This book is a collection of vignettes written by a great guy by the name of Bruce Perry. He is a pioneer in the neurological effects that trauma has on a child's brain.

The structure of each vignette is a story about the characters, then an explanation in laymans terms about what the underlying issues are regarding the child, then a more professional neurological explanation of the biological effects of trauma on the child, then he sums the whole thing up with the end of the tale, and you are usually left with a good feeling and richer in knowledge.

The characters in this book include a young girl molested by her babysitter with a single mother in the middle of Chicago, who opens his heart's eyes to the "real world".

There is a real life explanation of the Waco cult thing that Perry was called in to help experts deal with a whole compound of children held in cult circumstances, ritually raped and married to older men, and young boys kicked out into the streets so the older men could have their choice of young girls.

There is a story about a Russian orphan who was helped through "orphan syndrome" and provides a great deal of practical knowledge for anyone going through an international adoption, or adoption in general.

There is the tiny little girl who couldn't eat and finally, when she got what she needed from her family through the help of Dr. Perry, flourished and this one had a really happy ending.

There is the boy who was left alone since he was an infant, taken into a normal family and the journey to find creative therapeutic measures to help him regain entrance into human social settings.

And there are many other stories here. Really good read, makes you think, not a lot that makes you cry.

Parents, caregivers, teachers, students, anyone in the health setting, anyone interested in how trauma actually shapes the brain diffrently, anyone who likes stories where the good guy overcomes the worst and lives to tell about it.

I did become a social worker specializing in therapies geared to traumatized people.

Conflicted. Poised to action.

It is well researched, truthful, anecdotal, makes you think.

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Created Mar 09, 2009 at 1:44pm • Submit your own review...