Turning Back Time -- The Kitchen Daughter

Turning Back Time (appearing every Tuesday unless I forget or have something better to do) makes use of some of my old Goodreads reviews, as I migrate away from that site. Some of the books may no longer be in print, but I hope that most of the really good ones have survived. I'll do my best to let you know if one that is out of circulation is worth the time to find, though. I promise. Unless I forget.


I posted this review on Goodreads in April of 2011.

hardcover edition

The Kitchen Daughter

Jael McHenry

Author Jael McHenry has written the sort of novel I just crave when the world feels too big. The narrator, Ginny, lives with Asperger's syndrome. She is finely attuned to all the small things that assault our senses even in the gentlest ways, and it becomes the reader's privilege to experience the textures and aromas that Ginny does, in the ways she does. By the end of this deeply affecting novel, Ginny's disability seems more gift than burden. A delight in every sense, and most highly recommended. 

The jacket cover above is from the hardcover edition, which I thought was just perfect. The cover for the paperback, while appealing in that "oh, look, a little kid in feetie pajamas is making a mess" way, sacrificed art and subtlety in order to, I suppose, look more commercial.  But you tell me -- which cover do YOU like best? Which one would make you pick it up if you didn't know anything about the book? 

paperback edition