In Service to the Mouse

In Service to the Mouse by Jack Lindquist with Melinda J. Combs was sent to me as an electronic copy in response to a request for review.

This is a light, loving reminiscence of a career working within one of the most public of public companies in the world. It is the chronicle of a man who touched millions of lives and whose influence is easy to understate standing as he did in the shadows of people who saw themselves as larger than life.

My favorite quote from the book is the last paragraph:

But after my 38-year adventure, the principal player who epitomizes the intangible that made it all important, all worthwhile, was that one little guy with the big black ears, the short red pants, and the white four-fingered gloves: Mickey Mouse. He predated Disneyland, and without him, there never would have been other theme parks throughout the world. In all the Disneylands throughout the world, from Tokyo Disneyland to Paris Disneyland and all the places to surely follow, his presence embodies the heart, the soul, the magic, and the promise of the child that dwells within us all. His appeal is universal — without a political or religious agenda — he is loved and accepted by children, seniors, and the young of heart at every age. He is Walt’s greatest creation and his greatest legacy.

And he is my friend.

Four Stars content, Five Stars everything else.

I would give the book five stars all around based solely on what it contains, but having lived in the shadow of the Mouse most of my adult life, my concern is not with the contents of this worthy history, but rather in what was left out. The book is wonderfully well written. It is easy to read and is suitable for use as a middle school history book. It is organized in a logical order, not always chronologically, but deviating from the strict order of events as necessary to put them in their proper context.

I liked the book and enjoyed reading it. Many of the people were familiar and I had even met a few. I stood on the roof of the building where I worked and watched the two Concorde aircraft land together at McCoy Airport (now Orlando International Airport). It was a magnificent site. No other company in the world could have pulled that off. The building where I worked hosted several off-site events for the Disney organization and I knew many people who worked at Disney. Later I worked there as a contractor in convention support for two years while the cruise ships were being built.

All of which brings me to my concern for what is left out. The story of Walt Disney World is incomplete without reference to the convoluted and often contentious relationships with the neighboring governments of Orange, Osceola, Lake and Polk Counties and the cities of Kissimmee and Orlando. The relationship between Disneyland and Anaheim is explored in detail as it should be. The relationships in Central Florida should have been explored in similar detail.

There are stories about the handshake land deal between Jennings Overstreet and Walt Disney that are as much a part of Disney culture as the Mighty Ducks. There are anecdotes about the construction of the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT that should have been included. It would have been refreshing to hear Jack’s side of these stories. Jack has the opportunity to put to rest many of the urban legends about the design of the Magic Kingdom, and I hope he takes the time in another volume to address these legends. How many times did they repaint the bottom of the channel around Tom Sawyer’s island before they got the right color blue?

People who have not been inside the Disney organization may not understand the attitude that we did wonderful and amazing things merely because we could. And we could. The resources I had at my fingertips amazed me then and amaze me now. We could fill a convention ballroom with plants in a few hours. We could get hundreds of balloons on short notice. We had pyro-technicians on call. We could do evening special boat tours on the Seven Seas Lagoon with choirs and entertainment along the way. These were grand and wondrous projects and we did them because we could.

It is this sense of awe that I feel is most missing from the book. In many ways, Jack was a great enabler who provided the resources we needed and yet, he does not seem to be awed by it all. He should be. This was a grand adventure. While Jack gives us the names and places we need to understand what went right and what went wrong, he understates his own importance in these events and does not leave us awed.

At Disney Event Productions where I worked we had an expression. “Never underestimate the power of Pixie Dust.”

This is a good book. It is a fascinating look inside a visionary organization. You should read it, but I look forward to the next one which I hope will be sprinkled with Pixie Dust.

Worthless Boy: A Memoir

Imagine being the outsider amongst a dozen siblings.  You are the one who is eager to fit in and be a good worker like your older brothers, but you are labeled “worthless” by your father.  You yearn for the attention of your mother, but she is too busy raising your younger siblings and attending to the family household.

