*Bottoms, Greg. Angelhead. (616.89 BOT)
Greg Bottoms chronicles the events that led to his
brother Michael's psychotic breakdown, the torment he caused his siblings and
parents, the crimes he committed as a result of his illness, and his eventual
admission to the psychiatric wing of a maximum-security prison.
Burch, Jennings. They Cage the Animals at Night.
Burch was left at an orphanage and never stayed at any
one foster home long enough to make any friends. This is the story of how he
grew up and gained the courage to reach out for love.
Fisher, Antwone Quentin. Finding Fish.
Verbally and physically abused as a child in
foster care, Fish became homeless at sixteen but managed to survive, join the
military, and eventually become a writer.
Hayden, Torey. Ghost Girl: The True
Story of a Child in Peril and the Teacher Who Saved Her.
Jadie never spoke. She never laughed, or cried, or
uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie remained locked in her
own troubled world--until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her
self-imposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have
prepared her for the shock of what Jadie told her--a story too horrendous for
Torey's professional colleagues to acknowledge. Yet a little girl was living in
a nightmare, and Torey Hayden responded in the only way she knew how--with
courage, compassion, and dedication--demonstrating once again the tremendous
power of love and the relilience of the human spirit.
*Johnson, Anthony.
A Rock and a Hard Place: One
Boy’s Triumphant Journey. (921
GOD)
A teenager who, until he was eleven years old, had
been the victim of horrific physical and sexual abuse on the part of his
parents, describes his escape from torment, his diagnosis with AIDS, and his
continuing battle for survival. (synopsis from Amazon)
Lauck, Jennifer. Blackbird:
A Childhood Lost and Found. (921 LAU)
When her mother dies, Jennifer Lauck, her brother, and
her father move in with "Deb," a woman her father has obviously been
seeing for some time. Things go from bad to worse when their father also dies
and they are left to live with the selfish stepmother, who forces them to work
for her weird church.
*Mah, Adeline Yen.
Chinese Cinderella. (921 MAH)
When Adeline’s father remarries, her stepmother
treats her cruelly and favors her young siblings.
*Mah, Adeline Yen. Falling
Leaves. (951.05 MAH)
In this expanded version of Chinese Cinderella, Adeline describes in more
detail her painful upbringing in China with her cruel stepmother and her escape
from the family to lead a happier life as a doctor.
*Martin,
Lee. From Our House:
A Memoir. (921 MAR)
Lee Martin was born into a farming family the same year his father
unexpectedly lost both of his hands, becoming an embittered, hardened man.
It is Lee's mother's quiet compassion that account for the grace that Lee
and his father finally discover both within themselves and within their family.
Michener, Anna J. Becoming Anna:the autobiography of a
sixteen year old.
Despite
cruel treatment at her parents' hands and mental treatment centers, Anna is
determined to become
the person she wants to be - even if that means changing her name and starting
anew.
*Moss,
Thylias. Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress.
(921 MOS)
A memoir in which the author recalls her years at the
mercy of a sadistic babysitter and discusses the impact that experience had on
the rest of her life.
*Oufkir, Malika. Stolen
Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail. (921 OUF)
In 1972, Malika Oufkir and her five siblings were exiled after their
father, was arrested and executed after attempting to assassinate the King of
Morrocco. For fifteen
years, the exiled siblings barely survived in an isolated penal colony, spending
the last ten years of their imprisonment in solitary cells. Eventually, the Oufkirs managed a heroic, amazing escape.
*Pelzer, Dave. The
Lost Boy. (921 PEL)
The author tells of his experiences in five foster
homes and juvenile detention, after he was taken away from his abusive mother
and alcoholic father, and discusses how he made it into the Air Force, and found
love and contentment in his life.
*Pelzer, Dave. A
Man Named Dave. (921 PEL)
The final entry in a trilogy of memoirs in
which Dave Pelzer, brutally abused as a child, discusses the struggles he faced
as an adult, and his determination to have a meaningful life. This book was
preceded by A Child Called It and The Lost Boy.
Schreiber, Rita. Sibyl.
A case study of a woman who developed 16 personalities
as a result of her mother’s abuse.
*West, Cameron. First Person Plural: My Life as a
Multiple. (616.85 WES)
Cameron West describes his experience with multiple
personality disorder. He
experienced the mental illness in his thirties, when he was already a successful
businessman, happily married, and a new father. Over a period of several months,
twenty-four distinct personalities emerge and recount specific incidents of
abuse West had encountered as a child--and kept long hidden.
*Wolff, Tobias. This Boy’s Life.
(921 WOL)
Wolff describes the years he spend growing up in
Concrete, Washington, and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his demanding,
controlling stepfather.