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Somebody Else's Kids | 
 enlarge | Author: Torey L. Hayden
Publisher: Avon
Category: Book
List Price: $7.50
Buy Used: $3.27
You Save: $4.23 (56%)
New (2) Used (31) from $3.27
Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 196714
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 333
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1
ISBN: 038059949X
Dewey Decimal Number: 371.9
EAN: 9780380599493
ASIN: 038059949X
Publication Date: August 1, 1982
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: aged pages
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Product Description
"Were all just somebody else's kids..."A small seven-year-old boy who couldn't speak except to repeat weather forecasts and other people's words...A beautiful little girl of seven who had been brain damaged by terrible parental beatings and was so ashamed because she couldn't learn to read...A violently angry ten-year-old who had seen his stepmother murder his father and had been sent from one foster home to another ...A shy twelve-year-old from a Catholic school which put her out when she became pregnant... "What do we matter?"
"Why do you care?"They were four problem children-put in Torey Hayden's class because no one else knew what to do with them. Together, with the help of a remarkable teacher who cared too much to ever give up, they became almost a family, able to give each other the love and understanding they had found nowhere else.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 Hilarious Class of Misfits February 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is very funny about Torey's class of misfits. Claude was a pregnant 12 yr. old who ended up giving her baby up for adoption and becoming valedictorian of her class. Lori had some brain damage so couldn't read but a warm heart. Boo was autistic and would take of his clothes and flap around. Tomaso was violent because was angry his dad died and had to be in foster homes but was intelligent. Acted tough but showed concern for other kids, especially Lori. Lori got stuffed bear for Tomaso for his birthday and he tore it up but then had Torey sew it back up. I would think any teacher would be encouraged after reading this. Torey is an amazing teacher and author! This book is hilarious!
Karen Arlettaz Zemek, author of "My Funny Dad, Harry""
Thankyou again, Torey Hayden June 4, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
We really do need more Torey Haydens in this world. I have now read everything she has published bar the fiction and "Murphy's Boy" which I'm going to start soon. Reading 'Somebody Else's Kids' felt like going backwards in time, because it was one of her first books. Like most people probably, I picked up one of her more recent books, was immediately hooked and set about tracking down the rest of Torey's work.
Hayden is a teacher of special needs children, specialising in elective mutism. This book comes from very early on in her career. Due to changes in the law with regards to the 'mainstreaming' of education, the politics of teaching children with special needs has become very convoluted. And while all the arguments go on and new theories are considered and schools are shut down, reopened and studies are done, somebody has to deal with the reality of teaching children who for whatever reason can't function in a regular classroom. That would be Torey.
As always, her compassion and passion and kindness blast off the page. You will read and weep, read and laugh and read and wonder. I love that Torey exists and represents so many other passionate committed teachers and carers in this field. Her children are always incredible characters and have usually suffered horrific abuse, like Lori, the lion-hearted 7 year old who, due to being beaten by her parents has a piece of skull embedded in her brain, along with lesions from other beatings resulting in her simply being UNABLE to learn to read. Torey manages to convey how clever Lori actually is with an exceptional ability to 'read' people. And makes the deliberate point that Lori would have been better off without a limb or sight in the current education system where some special needs are still treated with an almost medieval stigma.
Hayden's books are never sugar coated. The reader always gets a good dose of the reality of teaching special needs kids, the mess, the smells and the chaos. She never portrays herself as a hero (although she is) and her honesty about her personal life and her frustration at her own frustration and impatience just make her more endearing.
I have 4 children and a teaching degree. I feel very strongly about the amazing work Torey and people like her do, usually behind the scenes and often in less than acceptable conditions. I tentatively offered "One Child" to my 10 year old daughter, because I WANT my children to learn compassion and to value difference. My daughter devoured this book and has now read 3 of Hayden's books. She is about to start this one because I just finished it. Torey's books have helped me start a dialogue with my daughter about compassion and caring and how each individual person has a part to play, a choice of better or worse, in their lives and the lives they touch. For this I feel I owe Torey Hayden a huge debt.
