The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

by Tiffany Baker

Book Overview

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446194220
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Adored This Debut! 5 Stars

I absolutely loved The Little Giant of Aberdeen County. An amazing debut for Tiffany Baker. The story begins when Lily Plaice was pregnant with her second child in 1953 , and covers the span of about 40 years. Everyone in her small town in Aberdeen County, New York, suspected that Lily was going to deliver a huge baby, but when delivery day arrived, no one was prepared for exactly how huge the baby girl that they named Truly would be. The baby was so big, that Lily died giving birth to her. The father, a barber who drank beer for breakfast, was not prepared to take care of Truly and her older sister Serena. There were no birthday parties, no Christmas tree, and only hand me down clothes. He blamed Truly for his troubles and for the death of his wife. Little Truly continues to grow huge because of a pituitary gland deformity, and she becomes the subject of constant laughter and abuse because of her size. She must wear men's shirts as nothing fits her. Her father even tells little Truly "no wonder Lily died pushing you out. Hell, you'd block a barn door". Her teacher on her first day of school, tells five-year-old Truly, "You're a Little Giant". Truly describes the differences between her appearance and her sister's appearance by saying: "The two of us were as opposite as sewage and spring water". Truly is resilient, making the best of a bad situations, and she often finds comfort at her mother's grave. When the girl's father dies unexpectedly, the girls are separated. Pretty Serena Jane is sent to be raised by a wealthy family, and Truly goes to live on a farm with a poor family. Serena is popular, and has a lot going for her. She eventually marries Bob Bob Morgan a doctor who came from a family of doctors. It is actually believed that during the Civil War, the first Robert Morgan married the town witch, who healed the sick, and was said to have hid her spell book before she died, but no one had been able to find it. Serena gives birth to a son Bobbie. Unhappy in her loveless marriage she disappears, and Truly is told that she her sister has died. Doctor Bob Bob gets Truly to move in with him to cook and clean for him and her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Bob Bob is cruel to and always taunting her about her size. However when Truly begins to play with various herbs and finds she has the ability to heal illness with herbs and other secrets hidden within the folds of the Morgan family magical quilt. She eventually unearths old secrets, and is determined to seek revenge on Bob Bob who tormented her. Truly, the narrator of this story is one tough cookie. She makes a wonderful narrator who just seems to take what bad breaks life throws at her, and she finds happiness and love in unexpected places. The writing style of this book was magical, and the contrasting themes worked so well in this story for me. There were several twists in this story as well. This book was totally enjoyable and is highly recommended. I will be watching for more books b

Finds loveliness and meaning in the most unusual guises --- and marks the advent of a unique new tal

Truly Plaice's whole identity is summed up in just two words uttered by Miss Sparrow, the teacher in her one-room schoolhouse on Truly's first day of school. "You're a little giant!" Truly has known she's different her entire life --- she couldn't be less like her beautiful, dainty older sister, Serena Jane. Having broken all predictions about her birth weight, outgrown her baby clothes shortly after birth and outweighed her older sister, Truly couldn't help but be aware of her physical differences. But to have her life reduced to a freak show only reinforces Truly's alternating feelings of displacement and self-loathing. Truly's gigantic size sticks out, not only in comparison with Serena Jane's loveliness, but because Aberdeen, their town in upstate New York, is so small and isolated. It's shrinking rapidly (that is, except for Truly, who just keeps growing), and any hint of difference is ridiculed or rejected. Truly does find comfort and friendship --- in the form of small, brilliant Marcus and mute Amelia --- but she also encounters prejudice, cowardice and outright cruelty. As Truly grows up and her family's fortunes change for the worse, her story becomes inextricably wound up with that of the town's doctor (and Serena Jane's husband), Robert Morgan. Dr. Morgan (or Bob Bob, as he's known as a boy) is the latest in a long line of Morgan physicians, traveling all the way back to the Civil War, when an army deserter met Aberdeen's town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, a woman whose legacy includes a riotously embroidered quilt and, some say, a mysterious "shadow book" that holds the secrets of healing --- and other secrets as well. When Truly stumbles across Tabitha's secrets, the helpless woman trapped in a too-huge body finally discovers a new kind of power that has nothing to do with physical size or strength. THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY is a difficult book to categorize --- some might even call it a true original. With its one-room schoolhouse, provincial politics and herb lore, it sometimes feels old-fashioned, like it could have been set in the 19th century instead of in the 1960s and 1970s. But with its sly humor, social commentary and elegant mixing of genres, Tiffany Baker's debut is definitely set in the modern literary world. Like John Irving's works, Baker's novel could be called something like "New England grotesque." Her focus on Truly's physical oddities, however, is not meant merely to shock or titillate; instead, the book is just as focused on the small beauties that are able to flourish even in the stifling, conformist environment of Aberdeen County: "Everything in the world has its two faces, however. Weeds sometimes blossom into artful flowers. Beauty walks hand in hand with ugliness, sickness with health, and life tiptoes around in the horned shadow of death. The trick is to recognize which is which and to recognize what you're dealing with at the time." Far from being absurd, THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY finds

