He has been brought to her by the police, but he is calm, polite, and very well spoken, and not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo’s history, but apart from his name and age, it is blank. Tayo has no past.Tayo is an 'invisible' child, kidnapped from his loving father in Nigeria and brought illegally to the UK by his drink and drugs dependent prostitute mother, where he is put to work in a sweat shop in Central London. When he sustains an injury and is no longer earning, he is cast out.When Cathy takes Tayo to school he points out a dozen different addresses where he has stayed in the last six months, often being left alone. Tayo lies, and manipulates situations to his own advantage and Cathy has to be continually on guard. Tayo’s social worker searches all computer databases but there is no record of Tayo – he has only attended school for 3 terms and has never seen a doctor. He and his mother have been evading the authorities by living ‘underground’.With his mother recently released from prison, Tayo is desperate to live with his father in Nigeria, but no one can track him down or even prove that he exists.

    Her last hope is Cathy Glass. At the Social Services office, Cathy (an experienced foster carer) is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months. Despite her reservations, Cathy decides to accept Jodie to protect her from being placed in an institution. Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face. As Jodie begins to trust Cathy her behaviour improves. Over time, with childish honesty, she reveals details of her abuse at the hands of her parents and others. It becomes clear that Jodie's parents were involved in a sickening paedophile ring, with neighbours and Social Services not seeing what should have been obvious signs. Unfortunately Jodie becomes increasingly withdrawn, and it's clear she needs psychiatric therapy. Cathy urges the Social Services to provide funding, but instead they decide to take Jodie away from her, and place her in a residential unit. Although the paedophile ring is investigated and brought to justice, Jodie's future is still up in the air. Cathy promises that she will stand by her no matter what -- her love for the abandoned Jodie is unbreakable.

    Over the next ten years, she would develop the ability to numb herself to the constant abuse by splitting into distinct mental “parts.” Dissociative identity disorder (DID) had begun to take hold, protecting Olga’s mind from the tragic realities of her childhood.In The Sum of My Parts, Olga reveals her life story for the first time, chronicling her heroic journey from survivor to advocate and her remarkable recovery from DID. Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, DID is defined by the presence of two or more identities. In this riveting story, Olga struggles to unearth memories from her childhood, and parallel identities—Olga at five years old, Olga at thirteen—come forth and demand to be healed. This brave, unforgettable memoir charts the author’s triumph over the most devastating conditions and will inspire anyone whose life has been affected by trauma.

    Looking back ten years ago, who would have ever thought that this well-respected -- and very well-paid -- thirty-five-year-old assistant principal for a performing arts school, would trade in her husband and her daughter, a two-story brick home in a gated community, and a fully-equipped Jaguar for a body riddled with track marks and a substance that gave her a better feling than sex. But when that candy, as she knows it, finally runs out, Faith resorts to the "desperate times, calls for desperate measures" solution, which will have her playing Russian roulette with the Angel of Death. And sooner than later, these episodes will catch up with her so that she will be forced to make some life-altering choices--but will it be too late?

    She creates a secret safe haven and an innovative point system (giving herself points for every bad thing her mother says to her); finds comfort and inspiration from Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl; and gains a support team. Ultimately, Hope is able to confront her mother about her hurtful words and help her begin to change.

    In Williamss gripping debut novel of revenge and redemption, a beautiful young girl fights to escape from a nightmare world of drugs and betrayal.

    Many, including many in the church, have not addressed this form of destruction in families and relationships because it is difficult to talk about. With godly guidance and practical experience, Vernick offers an empathetic approach to recognizing an emotionally destructive relationship and addresses the symptoms and the damage with biblical tools. Readers will understand how to:Reveal behaviors that are meant to control, punish, and hurtConfront and speak truth when the timing is rightDetermine when to keep trying, when to get outGet safe and stay safeBuild an identity in ChristThis practical and thorough resource will help countless individuals, families, and churches view abuse from God's perspective and understand how vital it is for victims to embrace His freedom from the physical, emotional, spiritual, and generational effects of emotionally destructive relationships.

