The Wrong Child

I downloaded this free for my Kindle about a year ago, and decided to read it on a flight. It has an unusual premise: due to a terrible blizzard followed by a tragedy, two baby girls were accidentally switched at birth. The prologue is abrupt and melodramatic, and the first two or three chapters are a bit confusing with quite a large cast of people.

However I quickly found myself absorbed in the storyline. The characterisation is good, and the problems arising when the parents discover, ten years after the birth, what has happened, is all too realistic. The conflict between the love of one's own child and the child one has raised can only be imagined, but I felt that the author dealt with it sensitively and constructively.

It's not a show more difficult read, and the story mostly progresses at a good place. However there were places where I skimmed a few paragraphs: I found there to be a bit much introspection and heart-searching, repeating what had gone before. There's some nicely done romantic tension although I was disappointed that when this is eventually resolved, the author gives far too much detail about what happens rather than gently closing the bedroom door.

While the eventual outcome is predictable, I didn't mind that at all. The story itself has some gentle twists and turns, and a mixture of interesting people. Perhaps the eventual capitulations of a few of the characters, and the final paragraph, are a tad unrealistic, but this was clearly going to be a happy-ending story. Overall, I found it quite a satisfying read which was ideal for reading on a plane. show less

The Wrong Child by Patricia Kay
Summary:
The Wrong Child is the epitome of Contemporary Fiction as a Problem to Solve story. The problem does not take long to figure out since it is in the title and soon into the prologue the reader knows that a baby was switched at birth when the exhausted nurse put the wrong tag on the first of two babies born in the same hospital minutes apart. She put the name tag on the foot of the first baby and as she tells the reader that it was the wrong one, she died. The story begins when the swapped babies have already reached their tween years. The rest of the story used many literary devices to provide a young adult story with epic twists and turns when the parent realized that there exists a possibility of show more a parental mistake and got a DNA test done. With the knowledge of the switch exposed the story transitioned into the new problem of what to do about it and as the actual father of Kendall and the mother are no longer married the idea of a romance could not have been made clearer. For many reasons, the characterization has a dominant literary purpose while the setting takes a back seat beyond knowing about what was needed to be impressed that Logan would have been a perfect date; realizing he was the father of the baby and both of them out of relationships that did not work; marriage was reasonable although at 14 the children has a lot of adjusting to do. With so many twists and turns climaxes followed by conflict and then resolution. The reader is swept away into their world.
Personal Reaction:
Wrong child was a great read that was very hard to put down. The characters are so believable that you fall in love with all of them and need to know what happens next. The idea of the swap, completely absent of malice left me handing on the edge of my seat as we the reader already knew about the swap so conveniently exposed in the prologue before the story even began. As the story twisted in the direction of the two parents finding each other, the idea flitted with me until finally the reality of the children was exposed and then what were the consequences of that new understanding and how would that work for he parents. Would the children adjust? All those answers are found in this amazing coming of age contemporary read.
Classroom Extension Ideas
1. This cannot be read aloud in a classroom. It has considerable length and would have to be assigned as a take home assignment with instructions to find as many literary expressions that were used by the author to tell this tale of humanity.
2. Assigned with enough time permitted for the entire class to understand the book, it could be used to introduce identification processes for new born babies and what happens when the system breaks down. Should the hospital have done their own DNA test after finding the nurse dead with the babies. Are the liable? Should they be sued? All topics of discussion that would extend from the book regardless of how the stories characters chose to respond to the news.
3. Children could also discuss and consider other issues that could need resolving as we explore new family structures and ways to create new life with two moms through artificial insemination with sperm donors. With these practices how likely is it that a child of these family structures could find a brother or sister as if they were swapped at birth. The Wrong Child opened up a host of contemporary concerns worthy of classroom discussion. show less

I may have rated this higher, but I found the two eleven-year-old girls were making decisions and being treated more like older teenagers.

THE WRONG CHILD by Patricia Kay
In the midst of a blizzard, in an understaffed hospital and when the only labor and delivery nurse has a heart attack and dies, two infants are switched. Years later the awful truth comes out. This tale tells what happens next.
Several startling instances of happenstance and the plot thickens. The story is interesting. The characters have life to them. The plot is a tearjerker – but then you knew that, right?
There is no foul language. There is one sex scene. Altogether, not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon or two.
3 of 5 stars

I may have rated this higher, but I found the two eleven-year-old girls were making decisions and being treated more like older teenagers.