Book Review: My Story; by Elizabeth Smart, Chris Stewart

   I have been waiting for this book to appear one day and it finally did. Well.. that came out weird, now I’ve typed that out. But you know what I mean. I like seeing Elizabeth on the cover, looking all brave, grown up , survived. Yes, she survived. I can’t say one victim is far worse than her, or she went through more. This is not about comparing and competing who got it worse, this is her story.
   This was a page turner, I couldn’t put it down because (I know how stupid it sounds), I don’t want to leave her alone. It brings up details we never knew. She was actually raped and brainwashed every single day during her kidnapping. Everything she did was more of protecting her family than herself, but to a point where she was living minute to minute. Reading she barely eat or drink is just too hard to read.
   In this book, she tells alot of things, but she kept getting off track. It’s just hard to get into the book at the first few chapters because she kept doing that. Nevertheless, she got me back and I strived on reading it, page by page. Putting it down was hard.
   As much as as inspiring her story is, her strength and faith roar across the society, lives, and no matter what your religious background is, she inspired us to believe in God, to go through the thick and the worse of things. I truly respect her for that and yes, I am glad I pick up the book, though this book needed a bit of a brusher though.            

Quote:
“Later, there were times when I was angry with myself for succumbing to that fear. But those with shattered souls find it very difficult to speak.”

My Story
by Elizabeth Smart, Chris Stewart

For the first time, ten years after her abduction from her Salt Lake City bedroom, Elizabeth Smart reveals how she survived and the secret to forging a new life in the wake of a brutal crime
On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by religious fanatic, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. She was kept chained, dressed in disguise, repeatedly raped, and told she and her family would be killed if she tried to escape. After her rescue on March 12, 2003, she rejoined her family and worked to pick up the pieces of her life.
Now for the first time, in her memoir, MY STORY, she tells of the constant fear she endured every hour, her courageous determination to maintain hope, and how she devised a plan to manipulate her captors and convinced them to return to Utah, where she was rescued minutes after arriving.  Smart explains how her faith helped her stay sane in the midst of a nightmare and how she found the strength to confront her captors at their trial and see that justice was served.
In the nine years after her rescue, Smart transformed from victim to advocate, traveling the country and working to educate, inspire and foster change. She has created a foundation to help prevent crimes against children and is a frequent public speaker. In  2012, she married Matthew Gilmour, whom she met doing mission work in Paris for her church, in a fairy tale wedding that made the cover of People magazine.

Finished Reading: 18th December 2013
Acquire: 11th October 2013
Rate } ♠♠♠♠
Genre } Non-Fiction | Young Adult | Teens | Biography
Release Day }  01th October 2013
Publisher } St. Martin’s Press
Format } Hardcover
ISBN } 9781250040152
Pages } 320 pages
Source } Bought for BND $40.00
Age Group } PG 15 yo +
Support my reading by getting your copy } Kindle | Hardcover | Audio Books

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Biography Review: Cut; By Cathy Glass

rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
genre } non-fiction | biography | abuse 
release day }  April 2009
acquired } 04th August 2008
publisher } Harper Element 
format } paperback
isbn } 9780007280971
pages } 310 pages
source } bought
age group } 15+
interests } If you like reading The child call IT, (well not enjoy, you know what I mean)  
awards } -

Cut: The True Story Of An Abandoned, Abused Little Girl Who Was Desperate To Be Part Of A Family
by Cathy Glass

The author of "Damaged "tells the story of the Dawn, a sweet and seemingly well-balanced girl whose outward appearance masks a traumatic childhood of suffering at the hands of the very people who should have cared for her. Dawn was the first girl Cathy Glass ever fostered. Sweet and seemingly well balanced girl, Dawn's outward appearance masked a traumatic childhood so awful, that even she could not remember it. During the first night, Cathy awoke to see Dawn looming above Cathy's baby's cot, her eyes staring and blank. She sleepwalks--which Cathy learns is often a manifestation in disturbed children. It becomes a regular and frightening occurrence, and Cathy is horrified to find Dawn lighting a match while mumbling it's not my fault in her sleep one night. Cathy discovers Dawn is playing truant from school, and struggling to make friends. More worryingly she finds her room empty one night, and her pillow covered in blood. Dawn has been self-harming in order to release the pain of her past. When Dawn attempts suicide, Cathy realizes that she needs more help than she can give. Dawn's mother eventually confides in her that Dawn was sent away to live with relatives in Ireland between the ages of 5 and 9, and Cathy soon realizes that the horrors Dawn was exposed to during this time have left her a very disturbed little girl.

