Best Selling Books by Torey L. Hayden

Features a narrative of an extraordinary teacher''s determination. This work is an illustration of nurturing concern, not only for a few emotionally-disturbed children, but for one woman facing a personal battle.

Sheila was wild, unreachable, abused--and a genius. She ws a child lost until a brilliant young teacher reached out.

"Were all just somebody else''s kids..." A small seven-year-old boy who couldn''t speak except to repeat weather forecasts and other people''s words...A beautiful little girl of seven who had been brain damaged by terrible parental beatings and was so ashamed because she couldn''t learn to read...A violently angry ten-year-old who had seen his stepmother murder his father and had been sent from one foster home to another ...A shy twelve-year-old from a Catholic school which put her out when she became pregnant... "What do we matter?" "Why do you care?" They were four problem children-put in Torey Hayden''s class because no one else knew what to do with them. Together, with the help of a remarkable teacher who cared too much to ever give up, they became almost a family, able to give each other the love and understanding they had found nowhere else.

"Seven year old Venus Fox never spoke, never listened, never even acknowledged the presence of another human being in the room with her. Yet an accidental playground ''bump'' would release a rage frightening to behold. The school year that followed would prove to be one of the most trying, perplexing, and ultimately rewarding of Torey''s career, as she struggled to reach a silent child in obvious pain and remained committed to helping a ''hopeless'' girl, and patiently and lovingly leading her towards the light of a new day." -back cover.

Bestselling author Torey Hayden''s novel is a fascinating study of a fractured family, a troubled child, and a psychiatrist''s attempts to rescue them. Conor, aged nine, arrives in the play therapy room of child psychiatrist James Innes with the diagnosis "autistic". His mother Laura, an aloof, enigmatic novelist, can''t handle him. His rancher father, embroiled in divorcing Laura, does not feel there is anything wrong with Conor. His six year old sister Morgana insists he really does see ghosts. As James becomes convinced Conor is not autistic, he is drawn first into Conor''s strange world of "things the cat knows" and then into Morgana''s stories of her friend the "Lion King". James is pulled most deeply, however, into Laura''s world; at first that of a lonely, rather difficult woman and then, eventually, into the world of her imagination, an enthralling world that seems almost real - and that hides a terrible secret.

David has never had a permanent home or a real friend, but when he decides to try to hatch an owl egg with the help of a classmate, his life slowly begins to change for the better.

A memoir of three people''s victimization and abuse - and their heartbreaking but ultimately successful steps to recovery, with the help of Torey Hayden, an educational psychologist and author.

His name was Kevin but his keepers called him Zoo Boy. He didn''t talk. He hid under tables and surrounded himself with a cage of chairs. He hadn''t been out of the building in the four years since he''d come in. He was afraid of water and wouldn''t take a shower. He was afraid to be naked, to change his clothes. He was nearly 16. Desperate to see change in the boy, the staff of Kevin''s adolescent treatment center hired Hayden. As Hayden read to him and encouraged him to read, crawling down into his cage of chairs with him, Kevin talked. Then he started to draw and paint and showed himself to have a quick wit and a rolling, seething, murderous hatred for his stepfather.

Ziji the dog loves to chase pigeons in the park-- until he meets Nico, who teaches him the benefits of meditation.

Recounting her experiences with Jadie, a student in her class, a teacher describes how she persuaded Jadie to break her silence and reveal the family secrets that were plaguing her. By the author of One Child. Reprint.