Central Kansas Library System

Having suffered abuse and misfortune for much of her life, a young child searches for a better life and finally gets a break in the home of a loving woman with several foster children.

A teen girl, Aideen, makes a journey from self-protectively tough to ready and willing to face her main problem: her single mother's alcoholism. Aideen's best (and only) friend is pulling away. Her mother's drinking problem is a constant concern. She's running out of diseases to fake so she can skip PE. When she sees her nemesis, overachiever Meabh Kowalski, in the midst of a full-blown meltdown, she sees a problem that-- unlike her own disaster...

At the age of eleven, Michael Keith left a stable life with his mother and sisters and set off to cross the country with his irresponsible hobo of a fathera real bum. The memoir, narrated without sentimentality by this funny, world-wise little boy, describes their life on the roadthe characters they meet hitching rides, their adventures with bed bugs in Salvation Army bunks, the joys of finally encountering a decent meal, and the periods when Michael's...

[This book] is [an] account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played torturous, unpredictable games - games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."--Back...

Imagine a young boy who has never had a loving home. His only possesions are the old, torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. The only world he knows is one of isolation and fear. Although others had rescued this boy from his abusive alcoholic mother, his real hurt is just beginning -- he has no place to call home. This is Dave Pelzer's long-awaited sequel to A Child Called "It." In this book, he answers questions & reveals new adventures through...

The story of how one little boy found the courage to survive years of physical abuse-- and how the human spirit can triumph over even the most severe of circumstances. The Pelzer family's secret life of fear and abuse was first revealed in Dave Pelzer's inspiring New York Times bestseller, A Child Called "It," followed by The Lost Child and A Man Called Dave. Here, for the first time, Richard Pelzer tells the courageous and moving story of his abusive...

David Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in the history of California, tells the story of how he survived his mother's brutality and triumphed over his past.