Product Description

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller One Child, comes a startling and poignant memoir of three people's victimisation and abuse - and their heartbreaking but ultimately successful steps to recovery, with the help of Torey Hayden, an educational psychologist. In Twilight Children, Hayden tells three gripping stories. At the centre of the book is the story of Cassandra, a nine-year old girl who was kidnapped and abused by her father for two years and, by the time Hayden starts working with her, is ready to lash out at anyone who tries to befriend her. Running parallel to Cassandra's story is that of four-year-old Drake who won't speak to anyone except his mother. The third narrative is about Gerda, an elderly women who, after suffering a stroke, refuses to free herself from her self-imposed silence and crippling depression. Told with compassion, sensitivity, and, believe it or not, humour, Twilight Children is the story of one woman's fierce determination, the struggles of three people, and their amazing road to recovery. Torey Hayden is an educationalist whose work centres around elective mutes and especially children who won't speak due to a trauma in their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236886 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
"Hayden's books are unapologetic tear-jerkers" The Times T2 "Torey Hayden deserves the kind of respect I can't give many people. She isn't just valuable she is incredible. The world needs more like Torey Hayden." - Boston Globe

About the Author
Torey Hayden is an educational psychologist and special education teacher who, since 1979, has chronicled her struggles in the classroom in a succession of best-selling books. She lives and writes in North Wales with her husband and daughter

Customer Reviews

A feast
I love Torey Hayden's books. I have read everything she has ever written and am hungry for more. Although the themes of her books are much of a muchness, every one of them comes across as fresh and new. She has a way of drawing you into her stories and making you feel a part of her experiences. As the parent of a special needs child myself (my son has Asperger's Syndrome) I can empathise a lot with what she encounters. I just wish we could have had someone like her in our lives!

FANTASTIC READ
I do not agree with the last reviewer's rather harsh comments. Many of Torey Hayden's readers work in similar environments and respect the work she does.

Torey has had great success with all the children she has worked with and is very experienced in her field.

I have read most of the books by Torey Hayden with great interest and respect her choice to bring to the world's attention the suffering of abused children. It may be a disturbing read but no confidences are broken. Maybe it is Torey's individual and brave approach she takes towards the children which ensures her continued success as a therapist and an author.

I recommend this book and previous books by Torey to any reader and promise you once you start reading them you will want to read all her books.

RECOMMENDED

The Sound of Silence - Resounding Silence
The three people featured in this book have very disparate needs, yet all are bound by a common thread - silence in varying degrees. Cassandra, 9 was kidnapped by her father when she was 5. Two years after being kidnapped, she was found foraging in garbage cans outside of a small store. She was then returned to her mother, sisters and stepfather. Violent outbursts and erratic behavior led to her being admitted to an in-patient unit. While on the unit, Cassandra's behavior includes lying. She was also described as being able to identify others' weak spots and use them. Her behavior had reached such a critical point on the ward where she was spending much of her time in "lockdown" or seclusion, especially after she accused staff of sexual molestation and harped on molestation themes to another child who had no known history of sexual abuse. Efforts to separate Cassandra from the other child became part of her treatment, as did identifying feelings; naming the real abusers; defining boundaries and setting limits and helping her piece her memories together lead Cassandra to greater progress.

Gerda, 82 suffered from a stroke which affected her ability to speak. When she did speak, it was of her memories of living during the early 20th century; the loss of several siblings and the countryside as she remembered from her peripatetic travels in girlhood. Records from the local census bureau confirm her accounts; Gerda's progress is spurred even further by this additional interest.

Four-year-old Drake also has speech issues. Like Gerda, his condition was purely physical. A congenital vocal cord condition affected his ability to produce words and use his mouth muscles for activities such as blowing bubbles and licking ice cream. Popular in pre-school and described as having no behavioral issues, Drake travels with his ubiquitous toy tiger. After evaluating and observing Drake's progress in pre-school, it was decided that he be evaulated at the same hospital where Cassandra is a patient.

Unlike Cassandra, Drake is not described as presenting psychiatric issues and he seems to adapt to his surroundings. On one occasion, he gets to leave the hospital for an afternoon to visit Gerda, whose speech accelerates upon her delight at his visit. Gerda's accounts of her youth are especially touching and reading of this senior's progress alongside of two very young clients makes for a very pleasant bond indeed. Regardless of age, these people all shared the common thread of good humanity and the basic desire to communicate.

In time, Drake's medical condition is revealed, along with it family dynamics and well guarded secrets. In time, more walls are knocked down as Drake's family confronts the truth about his vocal condition. Learning sign language and being discharged from the hospital accelerates his progress and readers can take delight in the gains he and his family have made.

For these three clients, the sound of silence was broken.