New Releases by Torey Hayden

From the bestselling author of One Child comes the story of three of former special education teacher Torey Hayden’s most extraordinary challenges. Nine-year-old Cassandra, kidnapped by her father and found starving, dirty, and picking through garbage cans—is a child prone to long silences and erratic, violent behavior. Charming, charismatic four-year-old Drake will speak only in private to his mother—while his tough, unbending grandfather''s demands for an immediate cure threatens to cause irreparable harm. And though she had never worked with adults, Hayden agrees to help fearful and silent eighty-two-year-old massive stroke victim Gerda—discovering in the process that a treatment''s successes could prove nearly as heartbreaking as its limitations.

David has never had a permanent home or a real friend, but when he decides to try to hatch an owl egg with the help of a classmate, his life slowly begins to change for the better.

Psychologue et thérapeute, Torey Hayden est professeur-éducatrice dans une classe d''enfants souffrant de troubles du comportement. Un lien très fort l''unit à Jade, une petite fille de huit ans qui se tient courbée et ne parle pas. Chaque soir, Jade rejoint Torey dans une salle de cours, et, après avoir fermé la porte à clé pour que personne d''autre ne l''entende, elle se met à parler. Ce qu''elle raconte est effrayant, incroyable. Des choses horribles ayant trait au sexe, à la violence, à la mort. La psychologue s''interroge. Réalité ? Mensonges ? Délires d''enfant perturbé ? A force de patience, elle finit par découvrir la vérité. Une vérité qui dépasse l''entendement...

"Were all just somebody else''s kids . . . " A small seven-year-old boy who couldn''t speak except to repeat weather forecasts and other people''s words . . . A beautiful little girl of seven who had been brain damaged by terrible parental beatings and was so ashamed because she couldn''t learn to read . . . A violently angry ten-year-old who had seen his stepmother murder his father and had been sent from one foster home to another . . . A shy twelve-year-old from a Catholic school which put her out when she became pregnant . . . "What do we matter?" "Why do you care?" They were four problem children-put in Torey Hayden''s class because no one else knew what to do with them. Together, with the help of a remarkable teacher who cared too much to ever give up, they became almost a family, able to give each other the love and understanding they had found nowhere else.

Finally, a beginning . . . The time had finally come. The time I had been waiting for through all these long months that I knew sooner or later had to occur. Now it was here. She had surprised me so much by actually crying that for a moment I did nothing but look at her. Then I gathered her into my arms, hugging her tightly. She clutched onto my shirt so that I could feel the dull pain of her fingers digging into my skin. She cried and cried and cried. I held her and rocked the chair back and on its rear legs, feeling my arms and chest get damp from the tears and her hot breath and the smallness of the room.