My 2 Cents
To be honest, It took me a while to finish this book. In fact, it took me to finish reading 5 books to actually finish reading this book. It’s a good biography, I can’t deny that, but, it’s hard to sit and read through this in just one go. But in my defense, It was a very busy few months for me at work and such.

I have to forewarn you, it’s a bit graphic. It’s a bout a child of the age of 13 who had problem with cutting. Cathy Glass and her husband adopted this child, and it’s a struggle to read about this polite child with a dark side yet has a need to rebel hard. What really perked my ears up reading this is wanting to know what happened during her missing years before living with Cathy. I wanted to know what happened to cause her behavior.

Personally this was a bit of an emotional read. Once I actually settle down and actually read this (finally getting time to settle down and read), it was a page turner. The child on the cover is just perfect. It screamed, “Help me please…” It also help me with my work, since I am working with students Dawn’s age, Empathy-wise.

The down side of this book was that, at the end, I wanted more. I Want to know what happened next, Follow up. But I was kept hanging. But it did open the door for me to check out her other books.

Library-wise. I guess I could say The older students (seniors) would enjoy reading this book. But I’m tempted to try it with our middle graders students. But with caution I guess, because the middle graders are easily influence to suggestion. Otherwise, it’s up to the parents.

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Book Review: Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories

finished reading : 3 June 2012
rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
genre } non-fiction | biography | abuse 
release day }  April 2009
acquired } 04th August 2008
publisher } Harper Element 
format } paperback
isbn } 9780007280971
pages } 310 pages
source } bought
age group } 15+
interests } If you like reading The child call IT, (well not enjoy, you know what I mean)  
awards } -

Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories
By Megan Kelly Hall, Carrie Jones, Claudia Gabel, Courtney Sheinmel, Crissa-Jean Chappell, Cyn Balog, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Daniel Waters, Dawn Metcalf, Debbie Rigaud, Deborah Kerbel, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, A.S. King, Eric Luper, Erin Dionne, Alyson Noel, Amy Goldman Koss, Amy Reed, Aprilynne Pike, Carolyn Mackler, Carrie Ryan, Cecil Castellucci, Heather Brewer, Holly Cupala, Janni Lee Simner, Jeannine Garsee, Jessica Brody, Jo Knowles, Jocelyn Maeve Kelley, Jon Scieszka, Kieran Scott, Kiersten White, Kristin Harmel, Kurtis Scaletta, Lara Zeises, Laura Kasischke, Lauren Kate, Lauren Oliver, Linda Gerber, Lisa McMann, Lisa Schroeder, Lisa Yee, Lucienne Diver, Marina Cohen, Marlene Perez, Maryrose Wood, Megan McCafferty, R.L. Stine, Melissa Schorr, Ellen Hopkins, Laurie Faria Stolarz

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Discover how Lauren Kate transformed he feeling of that one mean girl getting under her skin into her first novel, how Lauren Oliver learned to celebrate ambiguity in her classmates and in herself, and how R.L. Stine turned being the "funny guy" into the best defense against the bullies in his class.
Today's top authors for teens come together to share their stories about bullying—as silent observers on the sidelines of high school, as victims, and as perpetrators—in a collection at turns moving and self-effacing, but always deeply personal.

My 2 Cents
The first time I heard about this book, I was quite reluctant to get it. A few weeks later, a good friend recommended this book , and I was still reluctant to read it. But after a bit while, I gave in cause it was beckoning me to read it.

One huge message this book has would be, “You are not alone” to all bullying victims out there. Another side of this book, would be the stories from bullying “by-standers”. The party who are the audiences of the ordeal. Then, there are stories from ex bullies, sharing their experiences, their regret, their…”after taste” of their personal experience

This book really hit home for me. I think that was why I was avoiding to read this book in the first place. Once upon a time I was a bully victim, with “friends” as bystanders, and “friends” as the bullies, hence this was quite a personal matter of interest to actually read myself. Honestly said, this book practically humanize  our favorite authors into people we could relate to and not that someone who are so farfetched individuals as we would assume.

Page by page, this book is hard to put down. Is it that bad if I actually have a “in your face” feelings at the “Ex- Bullies” section of the book.

