Non-fiction

In relating the story of how she was misdiagnosed as retarded rather than deaf and mistreated at home and at an institution, Bolander writes: "I sincerely hope that this book will help other children with as-yet undiagnosed hearing problems be spared the horrors I experienced."  (A/YA)

One rainy day in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch's mother, too sick to care for him, left him at an orphanage, saying only, "I'll be right back." She never returned. Shuttled through a series of foster homes and institutions, he never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend. Instead, Jennings clung to a tattered stuffed animal, his sole source of warmth in a frightening world. This is the poignant story of his lost childhood. But it is also the triumphant tale of a boy who finally gained the courage to reach out for love - and found it waiting for him.  (A/YA)

To escape the horror of violent abuse, the two-year-old child "went to sleep" and created the inner world of "the Troops, " the 92 voices that shielded her from pain, but that she didn't know existed until adulthood. This is a journey through the fragmented world of the multiple personality - told by the Troop.  (A/YA)

Munchausen by proxy describes those who inflict or invent illness in others, often family members. The author, an advocate for MBP victims, grew up with a mother who used her little girl to get attention. Gregory recounts, in sometimes excruciating detail, frequent visits to doctors (her mother would coach her on how to act sick), near-constant emotional abuse, and, most distressing, her mother's strategies to induce illness in her daughter. A deeply unsettling portrait of a bizarre and frequently fatal illness.  (A/YA)

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.  (A/YA)

It's the mid-1980s, and Julia and her adopted brother David have just moved to rural Indiana, a landscape of cottonwood trees and trailer parks - and a racism neither of them is prepared for. While Julia is white, her close relationship with David, who's black, makes them both outcasts. At home, a distant mother and a violent father only compound their problems. When the day comes that high-school hormones, racist brutality, and a deep-seated restlessness prove too much to bear, their parents' solution is reform school - in the Dominican Republic.  (A/YA)

In this powerful memoir, Wayne Theodore recalls a long history of childhood abuse and neglect, of dropping out of high school, dabbling in drugs, drifting from one low-skill job to another, and suffering violent tendencies of his own. A brother's inquiries prompt Wayne's memories, and he goes in search of documents to substantiate what he remembers. Reading his family's case files sets him on a recovery course that ends with a nationally televised confrontation with his parents.  (A/YA)

Labeled deaf, retarded, disturbed and insane, Donna Williams lived in a world of her own. Alternating between rigid hostility and extroversion, she waged what she termed her "war against the world." She existed in a dreamlike state, parroting the voices of those around her in the hope that they would leave her alone. It was not until the age of twenty-five that Donna discovered the word - autism - that would at last give her the opportunity to understand herself.  (A/YA)

Fiction

Eric and Sarah have been friends since junior high, when his weight and her scars made them outcasts. In high school, Eric has slimmed and Sarah doesn't let being an outsider hurt her. Now she sits silent in a hospital. Can Eric uncover her secret before it puts them both in danger?  (J,S)

Suppressed memories of childhood sexual abuse resurface, jeopardizing fifteen-year-old Kate's relationship with her new boyfriend.  (J,S)

Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful, but shallow classmate and other problems at school.  (J,S)

For Charlie, the basement is home. He's being punished. He doesn't mean to leave - Father wouldn't allow it - but when Charlie is accidentally thrust outside, he awakens to the alien surroundings of a world to which he's never been exposed. Though haunted by fear of the basement and his father's rage, Charlie embarks on a journey toward healing and blossoms when he becomes an unconditionally loved and loving member of the right foster family.  (M,J)

Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.  (J,S)