When her daughter Liz runs away from home on the eve of her 15th birthday, Laura decides to pass the excruciating hours waiting and hoping for her to come back by writing Liz a letter about her own troubled teen years.
Through her words, Laura reveals herself to her daughter completely: the difficult relationship she had with her own parents, how she resented her mother most of all, her relationship with a boy named Tim, and the consequences to her life because of that relationship. She talks honestly about her own sexual choices and why she rebelled against authority. And Laura is candid about her mistakes with Liz, and she makes a plea for understanding, saying parents don’t always know what they are doing when raising their children. They often get by doing the best they know how to do.
Letter to My Daughter by George Bishop is a great book for mother-daughter book clubs with girls in high school to read. Daughters often tend to think their mothers can’t possibly understand what they’re going through, but this book encourages girls to see their moms in a new light. Pre-book club discussion may be even more valuable, as moms and daughters may talk candidly about the mom’s formative years and how it affects her parenting now. It could also prompt conversation about the daughter’s world, and pressure she may feel from her friends or boyfriend.
When I started to read Letter to My Daughter, I was skeptical that a man could write well about a mother-daughter relationship. But that concern quickly went away as Laura’s strong voice brought me into her story. It’s a story that doesn’t include details about the years between her teen life and this letter, but that focus on a specific time period helps define the era she lived in as well as the circumstances she faced. I found it totally engrossing, and I highly recommend it as a mother-daughter book club pick.
