Small Pleasures: Mya's Story

Flat chested and agile as monkeys, the pretty little Sheppard sisters hunt exotic insects as decorations for their mud pies and childhood games. Yet, by the age of ten, Mya Sheppard’s body has outgrown her innocent mind. Deeply troubled by its unwanted attention, Mya climbs trees hoping to remain within the protected cradle of childhood. But the violence that chased the Sheppard girls to California finds them and forces them and their Mother back to Georgia and into the home of Donovan Sheppard’s religious parents. Struggling against bouts of anxiety brought on by salty California, Mya finds herself in a whirl of trouble one afternoon when she’s left in the care of a grandfather who finds her tempting. Despite the domestic issues plaguing the family, this assault seizes Mya’s ability to defend her body against others, and her own hands. Brutally honest and graphically told, Mya introduces the reader to the life of a family fighting for love and normalcy, and struggling to remain together.