Imagine being this child in an Amish household, eager for the attention that a young blossoming mind deserves, but lost in a world of religious stronghold and misunderstanding.

This was the childhood of Orva Schrock, and this book, Worthless Boy, is his memoir.  Divided into 2 parts consisting of just seven chapters over 81 pages, Schrock wastes not a word painting a picture of a troubled and disturbed childhood, a boy yearning for the attention of his parents but getting most persecution instead.

The book begins with this sentence: I was born as fuel for hell, or so was the deepest metaphysical understanding I was capable of.

Part 1 of the book begins when Orva is three and traces several concrete moments throughout his childhood and teen years. He longed for the attention of his father, but got mostly verbal and physical abuse which resulted in quite a bit of mental anguish which led to Orva becoming quite the young rowdy boy who acts out for attention.

Add to this the “hardcore” religious beliefs of his Amish upbringing and the move of his large family for better work to keep the family fed. Part 1 ends at his ninth grade year of school, which was also the end of his formal education.

Part 2 is a quick glimpse into the 50 years that have passed as Orva reflects on the death of his father, and spends one whole chapter quoting from various books he has read and which made him a stronger man.

Though the book is very heart wrenching, and impeccably polished when it comes to editing and formatting, it is more of a long essay and carries quite a hefty price for a book that is under 100 pages and hard cover.  But, our stories are not always full of detail with long drawn out pictures. Such is the joy of self-publishing, and this is Orva’s story.

Yes China!

In 1949, China’s peasantry, more than 80% of the population, was still largely individualistic, illiterate, superstitious and lived in extreme poverty. Fast forward to the early 21st century and we may understand how much China has changed in the sixty-three years since then.  Today, more than 90% are literate and learning English is mandatory in China’s public schools.

“Yes China” by Clark Nielsen is an honest memoir written by a young American going to China to teach English in an alien and foreign culture. Nielsen pulls no punches in describing himself and his experiences teaching ESL in China, and is not shy when it comes to scorching himself and his former religion in the process.

In fact, his vivid descriptions of teaching in China reminded me of my three decades as an English and Journalism teacher in US public schools.

In the late 1970s, I worked as a substitute teacher and the descriptions of the first classes Nielsen taught reminded me too much of the American grade school, then middle school and eventually high school students I taught 1975 – 2005.

For example, in 1977, I was a substitute teacher in Southern California and as the fifth-grade students I taught one day—and never to see again—flooded into the classroom at the beginning of school, one boy saw me, squealed “Sub!” and then started to chase and pummel other students while knocking over desks as if having a substitute teacher was a ticket to mayhem.

I suspect that the young Chinese students Nielsen first taught may have had similar thoughts when they saw his foreign face.

Like Nielsen, I had classes I loved to teach and others I hated to face each day, and this went on for the thirty years I was a classroom teacher.

I hate to say this but the old phrase, “kids will be kids” has a ring of truth to it even though I hate hearing it since many parents seem to use it as an excuse to do nothing to correct unacceptable behavior.

From Nielsen’s vivid descriptions of the behavior of Chinese grade-school students, I discovered that there is little difference between America’s children and China’s — it seems that “kids will be kids” in any country/culture  if the parents allow them to behave as if they were wild animals and/or barbarians.

However, similar to my experience as a teacher, Nielsen also found gold in some of his students. In fact, the last semester he taught in China, he fought back tears as he said goodbye to one of his good classes.

There are also vivid scenes, from his foreign perspective, of what it must be like to live and work in a developing country where more than a billion people still live in poverty.  Before 1949, the average life span in China was age thirty-five. When Nielsen arrived to teach ESL, that number had changed drastically. Today, the average lifespan is 73, and less than 3% live in severe poverty.

