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Showing posts from March, 2016

I'm a Survivor: A Recounting of Abuse

A few years ago, I was very surprised when a few of my eighth graders listed A Child Called "It"  (1995) by Dave Pelzer as their favorite book read independently from the previous year. They highly recommended that I read it, too, but when I found out about its subject matter--parental child abuse--I was in no rush to add it to my "To Read" pile. Last January, I came across the Kindle Edition to Sarah Burleton's Why Me?  (2010) and purchased it for $2.99. Up until last month, I avoided reading the book because of its subject matter. When I realized that it was under 120 pages, I decided to read it to remain somewhat on track with CBR8 goals. As a story of abuse, the book fulfills its purpose, for Burleton chronicles a few of the more extreme cases of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her mother while her step-father stood by. As a story meant to inspire other survivors, I'm not sure that goal was accomplished. This is because Burleton's escap