Ghost Girl: The True Story of a Child in Peril and the Teacher Who Saved Her

From Publishers Weekly
Ultimately a testament to the powers of caring and commitment, this is the story of an traumatized eight-year-old who refused to speak due to sexual abuse and possible exposure to satanic rituals. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-- Hayden's classroom of emotionally disturbed children consists of Reuben, a boy suffering from autism; Philip, born to an addict mother and now in foster care; Jeremiah, a foul-mouthed fighter; and Jadie, a girl who never speaks and walks with such hunched posture that she appears to be doubled over. Through patience and determination, Hayden gains Jadie's confidence and gets her to speak, but with her conversation come tales of sexual abuse and ritual acts too horrifying to believe. When Hayden goes to the authorities, the community is reluctant to accept the possibility that Jadie is telling the truth. There are three explanations for her macabre and graphic disclosures: she is either a psychotic child beyond help, a victim of satanic rituals, or she has been used, along with her sisters, to make pornographic films. The conclusion is frustrating because readers never learn which of the three speculations is the truth. Hayden does tell us that today Jadie is a happy and functioning adult and that is some comfort. --Katherine Fitch, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VACopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Washington Post
"An amazing story!"


Publishers Weekly
"A testament to the powers of caring and commitment."


Book Description
Jadie never spoke. She never laughed, or cried, or uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie remained locked in her own troubled world--until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her self-imposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have prepared her for the shock of what Jadie told her--a story too horrendous for Torey's professional colleagues to acknowledge. Yet a little girl was living in a nightmare, and Torey Hayden responded in the only way she knew how--with courage, compassion, and dedication--demonstrating once again the tremendous power of love and the relilience of the human spirit.  


About the Author
Torey Hayden is an educational psychologist and a special education teacher who, since 1979, has chronicled her struggles in the classroom in a succession of bestselling books. She currently lives and writes in North Wales with her husband and daughter.


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Ultimately a testament to the powers of caring and commitment, this is the story of an traumatized eight-year-old who refused to speak due to sexual abuse and possible exposure to satanic rituals. (May)


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