The Unbreakable Child (edition 2010)

Couldn't put it down! What happened in that catholic orphanage should never happen to anyone! We must be vigilant and stop this!

A harrowing story of a horrific childhood. ( )

My book club purchased the new paperback edition for our Jan read and agreed; this story needs to be shared with the world. A powerful and gripping story about brutal orphan abuse which resonates with the current clergy abuse scandals. Hopeful and healing and forgiving and unforgettable. This book will haunt you. ( )

The Unbreakable Child is like no other book about child abuse, which is why it makes it special. Kim Michele Richardson exposes abuse while at the same time brings us to the present. We watch a child—who went through unthinkable horrors—become unbreakable. It’s an original way of exposing abuse to the world by giving us the past and present, along with reminding us that no one is untouchable. I commend Kim on her courage to write about such things that the Church swept under the carpet for so long. Even though her abuse happened behind the walls of a Catholic orphanage, abuse is everywhere and something we should always try to wipe out.

In this memoir, Kim reveals the horrifying abuse her and her sister’s went through at the hands of Catholic priests and nuns, and then we see how she has overcome those abuses. It’s like she turned on a light for us to see a bit of her past, present and future—past abuse, a healthy productive present and still fighting for justice. I cried for the young Kim, and smiled for the adult Kim—the one who decided not to be a victim and showed us she IS “the unbreakable child”. ( )

As my major in college was social work, I have read a lot of these types of books and find the stories of courage to be of great value to all that read them. Having been raised in a warm loving family with all my needs met and very little wants denied, it is hard to read abuse victims' tales without shedding a tear or two. This book was not one of them.

It is not the story; it was the way it was written that just didn't move me the way these types of books should. They should leave you with a feeling of wanting to save, to change a life in whatever way you can so that it will not continue. Books of this subject should enrage you, stroke a savior passion in you. It fell flat for me. I do admire the author for letting it out. This is the key to healing and hence, gets full respect from me for that. Nevertheless, there were much better ways of doing this and would have been way more effective. For instance, her clear account of things happening at the age of three were unbelievable as I don't remember things at three. She makes it more unbelievable because all through the book she let's us know that there were no pictures (other than two) and no documents except a very small file. So where did she draw her very clear details from? She just never lets us know HOW some of the memories and details are there to write down. Did she keep a journal? No, she wasn't allowed things of that nature. Was she in therapy after she left? She doesn't say. Just, a lot of questions for me that come away unanswered.

Courage gets a 5-plus star...but filling me with outrage naww would have been better left to a professional writer who could guide her through it. ( )