China is a developing country on steroids and Nielsen’s experiences in China reflect that. For this reason, when wanting to discover what it is like to move from a Western culture such as America’s to an alien and foreign land, it is best to read more than one memoir on that subject for a better perspective.

http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Cause-Janet-Elaine-Smith/dp/1935188143/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333046697&sr=1-1

For example, I found “Yes China” an interesting contrast to Janet Elaine Smith’s memoir, “Rebel With a Cause”. While Nielson rejected and abandons his Mormon religion, Smith went abroad to spend nine years as an evangelical missionary in Venezuela. She was not a Mormon and her motives were almost the exact opposite of Nielsen’s.

Before becoming an expatriate, Smith worked with Native Americans and Latinos in the US, so the culture shock was not as great, and Nielsen did not work with people living in extreme poverty as Smith did.

However, Smith was not prepared for the extreme poverty of most of the people the mission she was with were serving, and, unlike Nielsen, she used teaching English to become more of a part of the culture.

Smith was “warned” by her superiors not to minister to the wealthy class, as they would never accept the gospel. Nielsen probably worked mostly with children of middle class and wealth parents in urban China.

When Smith was approached by a bank president, a physician, a teacher and a government officer to teach them English, she took the open door as a “sign” from God and defied the orders and held free English classes out of her home.

For a richer experience and to understand the culture she was living in, she exchanged the English lessons for Spanish classes to help her learn the local vernacular of Spanish and the customs of the Venezuelan people—something Nielsen and most Western/American ESL teachers in China do not do. Instead, they arrive in China ready to criticize anything different that does not fit the Western lifestyle they are used to.

For Smith, this different attitude paid off. Later, when Smith needed help for paper work, cashing checks, medical care, etc. Venezuelans were available to help her, while her American Evangelical overseers struggled trying to find such help.

Although Nielsen meets his future wife in China—a Chinese citizen—and they both live in Utah today, I doubt that he truly understood or embraced the Chinese culture as Smith did in Venezuela due to the differences in how they approached their experiences as expatriates teaching English in a foreign land—a developing and/or third world country, which is very different from being a citizen in North America.  In Smith’s memoir, I do not sense the love-hate relationship that Nielsen had with China. He seems to have no purpose for going there to teach English other than some need to rebel and escape Mormon Utah where he grew up.

In fact, Nielsen’s passages that paint an unflattering picture of Mormonism reveal his true motive for going to China. I felt as if Nielsen fled to China to escape the reaction of his Mormon friends and peers after he let them know he wasn’t going to go out as a missionary, which is expected of all Mormons, and in spite of himself, once he arrived in China, he found more acceptance from the Chinese than he did in Utah. After all, he came home with a Chinese wife and that was not the reason he went to China.

Reviewed by author Bob Cherny

Eleanor Roosevelt’s impact on current American culture is easy to underestimate. This book puts her back in her rightful place in her historical era as well as pointing out the initiatives she started that continue to this day. In spite of the power of her words and the strength of the coalitions she assembled, the battles she fought continue to be fought.

The book is liberally supplemented with quotes from Eleanor like this one, “I think the day of selfishness is over; the day of really working together has come, and we must learn to work together all of us, regardless of race or creed or color… We go ahead together or we go down together…” This comment is as relevant today as it was when she made it half a century ago.

Anne Atkins’ prose is literate, and yet easy to read, with an understanding of which issues that were as topical when Eleanor dealt with them as they are today. It is this ability to make one of the greatest women in American history as contemporary as any woman on today’s political scene that gives the book its greatest power.

This quote comes from early in the book:

Are these “the good old days” if life expectancy is a brief forty-five years? Millions die each year of infectious diseases and thirty-five thousand die every year in industrial accidents. There is no workers’ compensation, no unemployment pay and no insurance. Severance pay is given because something at work got severed—a hand or a foot. In any arena Eleanor fights injustice and perseveres against overwhelming odds and chilling cruelties. Like Wonder Woman in support hose, she will win battles on the local, the national and the global scale. Her life is an example of moral courage and she becomes internationally known as “First Lady of the World.”

