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Booth Girls: Pregnancy, Adoption, and the Secrets We Kept

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A thoughtful and emotional multigenerational story of contested motherhood and the stigma of adoption—equal parts biography, oral history, history, and memoir.

Kim Heikkila's mother had a secret: in 1961, two years before her marriage, she became pregnant. After several months hidden in her parents' attic bedroom, she gave birth to a daughter at the Salvation Army's Booth Memorial Hospital, a home for unwed mothers in St. Paul, and surrendered her for adoption. More than 30 years later, Kim's older sister reunited with her birth family. Kim's mother had written about her experiences, but after she died, Kim still had questions. Using careful research and sensitive interviews with other "Booth girls," Heikkila tells the stories of the Booth hospital and the women who passed through it—and she learned more about her own experience as an adoptive mother.

246 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2021

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Kim Heikkila

3 books

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5 stars
38 (31%)
4 stars
43 (35%)
3 stars
24 (20%)
2 stars
12 (10%)
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3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Sam.
216 reviews
September 27, 2021
I wanted to like this book. I really did. I was on the waiting list for 6 months at the library. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I enjoyed the interviews with women who were "Booth Girls." I enjoyed the history of the building and how the hospital was run by the Salvation Army. Other than that, I was bored and kept thinking I should put the book down, unfinished. Kim Heikkila first gives us "A Note About Language" used in the book that gives us pages explaining how politically incorrect/correct she is going to be. In fact, the introduction is about 16 pages of nothingness. But, her biggest flaw as an author is repetition, repetition, repetition. The book could have been 1/2 the length. Then, what bothered me the most is the way she fit in the death of George Floyd in the end. What on earth does that have to do with the story of the Booth Girls?
Profile Image for Emily.
913 reviews35 followers
September 16, 2025
"Kill your precious babies," the literary adage, might be the wrong thing to say here, but Kim Heikkila needs to do it. This book was a mess. Kim's mother was a Baby Scoop-era unwed mother sent to live in the Salvation Army's Booth Home for Unwed Mothers in St. Paul. Kim didn't find out about her secret sister until decades later when the now-adult established contact and it turned out she was also named Kim.

Why was this book so rambling and overwritten? Kim's mother wrote two short stories about her experience finding out she was pregnant, fleeing to San Francisco, realizing that was a stupid plan, returning to her parents, and waiting out her pregnancy in the Booth Home. She also wrote copious diaries and letters. For some crazy reason, despite the abundance of primary sources and interviews with other Booth girls, Kim Heikkila decides she needs to fictionalize her mom's internal experiences from time to time, so there are a lot of interludes like, "She walked into a grey room. There was dust on the polished floor," for a few pages. Why? Maybe because the Historical Society Press wouldn't publish her novel based on her mother's life so she just wedged it in here, would be my guess, but I don't know. So there are clots of fiction by somebody who's bad at writing fiction stuck in here. Besides that, you have
1. The History of Adoption and Race Until the '70s (this is 90% cribbing from Rickie Solinger)
2. Feelings About My Family, Who Are Not Perfect
3. Bland Descriptions of Mom's Life in the Northern Suburbs
4. An Interview with a Different Booth Girl at the End of Every Chapter and Not Woven Into the Text
5. Convoluted Justifications for Acquiring an Affordable Adopted Asian Child Despite Kim's Awareness of the Exploitation Inherent in Anonymous Adoption.
That's about it. Over and over. This book is at its best when Kim is poaching from Wake Up, Little Susie and Fallen Women, Problem Girls, but otherwise it's a hot wallowing mess of several books on adoption and family that all could have been better written.

Kim's mother belonged to the Tip Top Club, a society at the University of Minnesota for tall people. People in the '50s loved clubs so much.
Profile Image for Barbara.
383 reviews
July 28, 2021
This was a book club pick. The most interesting parts were the people's individual stories of being unwed mothers in the mid twentieth century, and that it was in St Paul which is where I live. I knew all the places that were mentioned. What I didn't like was the dry dissertation type of writing and how it kept telling us the same things over and over. Every time I read it, it made me angry at the way people treated one another. Men get away without consequences. Women bear all the shame, shunning and judgement. The medical and social systems pushed women to relinquish their babies for adoption while insisting that they didn't do that very thing. I quit halfway through for my own mental health. There's too much shit going on in the world to pile on more.
10 reviews
December 22, 2021
This book is intended to address a very notworthy and interesting topic. Unfortunately, it misses the mark - by a mile! The writing is often very confusing and tends to be nothing but a diatribe condemning the mores and practices of the last half of the twentieth century. The author spends an inordinate amount of page space condemning the culture during which her mother experienced pregnancy and then blames her mother for her own problems. I received the book from a friend who started, but never finished reading it. I then gave the book to another friend after I started, but never finished reading it.