    An I wanted te cry inside meself. I wasn't dead any more, I was lifted away, far away. I can do anythin. I can be somebody, I can be beautiful, I can be gentle, I can be rich, I can smell good. The world is waitin fer me. I can be what I want. Then it ended. An I was back in the room. I opened me eyes slowly an took in everythin aroun me. One day I'll be able te stop this. Nobody will keep me down. I'll work hard, an I'll be at the top, cos I don't want anyone lookin down on me.'Born a bastard to a teenage mother in the slums of 1950s Dublin, Martha has to be a fighter from the very start.As her mother moves from man to man, and more children follow, they live hand-to-mouth in squalid, freezing tenements, clothed in rags and forced to beg for food. But just when it seems things can't get any worse, her mother meets Jackser.Despite her trials, Martha is a child with an irrepressible spirit and a wit beyond her years. She tells the story of her early life without an ounce of self-pity and manages to recreate a lost era in which the shadow of the Catholic Church loomed large and if you didn't work, you didn't eat.Martha never stops believing she is worth more than the hand she has been dealt, and her remarkable voice will remain with you long after you've finished the last line.

    He also saw their amazing ability to survive those unpromising beginnings. In this book, he tells four heartbreaking true stories of damaged children and of his battle to help them.

    Beaten, humiliated and sexually abused by him from the age of six, she thought her life couldn't get worse. But one day it did."I was used to Daddy screaming 'whore's child' at me, over and over again. But I couldn't get used to what he made me do."Anya was too terrified to tell anybody about what her uncle did to her. But then he got careless and started abusing her in front of the other children. When her brothers started calling her a 'whore', Anya cracked and all her terrible secrets came pouring out.Anya had always coped because there was one woman who loved her deeply, her 'Mummy'. But this time love was not enough. One morning 'Mummy' just left.Determined to make a new life, Anya buried her feelings and tried to move on. But when she ended up homeless, living in her car, she knew she had to face her past if she was ever going to find happiness and security again.Top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller, Abandoned is Anya's inspirational story of her fight to find love, acceptance and a place to belong.

    The Johnson children would turn up to school with broken fingers and chipped teeth, but no one ever thought of investigating their home life. Mark just slipped through the cracks, and kept on falling for years. Constantly in trouble at school, Mark began stealing at the age of seven, was drinking by the age of eight, and took his first hit of heroin at eleven. A sensitive, intelligent boy, he could never stay on the right path, and though art college beckoned, he ended up in Portland prison instead. With searing honesty, Wasted documents Mark’s descent into the depths of addiction and criminality. Homeless, hooked on heroin and crack, no one—least of all Mark—believed he would survive. And yet, astonishingly, he somehow pulled himself through, and now runs his own thriving tree surgery business, employing and helping other recovering addicts. His story is at once shocking and inspiring a compelling account of one man’s struggle to save himself, and help save others in the process.

    Now what?As May fits into her new life we meet her friend Pam and her husband Jack - but why is Pam terrified to tell Jack that she's pregnant?And then there's Denis and Bernard, May's next-door neighbours, going about their business oblivious to the deadly threat that lurks close by.There's Paddy, who lives on his own yet never seems to be at home.And Paul, three doors up, willing to risk everything for an affair with Carmel, the young teacher who has yet to learn that there's a price to pay for having something that shouldn't be yours.But what May can't figure out is who gave her the beautiful shell necklace and was it really meant for her?On this one particular week, all is about to change for the inhabitants of Kilpatrick and May discovers that while only love can break your heart, only love can put it back together.

    On a daily basis both Michael and his mother would fall under the man’s wrath, and one awful night Michael’s father began sexually abusing his son, a trend that would continue for years. Worse still, the abuse did not stop at home. Once he began school, Michael fell victim to terrible bullying and a teacher who violated him repeatedly. Despite the horror of these years, Michael was ultimately saved by his own will to live, which inspired him to seek a better life as a friar. This is the remarkable story of an individual who, against all the odds, managed to preserve his own dignity and finally escape the horrors of a stolen childhood.

    But he returned to the profession he loved, and in Last Ditch House he revisits four more cases from his childcare days, using a technique similar to the first book. The narrative is set a year after Wednesday s Child and tells of a summer spent working with four unusual cases for a voluntary child-protection group.Last Ditch House is more complex, richer and a little darker than its predecessor and Shane Dunphy has consciously given more of himself this time, going into his own motivations and feelings in greater detail. The cases recounted here are those of four children from very different aspects of Irish society, each with a unique story to tell.Once again, Shane Dunphy draws on the real-life experience of fifteen years working in child protection, and while these events did not, in reality, happen concurrently, he has woven them together to create a non-fiction book that has the pace, atmosphere and dialogue of a thriller. Yet everything recounted here really happened. These stories - shocking, heart-breaking and inspiring - are all true."

    After a night of drinking, he orders a doll from PETS only, when it arrives, he gets a surprise--he's received a free upgrade to a Living Companion! He does his best to clinically and professionally deal with a Pet that was genetically engineered to be a companion, in every sense of the word, to another man. But when Ichi starts to suspect his new Pet isn't what he seems, his dull little life gets turned upside down.

