Twilight Children: Three Voices No One Heard Until a Therapist Listened

In this book,Torey is not a Special Education teacher,butin a clinical setting,where she want's to reveal the storiesof three remarkable people.She is now practicing as a Child Psychologist with a degree in Elective Mutism.(where a person stopsspeaking due to severe trauma.)Her duties are on the Chidren'spsychiatric unit,inpatient,where children are referred to herfor therapy. Her first little boy,comes because his domineering grandfather,a powerful man,read about Torey's work in the paper and feels she can make his grandson,Drake talk.A veryintimadating man,he does not believe any of his progeny couldbe defective. His little non-verbal grandson is a joy to be with.He presents as a happy good looking charmer.Because of thephysical distance of the family,it is recommended withreservations,that Drake be admitted to the children'spsychiatric unit of the hospital,for a workup and fullerevaluation-concerning the lack of speech.Drake is approachingfive years. The second patient Cassandra,was a happy,normal little girlof six years,until she was kidnapped by her Father.Duringa two year stretch,unspeakable acts and neglect changed herwhole persona.She was found eating garbage.She was unableto live with her mother and sisters. While Torey is trying to devise methods of working with eachchild,a colleague asks a favor.The fellow collegue works inGeriatrics,and asks Torey to visit his patient,Gerda,who isaphasic.Torey visits and reads to Gerda.Gradually she beginsto speak to Torey.Not in the usual form of give and take-butshe begins to relate memories of long ago,and seems pleasedto have someone listen to her.It will be determined if she iscapable of self-care and the ability to transition to livealone on a small farm or need skilled nursing home assistance. In some way,Gerda's problems affect Torey.She wants people to remember this remarkable woman whom time and Family have forgotten.But,I found it a little confusing,compared to the story of Cassandra and Drake's that held an element of mystery. Back to Cassandra,who is testing everyone's limits.She hasbeen accusing the staff of horrendous acts of abuse,thatmust be investigated.This causes the staff to have two member'sto stay with her.Also,she is being filmed and recorded.Cassandra does not always know what she is punished for butaccepts it because she feels she is bad and deserves it. Many times she becomes extremely hyper and jumps on the playroom furniture attacking other children while pretending to be a vicious bird.She spends a great deal of the day in the time-out room. Early on Torey suspects dissasociative disorder(DID),morecommonly known as multiple personality disorder. With a lot of work and difficulties,Torey is able to setclear boundaries and rules for Cassandra. Her story was very intriguing, and I found I could not tear myself from the book. I especially enjoy the Epiloque at the end of every book.Problems may persist-but are never as severe.And sometimesthere is a really good ending.

The book was easy to read with Torey as the person trying to assist her 3 patients. Each story had challenges for Torey to deal with in order to assist each person in her care. Not all stories ended happily, but each one was completed nevertheless.

Enjoyable read of three different persons and a therapist who puzzles her way to three different and yet interesting answers.

In this book, Hayden focuses on three of her patients. Cassandra is a sexually-abused girl who has a habit of making dangerous abuse allegations. But Hayden discovers that there is truth behind her stories. Drake is an adorable, outgoing boy who is mute with everyone except his mother. Hayden must figure out whether the boy truly cannot speak, despite his efforts to. She also works with Gerta, an elderly stroke victim, who speaks seldom. Whether her lack of speech is due to depression, having lost her family farm, or as part of the stroke, Hayden must discover.All three stories are genuintely moving, though my favorite was Drake's. Highly recommended.

Torey is such an inspiration , amazing woman an fabulous author. I get so wrapped up in her books that I don't stop reading until the very end , I may not sleep for couple days till I am finished but that's how good she is at telling her life stories. I have read all 3 that are available on Amazon for kindle readers and hope the rest of her books are soon available for kindle readers if not I will definitely be buying the actual books. Keep up the great work Torey , God bless you.

I almost never rate a book at 5 stars but I really enjoyed these stories. I found myself thinking along her same thought patterns and she worked with these clients and just felt that I shared so much of thoughts, feelings, and approach. I'll definitely be reading more of her works.

I was thrilled to see that Torey Hayden came out with another book about her experiences with troubled children. I liked the fact that there was an elderly patient and two younger patients. Her case studies are sometimes painful to read because of the severe trauma these patients have endured, however, the insight she provides in dealing with such trauma is fascinating. I can now say I have read all of the Tory Hayden books! They are a treasured part of my library.

This book was one that I had a difficult time putting down. This amazing teacher has a very special gift. She doesn't ever give up on these damaged children. She is truly gifted! I highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those wonderful people that Foster or are considering fostering children. Ms.Hayden's patience and her style of teaching would be very beneficial to those Foster parents.

It was hard going to begin with, but took over my time, I kept thinking I will just read a few chapters, but as each one ended I would start the next. I found it quite interesting the way Torey writes including detail about more than one child's experiences, you do have to remind yourself sometimes who is who and eat there story is!

I really love reading about the children you work with.it sounds hard but also intriguing with a little humour too. I look forward to reading the next book although I have read them all it was paperback so I am rereading them on Kindle.Well done keep up the good work.

I usually love reading Torey's books, and find I whizz thorugh them, but this one was tough going. So slow, I didn't really get into any of the characters. I know this is based on real life events, which makes giving it a poor score harsh, but it just didn't flow well.

Yet another well written book that had me engrossed from the first page.Tory brings out every emotion with her account of these children's lives.iI would certainly recommend it.

I enjoyed the book but not quite as much as some of Torey's other ones. Once again I found it extremely well written & compulsive reading but in this book I felt that, for me, she digressed a little TOO MUCH into explanations of each person's condition which interrupted the flow of the current experience she was relating! However, it is still well worth reading!