PSY355 - Morin

In 2004, Casey Watson and her family made a decision. With their two children now grown, she and her husband wanted to do something more fulfilling. So she trained as specialist treatment foster carers - preparing to take on children who were so profoundly damaged that mainstream foster care had failed them. Justin arrives at the Watson's house a fortnight before Christmas and it quickly becomes clear they are facing a big challenge. Try as they might to make him welcome, he seems determined to strip his life of all the comforts they bring him and throw any affection they offer back in their faces. After a childhood filled with hurt and rejection, Justin simply doesn't want to know. As a visit to Justin's mother on Boxing Day reveals, there are some very dark underlying problems that Justin has never spoken about. As the full picture becomes clearer, and the horrific truth of Justin's early life is revealed, Casey and her family finally start to understand the abuse he has endured and the pain he has suffered. And little by little Casey is able to make a connection and help him start to rebuild his life.

Written in three distinct voices-child, teen and adult-Jane Devin takes readers on an intimate, imaginative and often harrowing life journey. Born unwanted and raised without love, the child-author invents a rich inner life to see her through years of trauma. Leaving home at 16, the teen-author struggles to find happiness and a sense of place in a world that feels confusing and unfamiliar. Then, years after stumbling into an adulthood mired in tragedy and broken dreams, the woman-author finds herself at a crossroads. The choice she ultimately makes is as stunning as it is brave.Told in unflinching and often lyrical prose, Elephant Girl goes beyond a singular life story to speak of powerful, universal truths and the ability of the human spirit to redeem itself. From the soul of a broken child and the heart of a resilient woman comes a story about turning imagination into possibility and scars into art.

In a painfully true, brutally honest, tell-all, author Christina Vitagliano recounts her frightening nights as a child when her father loomed in the doorway of her bedroom. This honest coming-of-age memoir begins in the late '60s and spans 30 years, showing how others who've experienced childhood trauma can stay true to themselves and use their pain to build a promising future.

At the young age of three, while I was at school, my mother was murdered by her abusive new boyfriend. What would happen to her five unintentionally abandoned children? The heartbreak of the devastating loss of my mother was just the beginning of a series of tragic events that shaped my childhood. Lost in the chaos of abuse, I was the unseen collateral damage of domestic violence. I was forced to take on the role of the invisible child for self-preservation. I figured you can’t hurt what you can’t see. Despite all the sadness in this book, my story has a happy ending. Overcoming obstacles that were meant to destroy me taught me many powerful lessons about strength, resilience, and faith.

Kristina, Celeste, and Juliana were all born into the Children of God cult, and from as early as three years old were mistreated and used as sexual beings. They were denied access to formal schooling, forced to wander the streets begging for money, and were mercilessly beaten for "crimes" as harmless as reading an encyclopedia. After being separated from each other and their mothers and forced to live in various missions with multiple foster parents, the sisters eventually managed to escape. In this startling exposé, they have come together to reveal in horrific detail the group that has destroyed the lives of so many. Their intertwining stories reveal a community spread throughout the world whose legacy of anorexia, depression, drug abuse, suicide, and even murder are impossible to erase. Together, the sisters found a strength that finally enabled them to uncover and free themselves from the shadows of their past.

No one could have imagined how as a child Beverly Engel could have managed to become who she is today--an internationally known expert on abuse recovery and the best-selling author of twenty-two self-help books. This is the raw, candid story of how she made her way in the world in spite of her mother's neglect, unreasonable expectations and constant criticism; in spite of being sexually abused, first at four years old and then at nine; and in spite of being raped at twelve.

"Riveting . . . A genuinely important book that casts the problem of sex trafficking in America into stunning, heartbreaking relief." ("Kirkus Reviews") A "School Library Journal "Best Adult Book for Teens A Joan F. Kaywell Award Finalist from the Florida Council of Teachers of English Carissa Phelps was a runner. By the time she was twelve, she had run away from home, dropped out of school, and fled blindly into the arms of a brutal pimp. Even when she escaped him, she could not outrun the crushing inner pain of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. With little to hope for, she expected to end up in prison, or worse. But then her life was transformed through the unexpected kindness of a teacher and a counselor. Through small miracles, Carissa accomplished the unimaginable, graduating from UCLA with both a law degree and an MBA. She left the streets behind, yet found herself back, this time working to help homeless and at-risk youth discover their own paths to a better life. Like the multimillion-copy bestseller "The Glass Castle," this memoir moves us through the power of its unflinching candor and generosity.

Carolyn St-Denis has a decision to make; does she succumb to the effects of abuse and kill herself, or does she fight for her education and finish high school? Set in Ontario, Canada, this unflinching memoir tells the story of an only child whose sexual abuse begins when she is a toddler. Cursed with an unprotective mother and a tormenting stepfather, Carolyn is plagued with nightmares and finds solace in books, but especially in food. The bigger her body becomes, the safer she feels, until Carolyn is molested by her maternal uncle when she is twelve. Carolyn's world completely falls apart when her mother is diagnosed with a terminal illness and her stepfather becomes the primary caregiver. She leaves home at fifteen and becomes immersed in a world of homeless shelters, psychiatric wards, and a group home. Carolyn highlights how instrumental two workers were as they taught her about unconditional love and encouraged her to rise above. Twenty-five years after the abuse, we witness Carolyn grow into herself as she writes letters to the people who've hurt her. Gritty and impactful, Unhinged is a must-read for survivors and professionals alike.

New chapters from Katie. In 1992, nine-year-old Katie Beers was kidnapped by a family friend and locked in an underground box for 17 days. Katie has now come forward to tell the story that created a national media storm as reporters uncovered the truth about her pre-kidnapping life of neglect and sexual abuse and the details of her rescue. She shares how this experience and the recent death of her kidnapper, John Esposito, has affected her life. Despite the horrible reality of Katie's days of being chained in darkness, the kidnapping was, in fact, the climactic end of a tragic childhood and the beginning of a new life. Katie breaks her silence and reveals her inspiring healing process to the journalist who covered the story of the disappearance more than twenty years ago. Buried Memories is the only source that includes the complete details of her traumatic childhood, transcriptions of recordings from Esposito, a first-hand account of how Katie felt after Esposito's death in 2013, and Katie's hopeful view of the future as she looks back into her dark past.

"This story of a child is heartbreaking and important. It brings into dramatic focus why we need reconciliation." - James Daschuk, author of Clearing the Plains. This memoir offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school. Now a retired fisherman and trapper, the author was one of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children who were taken from their families and sent to government-funded, church-run schools, where they were subjected to a policy of "aggressive assimilation." As Augie Merasty recounts, these schools did more than attempt to mold children in the ways of white society. They were taught to be ashamed of their native heritage and, as he experienced, often suffered physical and sexual abuse. But, even as he looks back on this painful part of his childhood, Merasty's sense of humour and warm voice shine through.

First Gear: A Motorcycle Memoir is a compelling story of childhood physical, emotional and sexual abuse that unrolls as the author, at age 50 and living with Multiple Sclerosis, rides her 2009 Harley-Davidson — named Thelma D. — from Ottawa to Winnipeg and back with a stop off in northern Ontario and a detour into Quebec. During her ride through the stunning landscape of the Canadian Shield, she shares stories of her childhood growing up in the 1970s in the Ottawa Valley with her three brothers, a violent father and an alcoholic mother. Told with a frank openness and humour, First Gear is ultimately a story of courage, survival, and recovery.