I was left with the impression that the author was overwhelmingly influenced by what the current nest of culture critics to hear, but she completely failed to convey a message the rest of us need to hear. Come on Kim - you wrote enough for me to see you have it in you. Keep writing YOUR story, not the story you think the culture critics want to hear.
Profile Image for Mary Aalgaard.
407 reviews15 followers
November 22, 2022
Kim Heikkila has done her research. Both historical and personal, she writes of pregnancy, adoption, and societies' pressures on unwed mothers. Her own mother, pregnant and unmarried in 1960, felt the shame of being forced to hide her pregnancy, literally being kept indoors and out of sight, and finally going to Booth St. Paul where she had her baby and surrendered her for adoption. Over 30 years later, she and her daughter reunited. Kim and her brother Eric were introduced to a sister they never knew about, and new family bonds were formed. Kim digs into the history of adoption and interviews other Booth girls, as well as provides societal and cultural background on this emotional topic. An important book on women and society, reproduction and the painful and hopeful effects of adoption.
Profile Image for Lori Holden.
Author 11 books17 followers
September 5, 2021
I've been studying the mosaic that is adoption for many years, and this book pulls together so many threads. The author weaves together her mom's story as a birth mother during the Baby Scoop Era, the stories of other Booth women of that same era, and her own story of infertility and international adoption -- all amid the context of a historical backdrop. Kim Heikkila is skillful writer and a deep thinker/feeler. I recommend this book up there with Ann Fessler's "The Girls Who Went Away" and Gabrielle Glaser's "American Baby."

-- Lori Holden, author of "The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption."

I was given a copy of this book to review.
Profile Image for Janilyn Kocher.
5,354 reviews127 followers
January 26, 2021
I’m interested in a wide array of genres and The Booth Girls fit. The author details her mother’s pregnancy and giving her baby up for adoption in 1961. Heikkila became an adopted mom herself. She intersperses her family story within a larger context of adoption and its impact. She tends to extrapolate on topics that are beyond the scope of the narrative. I feel as if she was trying to stuff a circular object into a square opening. I think she worked too hard to be relevant with her subject. Still, it’s a great piece book to read. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the early read.
Profile Image for Kendra Purtle.
217 reviews20 followers
September 12, 2021
This topic is an interesting one, and I feel that the author did give it due justice. She gives plenty of info and statistics which help readers who have not lived within that time to understand. Though I understand why she added her own story with adoption, it seemed to detract from the focus a bit. Also, the parts where the author “imagined” parts of her mother’s story were definitely not necessary. Good information, in general. In some places, though, the detours seemed to take us off track.
Profile Image for Terri.
1,029 reviews40 followers
April 29, 2026
"Booth Girls: Pregnancy, Adoption and the Secrets We Kept" by Kim Heikkila is the next selection for my Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity book club. This was especially interesting in that another of my book clubs just finished reading and discussing "Evidence of V: A Novel in Fragments, Facts, and Fictions" by Sheila O'Connor. Both deal with real stories, Minnesota history, and the subject of unwed mothers in the mid 1900's.

"Booth Girls" is the true story of both Sharon Lee Moore Wilkinson, an unwed mother in 1961 (a "Booth girl"), and her daughter, Kim Heikkila (the author of "Booth Girls"), who became an adoptive mother in 2006. Intertwined into the story of this mother and daughter are the stories of several "Booth girls," as well as the history of unwed Minnesota mothers and adoption in the mid 1900's.

Takeaways:

1. This is a very personal story, the writing of which was likely a very therapeutic experience for the author. Her personal experience with the subject lends credibility to the book. In addition, despite the personal nature of the book, the author remains objective. This is especially evident at the end of the book where Heikkila reviews what her experience and research has taught her.

