Where Is Home?: Living Through Foster Care - Hardcover

Jones, E. P.

9780941423342: Where Is Home?: Living Through Foster Care

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0941423344 ISBN 13: 9780941423342

Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr, 1990

The author, who spent ages four to eighteen in New York's foster-care system, describes her experiences, and explains how she survived

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Review:

In 1964, a month before her sixth birthday, Pam Jones' father abandoned her to a New York children's shelter. Her alcoholic mother had deserted the family two years before, and her father's new wife, with five children of her own, didn't want any more. To make his daughter stop crying, Jones promised to return to get her soon; she never saw him again. Thus begins one woman's account of 13 years of being shunted from one institution to the next, in and out of foster homes, with sojourns in mental wards, police stations, and the homes of a few friends and family members.This book consists of Pam's recollections of those years, which are interspersed with excerpts from her case records (obtained only after she sued the state for their release). It is a child's story, told with the voice of an angry, immature, rejected and rejecting African-American girl; the adult E. P. Jones, now herself a child care counselor provides no insights, letting the experiences speak for themselves. For many, this may be a frustrating read, for we never quite understand how or why Pam Jones, alternatively sullen, isolated, and violent, escaped the many tragedies that children of far lesser trials often fall victim to: bright, tough, stubborn, she seems to have irrationally clung to the lifeline of academic achievement when all else failed her. It is hard to know what we can learn about motivating other children in similar circumstances from this story of one exceptional one who, by her own report, received next to no encouragement or support from those designated to assist her. The book's afterword, by a Yale psychology professor, makes clear the continuing crisis in care to be faced by a nation that claims to cherish its children, but often acts otherwise. -- From Independent Publisher

From Library Journal:

When four-year-old Pam's alcoholic mother deserted her family, Pam's father remarried, his new wife refused to take her, and Pam began a 13-year nightmare through New York's foster home and mental hospital systems. A survivor, the author now has a young son and has written this incredible tale of her experiences. Unfortunately, it lacks the vivid detail needed to move most readers. Moreover, her case records, quoted throughout, repeatedly describe her as "manipulative," and one cannot help feeling manipulated by Pam's naturally one-sided account and suspecting that the whole of this distressing story has not been given.
- Marcia G. Fuchs, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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