First, she must survive her childhood.

Anne varies her tempo, her writing style and her pacing as appropriate to the events in Eleanor’s life she is describing and at the same time keeps the work simple enough to use as a middle school or high school text book. While this is hardly the most erudite writing I have ever seen, it is solid, competent and conveys its message in a way that makes it read as smoothly as a mainstream novel.

One of the most difficult tasks for a biographer is to put the subject in their historical context and then draw the results of the subject’s actions into the present day. This is the book’s greatest strength. It is not the be-all-and-end-all in-depth biography of Eleanor Roosevelt with mountains or original research and hundreds of footnotes, but it is an open and accessible work that pays homage to one of the greatest women in American history.

The book is liberally illustrated with photographs which are carefully chosen to support the text. For the most parts these work, but their effectiveness is limited in some cases by the quality of the originals. There are a few photos that I am not sure I would have included, but even those do help further the story although not as much as some others.

The sidebar quotes are both an enhancement and a distraction. As with the photos, while I agree with the inclusions of most of them, I am not convinced some of the others belonged as sidebars and not in the body of the text. From the thousands of quotes and photos available, choosing the few to use must have been a mind-numbing task, but the final effect is solid and helps illuminate the written words.

I recommend this book for anyone over the age of fourteen who cares about where America is headed.

Craig Machen is a bad boy, or was a bad boy (if you can ever really shake that persona).  It’s not entirely his fault, though.  Rather, it is a result of a series of unfortunate life circumstances that led him to be self-destructive.  Sex, drugs, rock and roll, and strippers.  ‘Still Life With Brass Pole’ has it all- in excess.  It is a drug and alcohol-induced road trip on which Machen takes the reader in this coming-of-age memoir.

It is a well written, at times funny, at times heartbreaking story of a boy thrown into an adult world far too early.  Machen has created an honest narrative without romanticizing parts in order to make himself look better.  He tells us about his drug and alcohol abuse, and less than reputable lifestyle brought on by abuse and neglect in his childhood.  However, this is never an excuse, as he points out that he knows he did not make the best decisions at times.

Machen examines the life of those involved in strip clubs and what generally leads them there.  It is a way of gaining acceptance and control in a life that has never offered such before.  As he deconstructs the sex industry, is becomes apparent that he knows his place within it and that he never really accepts it.  He notes of men and women in the industry,  “[...] most of us wouldn’t have come this way if things had been different.”  His fascination and attraction to strippers is a result of what quickly becomes an apparent need to save the damsels in distress so he can postpone focusing on his own needs a bit longer.

The one thing that seems to pull the author out of his downward spiral is his interest in bodybuilding.  He works so hard on his body and musters up enough focus to win Mr. Teen Arizona, which becomes his crowning achievement.  During the times that bodybuilding is his main focus, he is able to give up drugs and alcohol, only to become reliant on steroids.  As notice for his impressive physique grows, so does his pride in knowing that he created it with his own determination, and issues of his views of masculinity begin to surface.

Machen’s search for love, acceptance, and identity merge together when he meets one woman that makes it all seem worth it.  She is the one female in his life that does not need him to save her, rather she holds him up as he learns how to save himself.  As he learns who he is and wants to become, she is there to support him through the bumpy ride.  It is the first time in his life that he seems to feel true acceptance and what a healthy relationship really is.

‘Still Life With Brass Pole’ is a story of falling down and getting back up- repeatedly.  He delves into many themes and looks beneath the surface of the lives of those involved in addiction, strip clubs, bodybuilding, adoption, and the cycle of abuse.  In this dynamic tale of exploration, Machen weaves his way through binges, strip clubs, and girls that need saving- at least, he wants to try to save them.  What he finally discovers is that he is the one that needs saving, and only he can save himself.

Visit Craig Online!