Torey Hayden's books are relevant to everybody and should probably be made required reading for some! She truly contributes to making life worth living in this world.
 Somebody ELSE'S kids, (not yours, Torey Hayden!) May 29, 2007
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Torey Hayden is a person with personal boundary issues and a belief that she can be a "savior" to the children whom she is supposed to teach, no matter how serious their problems, as long as they are "beautiful" and have "high I.Q.'s". Moreover, her writing is prone to exaggeration, repetition and contradiction.
She states that others see her over-stepping her boundaries as a teacher, yet she repeatedly does just that. For example, telling Tomaso that he is "a special guy" is fine; telling him that she loves him is one thing, but then saying, "I need you, come here so that I can put my arms around you." (112), she is clearly out of line. Probably co-dependent.
She uses the term "high I.Q." to validate the worth of her "special kids" on at least four occasions in the book (p.30, 133, 185, 257) and at one point calls the children who are in the profoundly mentally handicapped class as "Betsy's idiots" (p.288). She loves Lori who is strangely beautiful and has a high I.Q. despite her specific brain damage. She often refers to Claudia's above-average I.Q., and uses this to try to get her accepted into a counseling program for pregnant teens.
She states that she tries not to believe that she is omniscient, yet she acts otherwise. For instance, she tells Lori that she loves her, and that there will never be a time when she can't handle things, because she (the teacher-god) will never let this happen. She is unable to let go of her work and have normal relationships with adults. This is why she looses her boyfriend, Joc, who sums up the problem with, "Oh get off your God trip for once!"
And OMG, her writing! Redundant, melodramatic and sometimes illogical. My favorite example is when she contrasts Lori with Hitler. When Lori fears that she is a "retard kid" because she can't read, Torey replies, "Hitler could read" , and he was a really retarded. I mean really. Hayden throws moral retards like Hitler and profoundly retarded "idiots" like those in Betsy's class are thrown into the same dumpster of humanity, while she, god-like rises up to save those special children who have worth because of their I.Q. or physical beauty.
 A straightforward account of four unusual children and their extraordinary teacher March 21, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Special ed teacher Torey Hayden tells the story of a year within her classroom, when she struggled to help four students -- 12-year-old Claudia, a shy, bright parochial school student who is pregnant; Tomaso, a Mexican 10-year-old who became wild and unreachable after his stepmother murdered his father; seven-year-old Lori, unable to learn after physical abuse at the hands of her biological parents resulted in brain damage; and Boo, also seven, and severely autistic.
Most days, Heyden admits, she was full of frustration, as these four kids aren't exactly easy to work with. In addition, having the four -- with widely different needs -- *together* was also a challenge. But still, something within her refused to give up. Although many others before her had dismissed each of the children as lost, Heyden wanted to believe that wasn't true.
Although it crosses into the realm of potential sap, preachiness or self-admiration, the book never goes there. While Heyden's quest to help the children -- and resulting success with them -- puts her well ahead of others, she never takes on the air of patting herself on the back for it. Rather, she is a mere human; one who often becomes frustrated, as anyone else might be; and far from perfect. Often, as she becomes fixated on the children, Heyden forgets to balance the other areas of her life, which become problematic as a result.
This is a fascinating look at a year in the lives of four different special needs children, and what one caring individual does to try to help them.
somebody else's kids November 8, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Torey Hayden, author of "One Child," charts a year in the life of a special education classroom with some unusual and unforgettable students. They include Claudia, an academically gifted, pregnant twelve-year-old; Tomaso, who witnessed the death of his father; Lori, a girl whose abuse left her unable to read and write; and Boo, an autistic boy with a fondness for giving weather reports. How they bond, become a class, and deal with the largely unsympathetic outside world makes for a remarkable story. Even more gratifying is the epilogue, in which we learn that all four made gains after they graduated from Hayden's class, all quite remarkably.
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