One of my foster mom friends let me borrow this book. It is a memoir of Ashley Rhodes-Courter, who was in fourteen different foster homes over the course of nine years.
This is an almost unbelievable account of all of the terrible things that happened to this girl in foster care. It tears my heart apart that a child who is already in turmoil from being removed from her home and family, has to endure the kind of abuse and humiliation from the people who supposedly were keeping her safe from what she was removed from. It is sad to me that the place she seemed happiest while she was in care was in a group home (in my mind, the last place a child in foster care should be; for her, it was a haven). It is also really sad to me that the foster care system failed her in so many ways.
Despite all of this, Ashley moves into adulthood as an inspiring and positive member of society.
The book is very well-written and captivating. At times, the content was difficult to read - not because of how she was writing it, but rather because it was so hard to fathom that the things she was describing could have actually been happening in the 1980's and 1990's.
Highly recommend this book!
One of my favorites...along with Welcome to the Roller Coaster.
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