In serious part of the job, I am so tempted to get a copy of this book for the school library. What’s stopping me is the few vulgar language portray within some of the stories, which is a no-no for the students within a school. After all, we are trying to brainwash these kids into better behavior. It is quite a shame though, cause this book “clicked”.

Quote
”The situation quickly degenerated to an aggressive rumor campaign and, finally, to my daughter having her name written on the girls’ bathroom wall in conjunction with something truly humiliating by someone who had once been her best friend.”

One the last note: Why haven’t YOU pick this book up yet?

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Book Review: The Girl in the Mirror By Cathy Glass

rate } ♠♠♠
genre } Non-fiction | Biography | Abuse
release day } 1st April 2005
acquired } 11th March 2012
publisher } Harper
format } paperback
isbn } 9781780880334
pages } 320 pages
source } bought
age group } 18+
interest } Anybody who has read The Child called IT
awards } -
Buy @ Nolly Book | D BookHaus

The Girl in the Mirror
By Cathy Glass

Via Goodreads
When Mandy learns her much-loved Grandpa is dying, she returns to the house where she spent so many wonderful summers as a child. But she has long since lost touch with the rest of her family, and Mandy returns as a virtual stranger. As memories come back to her, Mandy begins to remember why events brought a sudden end to her visits.

My 2 Cents.
I have been reading alot of books in regards of abuse recently, so I guess, it is not a surprise that I actually picked this one up for read this time. All I could say about this book is, it was a slow agonizing read, yet I knew what was happening, there were hints but I just have to stay and see it true in hopes somebody say something, do something, just something!

It felt emotionally empty reading it. It’s like Mandy, the main character, had disassociate herself from the event. Yet, I was sucked into the wait of anticipation to read. I have to say the only time I felt it actually started was about at the 3/4 through the book. I was bored after that few rounds with the grandfather. I give it a bravo for misleading me.

It was a good read nonetheless, an ok plot, plus an easy read. But I must say, I’m pretty much annoyed at the end! I was emotional too!

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Book Review: The Girl Nobody Wants – A Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in Ireland By Lily O’Brien

rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
genre } Non-fiction | Biography | Abuse
release day } 1st February 2012
acquired } 12th February 2012
publisher } Troubador Publishing
format } paperback
isbn } 9781780880334
pages } 248 pages
source } bought
age group } 18+
interest } 18+
awards } -
Buy @ Nolly Book | D BookHaus

The Girl Nobody Wants 
– A Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in Ireland
By Lily O’Brien

Via Goodreads
You only get one chance to live your life as a child, but Lily was never given that chance; her childhood was taken from her before it ever begun. From the age of four, when she was first sexually abused, her life changed forever; when she walked through the institution's doors in Ireland, her life continued along the same path that has destroyed her soul. Her emotional pain is as strong today as it was the day it began and will never leave her alone. "When I go to sleep it's in my head and when I wake up I can see it in the mirror and I am only waiting to die."

My 2 Cents
Cover. A grim looking face on the cover with the deep piercing eyes full with complicate anger and sadness. Virgil candles burning just brings out the sorrow. Sad really.

Other than Amazon.com suggested I read this book, the reason I chose to read this book, was the title. That title tugged me to question “What the hell happened to her?". Who wouldn’t? My reaction once I started reading was, damn she is angry! That, itself, made me sit down and read. This book turned out emotionally intense. The author talked about the abused she and a few of her siblings went through as they grew up.

It appalled me how nobody believed her now try to save her and her siblings. It appalled me more reading how the nuns turned crazy and for no reason just start abusing them (her) like an enemy. It saddened me when all of these started when she’s just a baby. Even her own family let her down. That’s just sad. I feel for her.

Honestly, it took me a while to find the words to respond to this biography. I needed time to sink that all in. I hope Lily found peace for what she went through since she was a baby.

I’m glad she survived.

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Book Review: The Imam’s Daughter by Hannah Shah

rate } ♠♠♠♠
genre } non-fiction | biography | young adult | abuse
release day } 11th May 2010
acquired } 1st February 2012
publisher } Zondervan
format } hardcover
isbn } 9780310325758
pages } 281 pages
source } bought
age group } pg 18+
interest } G | pg 18+
awards } -
Buy @ Amazon.com | Nolly Book | D BookHaus

The Imam’s Daughter
by Hannah Shah

Via Goodreads
Hannah Shah is an Imam's daughter. She lived the life of a devout Muslim in a family of Pakistani Muslims in England, but behind the front door, she was a caged butterfly. For many years, her father abused her in the cellar of their home.

