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There are currently 35 member reviews
for Sold on a Monday
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Karen B. (La Grange, KY)
"You don't take a photograph ...
... you make it." -- Ansel Adams. Sold on a Monday relates the unintended consequences that follow when a young, ambitious reporter stages a photo of two children. Set during the Great Depression, I found the book entertaining and engaging, but not transporting. The characters, while believable, struck me as types. Told in alternating points of view, it was a fast and enjoyable read.
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Gaye R. (Coupeville, WA)
An Enjoyable, Historical Read
The title Sold on Monday, at first seems too depressing to read, especially pictured with a sad little child on the front cover. But if you let that deter you, you will miss out on a well written historical fiction about the Great Depression and a side of it you may never heard about.
If you can't feed or clothe your children, then how do you provide the best care for them? Do you go to the extreme and sell them or give them away? With that horrendous possibility in mind,Ellis Reed and Lillian Palmer investigate the mystery surrounding two siblings who have been "adopted" by a well-to-do New Jersey couple.
What follows is a story of painful family relationships and how at all costs we protect those we love.
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Janet P. (Spokane, WA)
Fascinating story
This story brought forth depression era US so vividly that I felt I was involved in the poverty which became the main story in the early 1930's in this country. The book's cover intrigued me with a picture of a little child leaning over a suitcase along with a sign on the back cover on which was printed "2 Children for Sale." I really couldn't put the book down, basically because of the intriguing story. I've needed to look back to think about the author's ability to build believable characters and create setting because the story itself was compelling enough that I didn't take the time on first read to look at the parts of the whole. Ellis Reed, a struggling young reporter takes a picture of this sign with two young children sitting by it. The picture moves the narrative forward in directions Ellis and his eventual partner in research, Lillian Palmer, could never anticipate. There are many lessons to be learned from this novel. First would be the huge consequences that any of us might face when at first we tempt fate with even a tiny but very public lie. Ellis gets caught up in those type of consequences and in trying to right the wrongs he inadvertently helped snowball, he risks his own life as well as the life of two little children. Lillian plays the role of a motivated "wanna be reporter" who prods Ellis into doing what is moral and right. They develop into a team that searches in dangerous places for the truth of the mess which Ellis set into motion. Kristina McMorris does a great job of gradually revealing the main character's backgrounds. They both have secrets to keep and those secrets are believable and clearly lead both Ellis and Lillian to the ways they deal with the narrative's twists and turns. I read that the novel was inspired by an actual newspaper photo from depression era USA. In the end I feel I just finished a great story by a good author who tells a tale of ambition clouding judgement and the long armed effects of some of our actions that might be good to consider before we make choices which not only effect our own lives, but those of innocent others.
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Ann B. (Bethlehem, PA)
A Sad Era in Our History
While Kristina McMorris acknowledges that the story was not true, it very likely could have been. My own mother, as a young girl, was farmed out to an aunt in Maryland because my grandparents could not feed them all with the small rations allotted. I so love that McMorris chose to rewrite this story from this Era with hope. This book reminds me in many ways of Lisa Wingate's, Before We Were Yours, which like Sold on Mondays describes a time in our country when children were taken simply because their parents were poor and therefore deemed unfit. The characters of Lily and Ellis, were humanly flawed in all their wants and desires, yet noble in their determined cause to reunite the Dillard family. This is a time we should not forget least we repeat history. Take care of our children, they are our future.
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Elizabeth K. (Dallas, TX)
Intriguing story
I would definitely recommend reading Sold on a Monday. The book is fiction but in some ways it reads like non-fiction due to the author's research and historical detail. I'd give the story an A, the writing a B. I believe this is an author who will become a better writer in time.
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Sharon R. (Deerfield, IL)
"It started with a picture"
Another reviewer compared this story to the "fake news" that is prevalent in our society today. This story, however, is not fake, it is based on a true story. A reporter who is looking for his big break to land a story that will rocket his career onto the front page. He takes a picture that sets off a chain of events that includes two children, a single mother, and a reporter that knows the truth about the photograph. His subsequent rise as a journalist is shadowed because he is haunted by the photograph. In fact, many of the characters in this novel are guarding their own secrets.
The author represents the depression in all it's grittiness. The mob, the speakeasy's, and the struggles of families just trying to survive are all brought together in this gem of a novel. Perfect for Book Clubs and fans of historical American fiction.
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Joane W. (Berlin, MD)
Sold on a monday
It was an historical time, unemployment was rampant. In the depression there was not much money available, people did whatever was necessary to survive including selling children. Who would have known that a picture of two children for sale would change several lives forever.
