on President Obama’s 2022 summer reading list… and I somehow wasn’t expecting anything so dark. It is well written, but difficult and haunting. In some ways so far from our current reality, but concerningly in many ways not far at all.