Books are Medicine for the soul. ~Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes
This is not a book review. Rather it is how much a book can leave a mark on you and one such book is Beautiful Child by Torey Hayden - Child psychologist, special education teacher, university lecturer and writer of non-fiction books based on her real-life experiences with teaching and counseling children with special needs.
Have you ever read a book by an author only to find by the end of it craving to read up all books ever written by the author? That’s exactly how I felt when I read a Torey Hayden book. I read just two of them – Beautiful child and Twilight Children. Both the books have made me search frantically for the rest of her books to chew and digest, which unfortunately I have not been able to lay my hands on here in Bangalore, India, but I won’t rest till I get hold of them!.
The books have a dozen reviews all over the internet so I wouldn’t elaborate them here too much. It is the impact of reading such books is what I want to talk about. Also, to come across a person like Torey, even though I haven’t met her and may never will, it's great to know her - even if it is only through words and maybe an occasional picture.
There is a saying that books are extremely dangerous and the BEST books should carry a warning that says, “This book could change your life.” I felt like a totally new person and learned lessons just by reading Torey's books – on patience, on expectations, on children, their endearing spirits, on teaching, on love, on experiences that needs to be read to be understood and on the complexities of human mind. Reading Beautiful Child, I was transported into Torey’s classroom and lived each moment page by page.
Beautiful Child: “Venus never spoke, never listened, and 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, turning the little girl into a whirling dynamo of dangerous malice. Of the five children in Torey's classroom that September, Venus posed the greatest challenge-though the other four had serious problems of their own that could not be overlooked.” Sources http://www.torey-hayden.com/
Torey walked in and worked with all the children, gave them hope and a future when the rest of the world would have walked out on them. In my opinion, if Venus was the beautiful child, I would say Torey is the beautiful woman.
Reading this book not only made me appreciate about how well it was written or how good is Torey’s work with children, it went a lot deeper than that and I found myself really grateful to have a pair of eyes so that I could experience the joy of reading such a wonderful book.
Very few books have the power to sell you a whole new life and Beautiful Child is one of them.