Imagine life is pretty good!  Yeah, you’ve got bills to pay and kids to clothe and feed.  But overall, it’s pretty good.  You’ve got a spouse, a family, a house, a job, a car…outside of the day to day stresses, you can’t complain much.

You’ve done pretty good for yourself.  And then a wrench gets thrown in the gears of that well oiled machine called life and messes everything up.

That’s exactly what happened to Benjamin Carey when he began suffering from fatigue and his wife encouraged him to have a physical done.  Ben was fit – a college athlete – and knew there couldn’t be anything wrong.

His doctor encourages him to have a stress test done, and that’s when Ben discovers he has an enlarged aorta – an aortic aneurysm that could shut him down at any moment.  It’s that wrench I mentioned that messes up life, and open heart surgery is the only choice Ben has.

Barefoot in November is Ben’s memoir of the year that followed.  It begins right from his doctor’s discovery and takes us through every step, up until a full year after the surgery when Ben runs an NY marathon on the anniversary.  There are even journal entries in the book from his wife that were recorded when Ben was having his surgery.

The book is a quick read and is dedicated to John Ritter, who died from an aortic aneurysm.  There are also some photos of Ben and his family, although they are a bit small and grainy. It’s a very inspiring read for those who may be suffering from heart problems, or for anyone who enjoys a good real life “survivor” story.

The only set back (and it’s a minor one) for me was that the first chapter is 115 pages long.  The few chapters that round out the rest of the book are much smaller, so I would have liked to have seen the majority of the book broken up into smaller chunks as well.  There are also headers on the blank pages in between chapters, but the editing of the book overall is not bad.

Kudos to Ben for sharing his story with the world and shedding light on the subject.  As his opening pages say, “It’s only as bad as you make it.”  And by telling our stories we encourage and inspire, and remind people that we are not alone.  Ben was (is) a strong man and had the will to survive and make it through, but he also had the love and support of friends and family which is often what makes a heart beat anyway.

365 and a Wake-Up
By Frank Jolliff
Published by Harmonie Park Press
Copyright © 2010
ISBN: 978-0899901527
392 pages
$16.95 at Amazon.com

Compared to the intense dramas of films like Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, and so on, Frank Jolliff’s memoir, 365 and a Wake-Up, paints a relatively benign picture of the Vietnam War. That contributes to both its strengths and its drawbacks.

This chronological narrative of the author’s, “most exciting two years of my life,” opens in January, 1967, with him getting hustled onto a bus for a year of training. A single chapter efficiently covers the conspicuously unemotional sending off, as well as the subsequent twelve months of preparation.

The subsequent 370 pages or so (almost exactly one page per day in Vietnam) chronicle Frank’s and his platoon’s operations and movements. Whether engaged in firefights, attending to the wounded, crossing leech-filled creeks, pulling pranks, picking up girls on leave, suffering dreary night watches, or frustrated by army’s bureaucracies, we’re there with Frank. Fortunately, he is a capable guide:

Soon orders came over the lieutenant’s radio: “Go in and sweep the target area.” The word passed down the line. Helmets were adjusted, straps were tightened, and one by one we marched into the thicket. There we formed back into squads and scrambled into four lines, 10 to 20 meters apart. We had been moving for about twenty minutes when above the thick canopy a low rumble began emanating, then little by little grew louder. The thump-thump staccato of the medevac chopper was heard before it was seen. Soon the casualties from the downed chopper would be airlifted. I sadly wondered how many had died and if they’d suffered. Back below the greenery, blood trails were found and followed. Step by step the brush revealed more of the damage caused by our air assault—a bloody sandal, then a crimson stained shirt. Suddenly our point man and his slack man opened up into the distance. The squad stopped. “What you got?” a voice asked.

