Product Description

A stunning and poignant account of an extraordinary teacher's determination never to abandon a child in need from the internationally bestselling author of 'One Child' and No. 1 bestseller 'Ghost Girl'. Seven-year-old Venus Fox never spoke, never listened, never even acknowledged the presence of another human being in the room with her. Yet an accidental playground 'bump' would release a rage frightening to behold. The school year that followed would prove to be one of the most trying, perplexing, and ultimately rewarding of Torey's career, as she struggled to reach a silent child in obvious pain. It would be a strenuous journey beset by seemingly insurmountable obstacles and darkened by truly terrible revelations. Yet encouraged by sometimes small, sometimes dazzling breakthroughs, as a dedicated teacher, Torey remained committed to helping a 'hopeless' girl, and patiently and lovingly leading her toward the light of a new day.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49654 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
"Torey Hayden deserves the kind of respect I can't give many people. She isn't just valuable, she's incredible. The world needs more like Torey Hayden." Boston Globe "Chilling and affecting." Chicago Tribune "Moving -- as lively and surprising as the kids it so deftly portrays." O Magazine

About the Author
Torey Hayden is an educational psychologist and a special education teacher who, since 1979, has chronicled her struggles in the classroom in a succession of bestselling books. She currently lives and writes in North Wales. Find her on MySpace at www.myspace.com/torey_hayden

Customer Reviews

Inspiring
Once again Torey Hayden has written an inspiring book that offers hope and encouragement to all who work with children in special education and to those children themselves. She teaches us that children with special needs, particularly those who have been neglected and/or abused, must be allowed time to trust again.As always she deals sensitively, but not sentimentally, with the gradual process of recovery of an abused child.The subject of this book is a little girl, an elective mute, whose experience of life is so abhorrent that recovery of any kind initially seems an impossible goal. However the author's care for her pupil, her determination to succeed, her natural teaching ability and her gut level instinct for the right way to proceed all mean that this goal is, finally, reached. This book, along with others by the same author, should be made compulsory reading for all student teachers.

Torey Hayden makes you want to be a better person
Torey Hayden has to be the best writer of non fiction I have ever read.The way she writes,you feel like you know her and all her children.You feel like you have been in her classrooms and know her little ways.She shows her weaknesses and her strengths.For people who have children or work with children,read this book and any tantrum your child has ever had will pale into comparison to what Torey deals with every day in her classroom.

Best book I've read in a long time
I thought this book would be a bit depressing, and hard to read, but the way it was written was nothing short of amazing, I read the book in one evening I literally couldn't put it down, some parts I had tears in my eyes for the unbelievable suffering little Venus suffered, to think that if it hadn't been for Torey Hayden, no-one would have even known this little girl could speak never mind anything else. But it wasn't all doom and gloom some parts of the book had me laughing, the way Ms Hayden wrote about the children she looked after could be very funny indeed. She didn't make her self look like a saint, she pointed out her faults (which were pretty human) and she seemed to write the book with so much feeling, it was a privilage to read, and I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, (I've already started reading "Ghost girl" by Tory Hayden.