At sixteen, she discovered a plan to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, and she gathered the courage to run away. Relentlessly hunted by her angry father and brothers, who were intent on executing an 'honor' killing, she moved from house to house in perpetual fear to escape them.

Over time, she converted to Christianity and was able to live and marry as she wished.
Hannah found the courage to live her life free from shame, free from religious intolerance, and free from the abuse that haunted her childhood.
This is a remarkable true story of how a young girl escaped a life of torture ... a story you won't forget.

My 2 Cents
Covers. There are a few different covers for this title and all of them intrigues me. This is however the most what I could say “nice”. She looked happy in this cover. This book has two other covers.

This other cover has a child on it, looking all lonely and intimidated. Enough by itself in making you want to pick it up and read what is wrong.

The other cover looked  more grown up and has that look in her eyes, the hidden determination but lost.

Both has the power to entice the reader to pick it up and read.

Now let’s talk about this book. I admit, I have befallen by the title itself. Imam. The head of a small Islamic community. What can go wrong with that right? Wrong! I read the back summary and that was just so heart wrenching.

It’s actually hard to read. Not because it’s a bad book, the people in it are bad. I feel sorry for Hannan (Hannah’s Muslim name) for growing up in such a household and community.

I hope nobody would read this book and say that’s how Muslims are in real life.

Her father tarnished the good name of the Islamic religion. He’s a hypocrite. An arrogant fool! A rapist! An abuser! An ignorant! He doesn’t represent the Islamic world. It saddens me how so brainwashed everybody is in Hannah’s life, that nobody in her own community is willing to help her (except for her best friends) Her brothers refused to helped her when their father raped her nor beat their mother. it appalled me to read her mother seemed to be relieved Hannah got beaten and rape by her husband, so he won’t attack her.

I feel sorry Hannan felt she no choice but leave her own religion just because she’s escaping from her own life, terrified by her own family and her own community just to save herself. It left me angry, that even her social worker (the Muslim guy) didn’t help her at all. He’s probably the defining period for her.  

This book left me with that awful after taste at the back of my tongue.

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Book Review: Why Me?; By Sarah Burleton

rate } ♠♠♠♠
genre } non-fiction | biography | child abuse
release day } 27th September 2010
publisher } Kindle
format } e-book
isbn } B0044UHV9U
pages } -
source } bought
age group } pg 13+
interest } young adult | adults
challenge }
Buy @ Amazon.com | Nolly Book | D BookHaus

Why Me?
By Sarah Burleton

Via Goodreads
In the blink of an eye, Mom ran up behind me and pushed me into the fence. Instinctively, I reached out my arms to stop my fall and ended up grabbing the live fence. My hands clamped around the thin wires, and my body collapsed to the ground as the electricity coursed through it. I opened my eyes and saw my mother standing over me with the strangest smile on her face. “Oh, my God, I’m going to die!” I thought in panic.
Imagine never being able to close your eyes and remember the feel of your mother’s arms wrapped around you. Now imagine closing your eyes and remembering your mother’s tears splashing down on your face as she is on top of you, crying as she is trying to choke you to death. My mother left me these memories and many more during my traumatic childhood. After many years of struggling with trying to understand “Why Me?” I took back control of my life and started saying, “It was me, now what am I going to do?” The answer is my book, “Why Me?”. It is my childhood journey through the terrors of physical and mental abuse from first grade until the day I moved out. It is my way of letting the world know what was really going on behind closed doors.

My 2 Cents
The only reason I've picked up this book was... the reference Amazon Kindle was giving out via my account. (after reading The Child called It) I was in a what to read next dilemma since I was reading the last book through like a breeze. I couldn't just ignore the eyes on the cover.

So first impression was.. What the hell? Another memoir of a mother willing to beat her kid senseless? Not just physical, but emotional and mentally as well. She was also taught to shoplift. Her mother lied to destroy her socially as well. What irked me was when she gave her mother a second chance and her Mother just blew that one too. I didn't get how she won't take the way out, but I guess she was in a deep dilemma. Hardly anybody believe her, and with the ones who do, are just helpless.

Emotions aside...This book felt emotionally detached regardless it being a memoir of what was an abused child. Maybe she wished to just get through the book done and over with, I guess. It was a fast read.. but I ended up thinking she's way too focus on her everyday beating. Somehow keeping anything else in arm's length.

