Tiger's Child Book

I remember reading this story as a child and being engrossed in it. It's reminiscent of "A child called It" because of its extreme depiction of a child in severe abuse and neglect.

Reading again as an adult and as an educator who works with at risk children I was horrified. The story is a memoir written by a special ed teacher. She clearly wants to be praised and lauded for her amazing breakthrough with Sheila but all I could think was that Sheila needed to be put into foster care. She was clearly being abused and neglected, there many warning signs such as the lack of hygiene, her rages, hell the visit to her home. I was baffled as to why Sheila did not seem to be getting any sort of psychological evaluation for hurting the little boy. Even Torey said she didn't want to ask.

Worst was when Sheila was sexually assaulted and much is made of how brave Sheila was and how she was so strong...but there was no mention of her getting therapy or being removed from her family's home. At the end it's considered a triumph that she cried because she was remembering her trauma. It wasn't a triumph. It was a sign that she was hurting was going to have a lot of pain to work through.

I have not read the equal but apparently in it Torey tracks Sheila down because her book has been a success and readers were clamoring for a sequel, not because she actually wanted to see how Sheila was doing. And worse she seemed upset that Sheila was mad at her instead of grateful. I don't blame Sheila at all for being mad at Torey for failing to do the right thing as a mandatory reporter and as a human being.