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Quick answer: Good discussion questions for Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate focus on the real Tennessee Children’s Home Society scandal, sisters separated as children, family secrets, privilege and identity, and what makes a family. Below are 19 questions grouped by theme, plus a spoiler-free summary.
Quick facts
Author: Lisa Wingate
Published: 2017
Setting: Memphis, Tennessee, 1939, and Aiken, South Carolina, present day
History: based on Georgia Tann’s Tennessee Children’s Home Society
Content note: child abuse, kidnapping and the death of a child
Before We Were Yours is a bestselling novel built on a shocking true story: for decades, Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children’s Home Society kidnapped poor children and sold them to wealthy families. Lisa Wingate follows one family of children taken from their river home in 1939 and a modern woman who uncovers the secret. It’s emotional and eye-opening, and book clubs often go on to read about the real history. This guide includes a spoiler-free summary, characters and themes, and 19 discussion questions grouped by theme. The questions contain spoilers.
Table of Contents
Spoiler-Free Summary
In 1939, 12-year-old Rill Foss lives with her parents and four younger siblings on a shantyboat called the Arcadia on the Mississippi River near Memphis. When their mother goes into a difficult labor, their parents rush to the hospital and leave Rill in charge.
While they are gone, strangers arrive and take the children to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, an orphanage run by a woman who sells children to wealthy families. Rill is determined to keep her siblings together, whatever it takes.
In the present day, Avery Stafford, a federal prosecutor from a prominent South Carolina political family, meets an elderly woman named May Crandall at a nursing home. A photograph and a few strange remarks lead Avery to start digging into her own family’s history.
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Main Characters and Themes
| Character or Theme | What to Know |
|---|---|
| Rill Foss | The eldest Foss child, who fights to protect her siblings |
| Camellia, Lark, Fern and Gabion | Rill’s younger siblings |
| Briny and Queenie | The children’s loving river parents |
| Georgia Tann | The real woman who ran the Tennessee Children’s Home Society |
| Avery Stafford | A prosecutor and senator’s daughter who uncovers a family secret |
| May Crandall | An elderly woman in a nursing home with a hidden past |
| Trent Turner | A man who helps Avery uncover the truth |
| Family | Biological family, adoptive family and chosen family |
| Privilege and power | How the powerful exploited the poor |
| Identity | What we lose when our past is erased |
Discussion Questions (Contains Spoilers)
Rill and the Foss Children
- How does life on the Arcadia shape Rill and her siblings?
- What sacrifices does Rill make to protect the younger children?
- Which scenes at the children’s home were hardest to read?
- How did Camellia’s fate affect you?
Avery
- How does Avery’s privileged life shape the way she approaches the mystery?
- What does Avery risk by digging into her family’s past?
- How does Avery’s relationship with Trent change her ideas about her future?
- Why does Avery’s grandmother’s story matter so much to her?
History and Injustice
- Did you know about Georgia Tann before reading? How did you react to learning it was real?
- Why were poor and river families such easy targets?
- How did wealthy adoptive families and officials enable the scheme?
- What does the book suggest about whose stories history remembers?
Family and Identity
- Rill becomes May. What did she lose, and what did she gain?
- How do the Foss sisters stay connected over the years?
- What defines family in this novel?
Big Picture
- How did the two timelines work together for you?
- Was the ending satisfying?
- How do you think the real children taken by Georgia Tann were affected later in life?
- Who would you recommend this book to?
Is Before We Were Yours a Good Book Club Pick?
Choose it if your group loves historical fiction with a real-life mystery behind it. It’s about 350 pages and alternates between a page-turning 1939 storyline and a slower present-day one, so most readers race through Rill’s chapters. It pairs well with a short article on Georgia Tann, and groups who read both often say the real history is the part they keep talking about weeks later.
Book Club Ideas for Before We Were Yours
- Serve Southern river food, like fried catfish, hushpuppies and cornbread.
- Read about the real history, such as Georgia Tann and the 1950 investigation into the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, and share what you learn.
- Look at a map of the Mississippi near Memphis and talk about shantyboat life.
- Share a family story that was kept quiet for years, if anyone is comfortable doing so.
Books Like Before We Were Yours
If your group loved it, try Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline for another story of children sent to new families, The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes for another novel based on real history, or The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate for more of her storytelling.
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How to Structure Your Meeting
Begin by asking everyone how they felt when they learned the story was based on real events. Then work through two or three questions from each theme above, saving the “big picture” questions for the end. If your group is large, split into pairs for one theme and report back.
A simple 90-minute plan:
- 0–15 minutes: food, catch-up and the opening question.
- 15–60 minutes: the discussion questions, theme by theme.
- 60–75 minutes: one of the book club ideas above, or a quick comparison with the adaptation if there is one.
- 75–90 minutes: everyone rates the book out of five in one sentence, then you pick next month’s read.
Related: the best historical fiction books for book clubs and The Giver of Stars book club discussion questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Before We Were Yours about?
In 1939, five siblings are taken from their family’s shantyboat in Memphis and placed in a corrupt orphanage, while in the present day a woman uncovers her family’s connection to their story.
Is Before We Were Yours a true story?
The characters are fictional, but the Tennessee Children’s Home Society and Georgia Tann were real. Tann arranged the illegal adoptions of thousands of children.
Is Before We Were Yours good for book clubs?
Yes. It’s emotional and eye-opening, and it sparks discussion about family, identity and injustice.
Is Before We Were Yours appropriate for all book clubs?
It includes child abuse, kidnapping and the death of a child, so share a content note before reading.