
Sparkle's Story
Thrown Away Children, Book 8
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Narrated by:
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Melanie Crawley
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By:
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Louise Allen
About this listen
Louise gets a frantic call to take in a damaged and destructive young girl. Separated from her siblings, Sparkle is hostile and angry.
A short while after settling in, Sparkle begins to identify as pansexual. A revolution is underway in the Allen household, with Sparkle's transition motivating all of the young people to explore what becoming an adult means for them.
But it's Sparkle's escalating behaviour that causes concern.
Discovering a dark fact about Sparkle's birth and the shocking events that the children in her house were part of, Louise is desperate for more help--and not just for the child in her care. As Sparkle's erratic and violent behaviour increases, Louise finds herself and her home life under serious threat.
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absolutely brilliant!
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Hard to follow
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I hope the grandparents did provide Sparkle the support and love she/they needed.
Such a sad story
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love her stories she draws you in
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Now, after saying that, let me also say, that even with training and a heart full of love for children (I am a long time elementary school teacher who has seen enough to last a life time when it comes to kids), I admire Mrs. Allen’s love and patience for these children whose hearts and psyches have been so terribly damaged.
I am afraid though that in one area Mrs. Allen and I would approach things in very different ways. I would be sympathetic and understanding for a foster child in my home — TO A POINT.
No child living in my home would EVER get away with telling me (or my husband or my own children) to “F**K off or to call me a C**T, a B***H or to call my husband a dirty B*****D!” especially not when they are an ELEVEN-year-old. Nor would they be allowed to hit me or any other member of the family. No child is going to hold me hostage in my own home, or to have my entire family walking on eggshells because everyone is living in fear of setting the child off. No eleven-year-old (not one who is living under my roof, eating the food I provide and accepting the kindness I and my family extend to them) is going to tell me WHEN they are going out and when they are returning home and they sure wouldn’t be allowed to cause massive destruction in my home in a fit of anger. If my own kids can’t act in a certain way, a foster kid wouldn’t be allowed to either.
I believe this is where Mrs. Allen went wrong with Sparkle. As a teacher of many years, it has been my experience that children NEED rules and expectations. A child will live up (or down) to the expectations the adults in their lives place in front of them. This is especially important for children who come from homes like Sparkle’s. Children, whether they will admit it or not, feel that rules and expectations ANCHOR them. Without them, they feel as if they are in free fall. I have had many children tell me that they know their parents love them BECAUSE they care enough to put rules in place and to enforce them; without those things, they feel their parents don’t care about them.
Of course, when working with children like Sparkle, rules and the enforcement of them isn’t “one size fits all.” What works with one child doesn’t necessarily work with another. It takes many people working cohesively as a team in the best interest of the child to make progress in helping the child overcome their past traumas and begin to heal.
This is where a team of social workers, doctors and specialists come into play. Throughout this story, I was left shaking my head when it came to the absolute abandonment of Sparkle and the Allen’s by the foster care system. The whole system and how the Allen’s even ended up with Sparkle was an absolute farce. Forged paperwork (really?!), inexperienced case workers drowning under a workload of 30+ children when their caseloads should be half of that and caseworkers so interested in making themselves look good that they are willing to sacrifice a little girl’s mental health to do it? Shameful. Thank goodness Mrs. Allen is such a thorough record keeper. It’s the only way to protect oneself.
As for this whole business of groups having to constantly “identify” themselves on every single form, I think it’s all getting out of hand. If every specialized group in the world wants recognition on every form, we are going to need a lot more letters in the alphabet. Frankly, I was confused in places in the book with the whole “them/they” thing. Mrs. Allen was right in that it’s very hard to change a lifetime of speech patterns and “they/them” completely breaks all the grammar rules we were all taught as children beginning in kindergarten.
Why can’t we just eliminate ALL identifications on forms and leave ONE box that’s marked “human” and leave it at that? It’s no one’s business HOW I identify myself and I am really not interested in knowing how total strangers identify themselves… If absolutely necessary, the powers that be that creates forms could have a box marked “Sex,” and two boxes after that to choose from: “YES, PLEASE!” or “Not today, thanks.” 😉😉😉
As always, LOVED the narrator in this book! I highly recommend this book to others.
SUCH RESPECT FOR THE ALLEN’S, YET SUCH MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT SPARKLE’S STORY…
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Liberalism
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Hardest one to listen to so far
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very descriptive
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Always an intense listen.
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Fabulous book by Mrs Louise Allen!
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