Monday, January 6, 2014

Three Little Words

Three Little Words
by Ashley Rhodes-Courter



Genre: Memoir

Synopsis:  "Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother.  You must mind the one taking care of  you, but she's not your mama."  Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words.  As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster care system.

Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative, humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family.  In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed-and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice.

Review:  I am a sucker for memoirs but mostly for memoirs about tragedies in people's lives when they were children.  I guess that is the psychologist/social work aspect of me.  This book really captivated me and I was able to read it in a day!  Ashley Rhodes-Courter really pulled me into her story about being shuffled from one foster home to another after being taken from her mother.  I felt her heartache but I also hoped for her to find a better environment.  Rhodes-Courter did not write this book to make you feel pity for her, she wrote it to shed light on the state of child protective services in Florida (and most likely nationwide) and to try to get the system changed.  She wanted people to know what she went through and how many other kids went through the same thing-lost paperwork, caseworkers who didn't do their job, foster families who had too many children, foster families who were abusive, no one to advocate for them.  I assume she also wants you to know that kids who are shuffled around like she was can come out from it and be successful and inspiring.  Ashley is very inspiring with sharing her story, not only in the book, but also in the many speeches she gave and how much she tried to get justice served to the foster family who was abusive.  But she didn't just want justice for herself but for the other children who were in their care.  She was very honest in this book and didn't paint herself as an angel, nor selfless but she really did look out for other children who were in the same households as she was.  I very much enjoyed reading this book.

Rating:  5 stars

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