* p. 198-9 - "I learned that Mom, like all of us, was not the sole author of her life. Some of her most intimate moments had been shaped by historical forces far beyond her ability to control and, perhaps, even her awareness. Cultural beliefs, institutional policies, and professional practices regarding sex, pregnancy, and adoption - all of them inscribed through the ideologies of race, class, and gender - turned into the Booth girl she became and shaped her experience of motherhood, marriage, and family for the rest of her life."
* p. 203 - "I stand on the opposite side of Mom in the adoption gain-loss equation. Though the pain of infertility is real and deep, the irreconcilable fact is that adoption "solves" it only by capitalizing on another woman's (and Man's) loss and that it is those privileged by class, race, and nation who most often benefit in this process..."

2. This read very much like a doctoral dissertation, rather that a piece of popular literature. And, thus, it is thoroughly researched.

- p. 198 - "...I tried to make up for what I had left undone by combining my personal quest with historical inquiry and using the tools at my disposal - historical archives, oral history interviews, Mom's writings, personal experience, and imagination - to try to know Mom, and thereby myself, better."

3. There is much unnecessary repetition here.

4. The author tries to jam a lot into the pages of the book and does it in a somewhat disorganized, difficult to follow, way.

5. I learned a lot here. I really had little idea of any of this. Yes, it was all a big secret, and is to this day. That is why both Heikkila's and O'Connor's work are so important.

- the connection between Booth Homes (across the country)and the Salvation Army
- the history of contraception in this country, and in Minnesota in particular
- the significance of race in regards to unwed mothers and their care, adoption, etc.
- the history of adoption in this country, and in Minnesota in particular
- the after effects on unwed mothers who gave their children up for adoption

6. It bothered me that the story she tells here is so different from the story told in "Evidence of V." Though one is set at the Booth House in St. Paul around 1960, and the other is set in the Minnesota Home School for Girls in Sauk Centre in the 1930's, I can't believe that in 25 years or so things went from the prison-like setting described in "Evidence of V" (a work considered fiction that combines both fact and fiction) to the comparatively rosy atmosphere described in "Booth Girls" (a work considered non-fiction, which combines both fact and fiction) Both institutions were in operation in a similar time period. I would have liked more cross-examination of the two institutions in regards to the topic of unwed mothers and adoption. How were the girls sent to each place different from one another? Or were they? The Minnesota Home School for Girls in Sauk Centre is mentioned only once in "Booth Girls" on page 107.

7. I loved the local color and history found in "Booth Girls": Dave Moore, WCCO, Central Free Church, Unity Hospital in Fridley, Crystal, etc.

Though I found this story and the history contained in "Booth Girls" really compelling, I wasn't a fan of the writing here. However, I am glad that I read it. I will recommend "Evidence of V" to my book club friends.
Profile Image for Story Circle Book Reviews.
636 reviews68 followers
July 19, 2021
Suddenly, your mother blurts out, “When I was twenty, before I met your dad, I got pregnant and had a baby that I gave up for adoption. You have a sister.”

That's what happened to author Kim Heikkila. Her mother, Sharon Lee Moore Wikstrom, revealed—in those words—her startling secret that thirty-three years earlier she'd given birth to an out-of-wedlock baby girl who was immediately surrendered for adoption. Adoption was for the good of everyone, or so said society's expectation in 1961. Author Heikkila's reaction: “I was shocked to realize that my mother's life had a trajectory of its own, determined in equal parts by history, circumstance, choice, and luck; it hadn't always and only been steaming ahead toward the destination that was me.”

The revelation of this secret older sister spurred Heikkila to delve deep into her mother's life and inspired her to write this thought-provoking and unique—yet somewhat universal—tale of unwed mothers at the mercy (or lack thereof) of society's mores. She gets into the head and thinking of her characters, whether historical or imaginary.

Society demanded living up to a strict moral code. Heikkila examines the history of society's treatment of unwed mothers and how the unwed mothers and families were affected. There were “good girls,” who abstained from physical relations before marriage, and “bad girls,” who gave in to their boyfriends' reckless desires, often resulting in pregnancy. The boyfriends usually skipped out—of support, of responsibility, of judgement, of everything.

