The Bean Trees

The Bean Trees
By Barbara Kingsolver
Read in 8th Grade
Marrieta, Missy for short, lives in a small, rundown Kentucky town. She has never met her father, for she was an "accident", and her father left her mother. She has a job at the local hospital and promises that one day, she'll get a used car, leave, and settle down wherever she ends up. Then, the day finally comes for her to leave, and she travels west. As she goes through Oklahoma, her car breaks down and forces her to stop for the night. She goes to a diner, where an Indian woman implores her to take a baby. Having no choice(for the baby was left in her car seat) she names her Turtle and continues to Arizona, where she stops. There, she begins on the job of figuring Turtle out. She settles down with a single mother named Lou Ann, who has been abandoned by her husband. There, she takes care of Turtle, who had been abused. She also learns that her friend/employer, Mattie, runs a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, where she meets Esperanza and Estevan, who have had their share of heartbreak. They all become close friends, when one day, Turtle is nearly assaulted.
The state then claims that Marrieta, who has now renamed herself Taylor, isn't fit to take care of Turtle. Desperate, she returns to Oklahoma, hoping for legal adoption. She gets one, but not without heartbreak.
I enjoyed this book because of the emotion and the fact that the author depicted emotional pain so accurately.