Beautiful Child

by Torey Hayden

Seven-year-old Venus Fox's unresponsiveness was so complete that Torey Hayden initially believed the child was deaf.

Venus never spoke, never listened, never even acknowledged the presence of another human being in the room with her. Yet an accidental playground "bump" would release a rage frightening to behold, turning the little girl into a whirling dynamo of dangerous malice.

Of the five children in Torey's classroom that September, Venus posed the greatest challenge-though the other four had serious problems of their own that could not be overlooked.

The six-year-old twins, Shane and Zane, suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and its accompanying mix of high agitation and low concentration. At nine, cocky, aggressive Billy had already been expelled from school twice. Eight-year-old Jesse suffered from Tourette's Syndrome.
And then there was Venus.

Though they all had different needs and afflictions, they each shared two things in common: a profound, sometimes violent dislike of one another, and the desire to be almost anywhere other than Torey's class.

“With compassion and sensitivity, Beautiful Child takes the reader into a world where unfailing patience and dogged determination don’t always yield tangible results but where the few and hard-won victories can be life-changing. [Hayden] describes stories that point to progress and hope.” – Chicago Tribune

I spent the past 2 days reading and finishing this book which i bought some time back. I couldn't put the book down as I read chapter after chapter, at MOS burger, in the bus, at the bus-stop. Torey Hayden is a special education teacher, and reading how she reached out to the children in her class, of the different teaching techniques she administered for their individual quirky behaviour really captured my attention.

But Torey never gave up. She wrote about her struggles, her differences with her aide, and recognised her own limitations and failings. She wrote about perserverance and frustrations. She wrote about idealism and reality. She wrote about the little changes that took place in her classroom that are insignificantly significant.

In building relationships, sometimes all it takes is patience. loving patience and perserverance. Even the hardest walls would crumble.

I think I'd pick out another Torey Hayden book soon. :)