Tuesday's Pick: Tomato Girl

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek


Had I gotten this book a week earlier, it would have been one of my picks for Beans 'n' Books: new novelist. The theme of this story would have reflected that of Mudbound and Sweet Treats: family dysfunction, secrets and deception within families, and desperate love. I need to treat myself to some children’s fantasy stories for a while!

Told in the first person of Ellie Sanders, this story quickly takes the reader into Ellie’s nightmarish life with her mother and father. Ellie’s absolutely frightening mother terrorizes Ellie daily: will mama be good and nice or will she turn into that other woman?

With her mother so unstable, Ellie leans heavily on her father for normalcy. It takes awhile for Ellie to understand that the tomato girl, who brings produce to the store, brings more than that to her father. Tess is that young woman; she runs away from her abusive father and finds comfort with Ellie’s father. But her solace becomes everyone else’s grief. Ellie watches horror-struck as her beloved father brings Tess into their house, and slowly his character turns from a loving family man to someone Ellie begins to fear. Ellie’s tortuous life as a young girl almost brings her to the edge of madness. Read Tomato Girl, and you’ll know why!!