    Monique morphs into a butch street thug on the outside, but inside a feminine spark still remains.

    Say You Love Me is a powerful, sensitive yet shocking, exploration of the long-lasting traumas caused by parental sexual abuse. Marion Husband's superbly drawn, multi-dimensional characters, loving and hating freely, both fascinate and repel. Ben Walker sets out to trace his father and discover the truth about his adoption in 1968. But the past holds secrets that his brother Mark is desperate to keep. Old hatreds between the brothers are rekindled and their adopted father is made to face his own guilt over the events of that spring of 1968. Pulling no punches, this enthralling, disturbing novel gives the reader a real insight into familial abuse.

    He's smart successful and makes good money. But most of all he's good with her daughter. James has a secret though, a desire he cannot control which ultimately threatens to destroy everything.

    Set amidst the decline of the traditional players, pimps, and smooth hustlers, and the emerging times of the drug lords and their violent methodologies, the streets of Motown finds itself thrust into a cataclysmic battle between the old ways and the new. As the shakedown occurs, new enemies and alliances are made and broken, revenge and double revenge are the order of the day. Masochism and sadism are the tools of the trade. Trust no one, watch everything and pray that your survival instincts kick into high gear. In this town, there are only two things: predators and prey.

    In this insightful and heartfelt account, Sue Owen reveals what happens when a child cannot rely on the family home to be the safe and respectable refuge it should be. Neglected and bullied by her step-mother throughout her formative years, and abused by her father in her teens, Sue somehow survived to tell the tale and have a family of her own. Determined that her own children would grow up in a happy, loving, and stable environment, Sue began facing her demons through counseling. Yet it wasn't enough, she was still haunted by the past and knew that she would never find peace until she confronted her tormentors. Taking her father to court, Sue began a battle which took her extended family to the brink of destruction as they all tried to come to terms with the awful truth.

    Granted extraordinary access by law enforcement agencies worldwide, Sher talks with FBI investigators, Department of Homeland Security, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Interpol, New Scotland Yard, and sex crimes units in Canada and Australia. Drawing on candid jailhouse interviews in penitentiaries, court Confessions, and hidden blogs, Sher exposes the dark underbelly of the Web to reveal how predators isolate and groom their victims; how they use secret Internet chat rooms to swap images of abuse and security tips and tricks to foil the police; and how shady entrepreneurs make millions from the trade of child exploitation material. In riveting detail, we see how clue-by-clue, and image-by-image, investigators use CSI-type techniques and old-fashioned hard detective work to track down the predators. From Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond to a global child protection center in London, England, a new generation of computer technology is being developed to make the web safer for children. Included are the latest tips and resources for parents, children, and teens wanting to ensure safety online.

    SEX. POWER.They seem like opposites: River's a troubled teen who loves to fight; Brian is a piano prodigy who attempted suicide. But together they forge a bond beyond anything they imagined.River and Brian run away with dreams of escaping their abusive homes and exploring the world. But reality hits as they wander the streets of Los Angeles: no money, no food, nowhere to go. Until they meet a stranger who will change their lives forever . . . .Lured into a world of drugs, sex and power; a world of seductive beauty and terrible secrets. Can they escape? Do they want to?

    Presenting first-person accounts, the author of Hope and Recovery probes beyond the headlines to reveal the reality of sexual abuse in the military.

    Blending compelling personal narratives with statistics and expert opinion, all gleaned from over two years of research and reporting, ADDICTION offers a comprehensive and provocative look at the impact of chemical dependency on addicts, their loved ones, society, and the economy. Breaking the stigma that addicts are simply weak and immoral, it delves into new brain research proving that drugs and alcohol change the chemical composition of addicts' brains, making it veritably impossible for them to quit. The nation's top experts persuasively argue that the time has come for the blame to stop and the healing to begin.ADDICTION also features material not included in the documentary: testimonials, original graphics and images, additional elaboration on theories and treatments of addiction, and more. Featuring a foreword by Sheila Nevins, the president of Documentary and Family Programming at HBO, an afterward by the best-selling author Susan Cheever, and the writing of David Sheff, this book is essential reading for anyone who has been impacted by what is now realized to be a very real and widespread disease.

    In the vacant house, she discovers a little boy who is mute. Who is he? Where did he come from? Why is he living there? Gradually, Joanna learns the answers to these questions, and she is determined to find the child's parents before she must return to the city. Deceit grows upon deceit until both their lives are at risk.