Plenty of interesting detail is offered and great care has been taken in ensuring factual completeness and accuracy, including a chart identifying the members of the “2nd Platoon of Charlie Co., 39th Infantry, 9th Division,” of which Frank was the medic. A cast of characters, albeit with some of the names changed. A concise glossary provides useful translations of the soldier-ese used throughout.

Noticeably absent, though, a sense of the platoon’s overall purpose or role in the war. They get deployed here and there as needed, often like a mop-up relief pitcher in baseball. Frank and the other draftees don’t seem to care, more concerned about putting in their ‘365’ before the wake-up to get on the plane home. As such, little is offered in the way of political opinion; there is complaining but no hint of the bitterness of being wronged. For a rather naïve twenty-year-old draftee from Michigan such as Frank, this is understandable. But it does give a sense of something missing. At least we coudl have read more about how the experience impacted his life and how he truly feels about the war as a mature adult, maybe even comparing his Vietnam experience to current conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The writing is straightforward and mostly unsentimental, with a warm but matter-of-fact tone throughout. It flows nicely and the pacing is good. Descriptions of the countryside are particularly well done; one gets the impression of Vietnam as a beautiful lush place, interspersed with the ugliness of a war. The chapters are episodic yet we still feel the passage of time of the year as it goes on. If the author used creative licence to effect this, i.e. by shifting the chronology of events, then bravo. The reward of readability for those of us who weren’t there definitely outweighs the need for verisimilitude.

Where the writing doesn’t work well for me is in the dialogue, which is generally weak, seeming to exist only to provide variety from long stretches of narrative. The silly scene in Sydney with the French fries / chips mix-up could have been skipped. Such scenes are common and even important in memoirs, I suppose, although I don’t care for them myself.

These events took place more than 40 years ago and the author demonstrates enough objective distances to relate this important phase of his life with equanimity. That give is it a refreshingly positive perspective, even if at the price of diluting the intensity of some of the harrowing situations, and the occasional corny and self-indulgent passages. And so for me these strengths easily outshine the drawbacks.

As I think back to what I learned from reading S. Stanley’s memoirs and I contemplate how this review should begin, I recall a commercial for Google Chrome which highlights Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Organization, providing positive and encouraging messages for gay youth.

Several videos in the series were posted by gay seniors doting that “It gets better with age!” Truer words were never spoken when it comes to describing Gordon’s autobiography entitled My Two Wives and Three Husbands.

As the title suggests, Gordon did not always recognize as being gay. Questioning, yes, his entire life.  He knew he was gay early on but already received enough criticism for being Jewish.

So, he dated women to cover up the latter. He did marry and attempt to settle into heterosexual relationships with women – once out of love and once out of convenience – and even fathered a child. From here, Gordon’s life plays out like theatrics on a stage. Quite literally.

You may not recognize his name right away, but Gordon was a very successful optometrist in the beginning, creating the chain of offices that would eventually become known as Pearle Vision after he sold it. The money from the sale of his business allowed him to pursue a life long dream in theater. Success again! He becomes a producer across the globe from New York to London.

I will refrain from the stereotypical banter of gays involved in theater here, though Gordon doesn’t! His book is filled with delicious gossip from on and off the stage, and in and out of the bedroom.

It is when the author meets his current husband of 16 years, Joe Henry, that Gordon’s search for romance comes to a satisfied climax (pun intended) and only then can the curtain come down.

But this book isn’t just some old queen’s tales of the way it was back then. It is about a determination to succeed in life – in business and in love – while staying true to yourself and to who you are.  And now, Gordon stays true to his readers. If you are out there and you are gay and you need words of encouragement more than ever, seek out this book!

Even if you aren’t gay and would just like a positive message filled with laughs and love, then Gordon’s life story is for you.

Jana Pryor witnessed it all.  Her grandmother, Jane, suffered for 5 years from Alzheimers and Jana was her caretaker for every day of it.  The book is Jane’s eye witness account.  Told in 9 chapters, a quick 90 pages, Jana takes you through each slow stage from beginning to end.

