Beautifully touching
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This is another fine work from Hayden, up there with her best.
Taking place after the mainstreaming act, which eliminated classes for disordered children, Torey is acting as a resource room teacher and doesn't have a proper class of her own. Soon into the year though a young boy appears who just will not fit in anywhere else. Boo's parents are at their wits end and can't cope with the autistic child on their own anymore. Soon Torey finds the child has come to join her in the afternoons along with her lovable, caring but brain damaged resource student Lori. Not knowing what to do with the unusual and very different pair she finds herself in at the deep end and with a very small, but no less troublesome, class of her own once again. But it isn't left there: throughout the following months two more children who have slipped through the system fall into her care. 11 year old Tomaso suffers violent rages after the death of his father and his being put into foster care and it is put down to Hayden to tame him. Then 12 year old Claudia emerges: pregnant, confused and vulnerable she has been pulled out of her Catholic school to finish the year alongside the other children in Hayden's class.
Ranging from seven to twelve, and with a number of different problems of their own, Torey has to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book to makes sure she gets the children where they need to be by the end of their year together. With her home life deteriorating around her she finds herself engulfed more than ever in the education of these children and trying to find ways to make them ready to be mainstreamed once again. However, in one of the hardest struggles yet Hayden finds herself in constant arguments with another teacher, subject to classroom inspections and trying to work miracles for the children she has grown to love so much.
This was a very endearing tale and shows how, in times of need, all kinds of characters can pull together to ensure goals are met. What, at the beginning, seems like a mismatched class which will never work, turns into a series of beautiful friendships and proves that education may not be the most important thing after all- emotions and friendship are the key to being happy.
This is the kind of book which is very hard to put down. A real-page turner, it teaches much about life and shows that things are never as dire as they may seem. This is classic Hayden and shows once again her wonderful gift for bringing out the best in people and never giving up. Definitely give this a try: inspirational, emotional and beautifully written at the same time this is one that should not be passed up.
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Somebody else's kids
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As with all of her books, I loved it. Heart warming whenever progress however small is made and heart breaking when none can be made.
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