by Audra H. Anders for The Aha! Connection
Girl Unbroken: A Sister’s Harrowing Story of Survival from the Streets of Long Island to the Farms of Idaho will break your heart then put it back together again. I’m about to be an empty-nester but this book made me want to sign up to be a foster parent. I have a young bookworm friend at UGA studying to be a Social Worker and have made her promise to read this book and its prequel Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island (which I’m reading now). I’m actually kind of glad I read them out of order. They take place along the same timeline so it doesn’t really matter which one you read first.
Both are intense and follow the 5 children of Cookie who certainly doesn’t deserve her sweet name. Her four girls and one boy all have different fathers and also survived countless other men coming in and out of their lives.
Their stories are distressing…and it breaks my heart to believe there are other children living such nightmares.
My guess is that one day these two books will become a movie. My new hero is Gi AKA Regina Calcaterra, Cookie’s middle child who authored both books. Calcaterra is now a practicing attorney in New York and these memoirs are changing the way we view abandoned children and helping to inspire the idea of “forever families” — providing permanent, non-legal relationships for youth aging out of foster care. Thanks once again to my friend Laura for the book recommendations!
Leave a comment if you’d like to win a paperback copy of each of these books! We’ll choose a lucky winner on Friday and deliver in time for you to read this weekend!
Would love the opportunity to read these books! Need some new adds to my summer reading list and love non-fiction options.
Thanks for the opportunity to win an addition to my library. So much free time, can’t say no to a book.
Definitely a book I need to read. Thanks for the opportunity of getting the book.
Thank you Aha! I would love to add these books to my “must read” list and then share with others.
Just finished “Front Row At The Trump Show” and a I need a new read.
Would love the opportunity to read the journey of these children.
This story sounds unforgettable, especially since the author lived it. Thank you for the opportunity to win one of the books.
I would love the opportunity to read these books.
I would love to read these books and discuss with my book club.
Going to be recovering from surgery so need books to occupy my mind and time!
Would love to read these books as my daughter is about to begin as a foster care case manager. Would love to understand the perspective of those she might serve.
I would love the opportunity to read these books.
I’d love to read the books. I’m almost done with the book I’m reading so I need a new one.
these books would be a welcome distraction!
Would love to read these books. Especially during these difficult times we are in.
Thank you Aha! I would love to add these books to my weekend reading. And of course then share with others.