Heikkila examines the “history, circumstance, choice, and luck” and ramifications of her mother's life as an unwed mother, including the deep shame her grandparents felt at having an unmarried pregnant daughter. Heikkila focuses on her mother's time spent at Booth Memorial Hospital, a Salvation Army-run organization for unwed mothers who were “put away.” They were called Booth Girls, and were provided room and board, counseling, and maternity services, including physician-assisted birth services. Most Booth Girls' babies were immediately whisked away upon birth and relinquished for adoption. Coerced? Maybe. Heikkila focuses on the present and future lives and emotional impact made upon those unwed mothers, in particular her own unwed mother.

Heikkila utilizes varying writing styles, displaying them magnificently. She speaks in different voices. There is Heikkila's technical voice as the academic researcher, historian, orator. There is the younger, softer voice (influenced by notes and letters found) of Heikkila's mother, the beautiful 20-year old college student Sharon. Hers is a questioning voice, often scared. There is the cold voice of a narrow society and its lack of empathy for young unwed mothers. There is Heikkila's voice, imagining she was her mother going through an unwed pregnancy in 1961. Heikkila's voice, as she sews together facts, stories, her own imagination, experiences, and history to gain a clearer understanding of her mother's life outside of the author. And the connection it made on her in the present, with her own adoption story in the adoption cycle.

Heikkila presents well-researched facts about these special homes for unwed mothers spread across the US. She delves into the laws passed and enforced, and the emotional and mental state of unwed mothers, both at the time of relinquishing their babies and in the long term thereafter. Booth Girls is well-researched; it is a process of well-thought-out reporting and storytelling combined. There is always something new to learn. Heikkila's writing, technical and creative, educates and evokes emotion, making it a highly recommended read.

Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Paula Shaffer Robertson for this review.
Profile Image for Emily.
825 reviews44 followers
January 3, 2026
In this autobiography/biography, Kim tells the story of her mother giving up her firstborn child for adoption and her own story about adopting her own son. She blends both of these stories together along with several other Booth girls' stories, some of her mom's essays, and her own imaginative retellings of some of her mom's trials. Booth Memorial Hospital in St. Paul was a place for unmarried women to give birth to their babies and decide whether to keep or give them up for adoption. Most girls gave their kids up for adoption due to many factors.

I learned many new things while reading this book. Why is there such a stigma against mothers having kids without being married? I know people will say it has gotten better, but have things really improved enough? Aren't kids still judged in small-town America if they don't have both a mom and dad? While I did enjoy reading this book, it is not for the faint of heart. There were many sad moments, and I found myself breaking this book apart in many different sittings. I read other books at the same time as well.

I actually met Kim, and I admire her for being willing to share so much of not just her story, but her entire family's history. She went through an uphill battle to try and get pregnant, and her mother went into hiding for most of her pregnancy and was severely judged by her family. Then her mom gave up her baby for adoption and held this secret for decades. I can't begin to imagine the pain they both went through, but I thank her for sharing this with everyone, and I hope this sheds some light on these issues.
Profile Image for Heather.
38 reviews
February 25, 2023
In agreement with a few of the other reviews. I also really wanted to like this book. My mom was not a booth girl but was unwed and pregnant during the same period and gave her baby up for adoption with the help of the Children's Home Society. Her story is very similar to some of the women in this book. I did enjoy the interviews with booth women the author met and the history of booth itself.
Profile Image for Laura Ruuska.
129 reviews3 followers
May 15, 2021
I thought the structure of this book was phenomenal. Take away any of the individual pieces, (mother’s essay, historical research, Booth girl stories, or memoir sections) and the book would just pale in comparison to what it is will all of these threads woven together. The writing seemed masterful to me. Really an impressive and emotional work.
Profile Image for Amy.
27 reviews
October 23, 2021
I really enjoyed the way the author combined the history of the era with personal stories including her own experience with adoption. It was really educational for me and hit home the odds my half-sister's mother overcame when she decided to keep her baby girl.
Profile Image for Janel.
7 reviews
May 6, 2021
Beautifully written. Just beautiful.
Profile Image for Sam.
8 reviews
May 18, 2021
This book was a fantastic mix of historical research, interview, and memoir. The format was super engaging and I was devouring it by the end. Highly recommend!
Profile Image for Diane.
59 reviews
November 16, 2021
For my reminder only-- much more "academically" written than I had expected.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews