Name: Little Miss Strange
ISBN: 9780684847412

Joanna Rose

Follows the life of Sarajean, the child of two love children, who finds herself having to overcome great obstacles at a young age after she is left motherless

A Novel

Little Miss Strange

Andrea Badgley

This is one of those quiet, graceful books in which the author manages to expose the beauty in simple, ordinary, everyday life. Ironically, as this is a story of a child of love children, set in Denver, CO in the 1960s and 70s, the book is down to earth even as it tells the story of Sarajean, daughter of a heroin junkie mother who drifted away to be free, and living with a man, Jimmy Henry, who may or may not be her father. Seen through the eyes of a young girl who knows no other kind of life, this strange world of hippies and free love and marijuana and heroin is absolutely normal, and though as adults we can read between the lines and know what is happening, Sarajean does not. She only knows what makes her feel comfortable and what makes her feel uncomfortable. 

What I loved most about this coming of age story is that despite an unmoored life, Sarajean is centered. Despite all of the unknowns in her life - who and where is her mother? is Jimmy Henry her father? What is he doing with those men in the kitchen, with needles and veins? - Sarajean does not succumb to peer pressure and go wild with self-destructive I-don't-know-who-I-am behavior. She goes with her gut instead, seeking the comfort of a Hispanic mother and son who own a thrift store, Someone's Beloved Threads. She befriends them, loves them, helps them in their store, and they love her back. When her best friend gets dangerous with strangers, Sarajean politely declines, not out of Pollyanna goodie-goodieness but because that's just not what she's into. She's a quiet hero to me. I love her.

Little Miss Strange A Novel

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