Jana states in the beginning that she is not an expert or licensed nurse; her book is based on her personal thoughts and memories.  Sadly, that’s what gives it such a raw and personal edge.  While Jana doesn’t literally try to touch your heartstrings you can’t help but get emotional as she details everyday occurrences with her grandmother.

We begin with a quick chapter on how life was with Grandma Jane before the disease.  She gives you some of Jane’s background and where she came from.  She introduces you to her sons and siblings, Jane’s fetish for clothing and costume jewelry. We see Jane learning to drive and getting her license for the first time in her sixties after she loses a son.  Pryor gives a brief synopsis of the sixties, seventies, and eighties in Jane’s life.  Life was good.

In Chapter two, Jane is getting older and has been losing her friends and family to death, including her love Robert.  Jane seems “blank” at times, but her family considers that it is probably just old age.  After Jana becomes her caregiver, she introduces us to signs of the early, middle, late, and severe stages of the disease as Jane worsens.

Jana begins each chapter with an informational paragraph about Alzheimers or healthcare before going into Jane’s story. Her opinion on nursing homes and how they need to be reformed at  the beginning of Chapter 8 is quite an eye opener. We truly do not respect our elderly, but our country also does not make it affordable to take care of them either.

The one and only thing I did not like about this book is that Jana refers to herself in the third person, so it’s almost as if someone else is telling the story.  While this is already a very teary heart-felt account, it probably would have been even more personal had Jana told it from the first person POV.

I highly recommend this book if you have an elderly loved one in your life -whether they are suffering with Alzheimers or not.  Professional caregivers, nurses, and nursing home attendants: this is an excellent resource for your patient’s families. Let Jane’s story and memory be told!

Having considered becoming a foster parent just last year, I was more than willing to read and review Dennis Harris’s book, Foster Child.  It is the true account of the author growing up as a ward of the state. Dennis was born in DC and became an orphan at a very early age when his working Mom could no longer afford to take care of him.  Unfortunately for him, he remained in a city operated orphanage for much of his youth until he eventually entered foster care.

Dennis writes about that wall that kids like this often put up which is almost impossible for social workers to break though, much less foster parents.  Foster children are angry on the inside.  And rightfully so!  They suffer from low self-esteem and have feelings of abandonment.  But despite the emotional issues and anger, they are expected to show this persona of being a happy stable child if they want to get a family and have a home.

And maybe things don’t work out so the foster parent turns them away and they are right back where they started.  This book is Dennis’s confession.  It’s a personal look at the inside, not just inside the orphanage and inside foster care, but also inside Dennis’s mind as he experiences all of this first hand.

As you can guess, Dennis didn’t just have emotional problems.  He also fell victim to drug abuse.  However, his rocky road through life takes a quick turn when he enters high school and meets his future wife, Peaches. The last portion of this quick read shows Dennis climbing out of that gutter he’d come to accept in life and entering a world of love and success – financially and emotionally.  Dennis and Peaches have children of their own and even open their home to several foster children.

As Dennis states near the end of the book, Sometimes you just need to let go of those things that bring you down, hold you back and keep you stuck. No matter what either of my parents might have said to me, the words could not change my past.  It happened. And it happened to me – and to them. And each of us, in our individual lives, had overcome burdens, physical and emotional, to arrive where we were.

At barely 120 pages, Dennis tells it like it is.  As I said before, this book is his confession and he is a magnificent storyteller.  I could just envision sitting down with him one day and listening to him tell me this story.  It’s a guide book for any foster child or orphan out there who is lost and not listening.  Dennis is warm and honest and I can only imagine how strong of a man he must be today thanks to his willingness to want to better himself despite the cards life dealt him.

I would encourage any social worker or foster parent to add Mr. Harris’s book to your library.  It is not a directive to tell you how to make a child’s life better, but it is an inspiration to make a child want to make their own life better and as it says on the cover, find the courage to succeed.