Sadeqa Johnson joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest novel, KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN. Like her earlier two works of historical fiction, it is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Sadeqa shares that she found a piece about the Brown Babies when she was doing research for THE HOUSE OF EVE. The story was calling to her, but she put it aside to finish that book.
She learned more about the Brown Babies and Mabel Grammer, the inspiration for her character Ethel Gathers, in both Ebony and Jet magazines. Bringing these children from Germany to the United States brought lots of press; there is even a documentary called Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story.
Sadeqa talks about crafting the three different characters the way that she did and the challenge of parsing their stories together. She also expresses her love of the audiobook, which features three voice actors --- Ariel Blake, Karen Chilton and Adam Lazarre-White --- the latter of whom she came to admire when he narrated S. A. Cosby's work.
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