Overall, I hope the best for Sarah Burleton.

Btw: I found out there’s a sequel for this, “What It Is”; and I have started reading it. So far, all the absence of emotions has been showing up in this book.

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Book Review: A Child Called It: One Child’s Courage To Survive (Dave Pelzer #1); By Dave Pelzer

rate } ♠♠♠♠
genre } non-fiction | biography | child abuse
release day } 1st September 1995
publisher } HCI
format } e-book
isbn } B004FN1T3K
pages } 195 pg.
source } bought
age group } pg 13+
interest } young adult | teens | adults
challenge }
Buy @ Amazon.com | Nolly Book | D BookHaus

A Child Called It: One Child’s Courage To Survive
(Dave Pelzer #1)
by; Dave Pelzer

Via GoodReads
David J. Pelzer's mother, Catherine Roerva, was, he writes in this ghastly, fascinating memoir, a devoted den mother to the Cub Scouts in her care, and somewhat nurturant to her children--but not to David, whom she referred to as "an It." This book is a brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures she inflicted on him, told from the point of view of the author as a young boy being starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat the contents of his sibling's diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove by a maniacal, alcoholic mom. Sometimes she claimed he had violated some rule--no walking on the grass at school!--but mostly it was pure sadism. Inexplicably, his father didn't protect him; only an alert schoolteacher saved David. One wants to learn more about his ordeal and its aftermath, and now he's written a sequel, The Lost Boy, detailing his life in the foster-care system.

Though it's a grim story, A Child Called "It" is very much in the tradition of Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul and the many books in that upbeat series, whose author Pelzer thanks for helping get his book going. It's all about weathering adversity to find love, and Pelzer is an expert witness.

My 2 Cents
** SPOILERS ALERT **


People has been bugging me badly to read this book ever since before I was into biographies. And last night, after letting it lay there.. with thunderstorm drumming overhead.. I was bored so I picked it up.

... and I didn't stop reading it until 3 hours later.. at 1 am.. on a work night.... Work night!

…and it left me all emotional after reading it.. thinking.. what the hell?! What a sick sick mother! I was woke up thinking, I must have missed the trigger.

.. and it turned out I didn't. I never thought I be so floored. The last time I read something that left me aghast, was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

...And there was a heartless mother in that too! That one was at least fiction! I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

Oh wow... I can't really review this. This is a story of a person's real life.
Burnt, gas, stab, starve... I was trying to figure out if he was adopted (he wasn't), or a bastard (he wasn't).. Dear God I need to gather myself.. for this review.

I was pulled into his world. I cringed but I couldn't stop reading. It's like.. I can't abandon him, I feel like I was abandoning him if I Stop reading. What kind of mother woke up one day, and decided "Hey.. I hate this kid." Worse yet, degrade him. refuse acknowledgement, that he has an identity. Kill him slowly. But only him. (turned out there's another brother who "replace" his victim spot when he was taken away from home.)

Oh dear, I'm horrified. He's father was helpless... But he could have taken little Dave away from the monster in the house. but he didn't.

Oh my, I have come down to the point where I'm not sure how to review this book. In fact, I ended up judging instead of reviewing.

Anyway... one thing for sure.. If you are down and think your life stinks, read this. And guess what... Dave Pelzer survived. He pulled through a torturous life with a monster he called mom, who probably killed him if nobody help him out, or if he gave up.

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Teaser Tuesdays: Beautiful; Katie Piper

♣ Hosted by Should Be Reading

♣ Grab your current read
♣ Open to a random page
♣ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
♣ BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
♣ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Beautiful
by Katie Piper

He was scruffy and unkempt, and his dark eyes stared into mine. The reminded me of Danny’s – crazed and possessed, like a deranged killer in a scary film. I shivered, then told myself I was being paranoid and silly. He was just a druggy or a beggar, and all he wanted was me to out some money in his cup. In that moment, I actually felt sorry for him. ‘Poor guy,’ I thought, ‘he must have an awful life.’ Still on the phone to Danny, I rested my mobile in the crook of my neck and reached into my bag to get my purse.

’Wait a minute, Danny,’ I told him.

By now, the young guy was only an arm’s length away from me. I was still trying to dig my purse out from in the depths of my bag when it happened.

Splash. The guy chucked the contents of the cup at my face and, in that split second, my life changed forever.

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