One of the best I have read in a long time!

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker is an awesome debut novel from this author. She has a beautiful writing style, a great contemporary voice This novel kept my attention throughout and it was not one I wanted to put down.

It's amazing!

I loved that this book was written from Truly's point of view, using language that evokes a magnificent picture in your mind of her being huge and solid and over-sized. This story almost has a feel of being a fairy tale or folk lore - there is Truly who is considered a giant, the beautiful, beauty queen sister, the witch and her potions, Truly's friend Marcus who is tiny, and the evil Doctor Robert Morgan. The subtlety with which Baker weaves all of these characters in her story and gives them all such depth is what makes the story such a joy to read. I was hooked from beginning to end! Truly is truly bigger than life. She is a legend of sorts in her small town where she hides from their looks, eventually becoming someone they all seek out. This book spoke to me of looking inside of a person and not the outside, of the circle of life and death and how nothing in life is black and white. This is an awesome, wonderful read!

"LOVE IS LOVE HOWEVER IT COMES...."

Love, hate, forgiveness, revenge, mystery, witchcraft - all the elements of a fine novel. When these elements become prose in the hands of Tiffany Baker the results are finer than fine.. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is memorable in every way, not only as an extraordinarily well written novel but also as a story rich with meaning. We meet Truly Plaice who is an anomaly in the small town of Aberdeen. She would be an anomaly anywhere because Truly is a gargantuan woman, challenging the scales at 400+ pounds. There is little room in our world for those not seen as normal and Truly is reminded of her perceived abnormality every day. These reminders come in cruel ways, such as a schoolmate putting tacks on her chair to see whether or not she can feel the sticks through such generous flesh or in the astonished stares of the curious. Her mother died in childbirth. Townsmen had placed bets on the weight of a baby who had added so much poundage to a woman. By the age of one and one-half years the only clothing that would cover Truly was one of her father's shirts. He was a perplexed miserable man who never recovered from his wife's death, and was totally unable to handle raising Truly and her older sister, Serena Jane, who was petite, beautiful, vain and a perennial May Queen. Such a contrast was painful for both girls. After their father died the sisters were parceled out - Serena Jane went to the home of Amanda Pickerton where she and her minister husband doted on the girl. Serena Jane's future was bright until it was altered by Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest son of the Morgans whose men had been the town's doctors for generations. Truly was sent to a ramshackle farm owned by the Dyerson's; it was a place where no one save debt collectors came to call.. While Truly missed her sister she grew to love working out of doors and tending to the farm's horses. She walked to school with young Amelia Dyerson who rarely spoke. They found no friends or welcome there save for Marcus, another unusual child who had an eager mind and a penchant for remembering details. Truly grew to adulthood, ever larger due to an abnormality in her pituitary gland. She knew little of what other young women knew but she also knew some things that they did not. It was rumored that the first Dr. Morgan's wife, Tabitha, was a witch who possessed strange healing powers and had made note of her secrets in a shadow book long hidden where it would not be found. Readers will find themselves loving Truly and pulling for her, hoping that somehow she can overcome insurmountable obstacles. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is a not to be forgotten epic, every bit as grand as Truly herself. Highly recommended. - Gail Cooke