With the narrative force of an epic novel and the urgency of first-rate investigative journalism, this important book delves into the daily workings and life-or-death decisions of a typical American family court system. It provides an intimate look at the lives of the parents and children whose fate it decides. A must for social workers and social work students, attorneys, judges, foster parents, law students, child advocates, teachers, journalists and anyone who cares about our nation's children.

From the author of Sunday Times bestsellers One Child and Ghost Girl comes a heartbreaking story of one teacher's determination to turn a chaotic group of damaged children into a family.

With the narrative force of an epic novel and the urgency of first-rate investigative journalism, this important book delves into the daily workings and life-or-death decisions of a typical American family court system. It provides an intimate look at the lives of the parents and children whose fate it decides. A must for social workers and social work students, attorneys, judges, foster parents, law students, child advocates, teachers, journalists and anyone who cares about our nation's children.

"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.

Having grown up in a privileged environment, private school student Willa witnesses the tragic collision between the private difficulties of her biological and adoptive families, a situation that is further challenged by the indiscretions of her headmaster and a feminist sculptor's reckless affair. 60,000 first printing.

An illustrated collection of poems and brief tales on a variety of subjects.

A wise, tender, and funny summer adventure story from one of Canada's most beloved writers for children. On a flight from Vancouver to Toronto, two girls meet, forming an unlikely friendship. Tall, athletic Samantha is going to spend the summer with a family friend while her father is in South America. Alexis, a shy girl who likes books, is being sent to a horse farm to learn how to ride while her mother and stepfather are travelling in Australia. As they talk, Sam and Alex realize they'd each rather be doing what the other is: Sam's elderly hostess runs a bookshop, and the family Alex is staying with is young and boisterous. By the time their flight lands in Toronto, the girls have hatched their plot. They're going to trade places for the summer. After all, the people they're going to visit have never met them, and their own parents are far away and hard to contact. But will they manage to pull it off? For how long? And with what consequences?