If you are involved in helping families in crisis, I believe you will find this book an essential resource for your work. Although a little technical, It's pages are filled with "Real World" information necessary for delivering good counseling services while maintaining your own well-being. This book is an outstanding contribution to the mental health community, and should probably be a mandatory text for anyone working with families in crisis.

Being a foster child myself, from 1949 (age 9) to 1957 I related very well to the book. It is very factual on what can happen to children that can no longer live at home. I managed to pull out of my "grief" by remembering the excellent care my grandmother gave me until I was removed from there by my mother at age nine. Progression in life is the key to most foster children. If you don't move on to better things you will be trapped. I can speak of this with some authority, since I am now a foster parent. My wife and I have had over 20 foster children in eight years. Several have stayed with us over a year, Others were returned to their parents. A few didn't do well at all. One girl had been in over 21 different homes since the age of 12.

The book speaks very true of most "systems", but there are some very good placements for children. In this day and age (California) there are very strong guidelines on foster care. The book was a little harsh on the judicial system, and didn't allow the author to look at possible alternatives.

Prior to having a relationship with God, I never had a desire to reach out to children who have been "thrown away" whether to a foster care or an adoption home. Instead, I use to just think about me and what I wanted out of life. After all, the fact that there are unwanted children out there living in foster care or adoption homes is not my problem. That use to be my attitude, until I became a daughter of God five years ago. Once I married my husband, Noel, we both decided that it would be a good idea to some day adopt a little boy or girl. After I read "Throwaway Kids", it became clear to me that my husband and I would DEFINITELY adopt a child.

Immense tears and saddened emotions filled my heart with every page read. When I use to think that I, only one person, could not possibly make a difference in this world, this book helped to convict me otherwise! "Throwaway Kids" brought me to another world. A world that I would not have understood nor been impacted by had I not read it. My only hope is that many more will read this book and realize that by giving up a little part of your own life to take on another, can really radically change the future lives of so many millions of hurtful and hopeless children out there.

Shirley and Bob, I am sorry that you had to go through such a painful life, however, it has brought a lot of good considering the decision my husband and I have made. And who knows what else could come from your shared life experiences!

Bob, or should I say "dad", thank you for finally sharing with me what happened to you growing up. For years you kept the truth stored away until I was old enough to not only understand it, but to have been able to handle it as well. Words cannot express how much of a hero you are to me. Most people having lived a life like you have, would come out of it filled with bitterness, resentment, and maybe even hatred. You, however, came out to be a man full of love and compassion for others. The love that you have poured out on me is only a small measure of the goodness that you brought to my life. I believe your hurtful experience made you into the wonderful dad that you are today. It is because of you, dad, that I have learned to become loving, affectionate, and caring towards others. The book that you and Aunt Shirley wrote truly has moved my heart immensely to save a child who is in great need of having loving and caring parents to come home to. Thank you both for being humble and vulnerable enough to have shared your life with not only me but with all who will read this heart moving book.

Dad, I love you much and will always cherish you. Aunt Shirley, my love goes out to you too. May your book change the way people look at adoption and foster care homes!

God, thank you too for changing my selfish heart and molding it to become one that is closer to yours. Just as you have taken me, a sinful woman who falls short daily of giving back to you what you deserve, so I too hope that I can take a lost unwanted child and show them your love for them, through me. I love you too, God!

For those of you who are unsure as to whether or not you should read this book, let me just encourage you to take the time to do so. If you give your heart to it, you too will think twice about your own life and the life of these unwanted children. Not only will it make you grateful for the family you do have, (considering you were brought up well), but it might even move you enough to pass down the love you were once shown, to another child.

Throwaway kids is a very moving and sad story about what some children have to go through when the state gets involved in thier lives. I thought the book was written very well with a lot of instight. It told the other side of the story of what can really happen to a child when they are taken away from their parents and place in what the state considers a sutible home. Throwaway Kids gives you a completly different view on the subject. I recomend that if you are a person who has gone through a foster home or want to know what has happened to some people who have then you read this book.

In this bleak novel Elizabeth Gaskell deftly weaves a dark thread of history into her narrative tapestry. While war hovers on the margins of the novel, no one is left unaffected by its horror. After a sometimes painfully slow setup of domestic life in the seaside town of Monkshaven in the first third of the book, the sense of doom grows increasingly palpable. Sylvia, the novel's heroine, is isolated by her supposedly protective domestic sphere, but Gaskell shatters the delicate domestic circle that surrounds her. While Sylvia is left to bear emotional scars, becoming an impassive, hardened woman, Charley Kinraid, her true love, returns from war a ghost, haunting the margins of Monkshaven to hide his terrible physical scars. The full realization of the blight on Sylvia's life comes when the novel spirals down to its inevitable conclusion, where even reconciliation and understanding brings a powerful sense of loss.

I have always loved the story of The Secret Garden. I have seen the 1949 Margaret O'Brien movie, the 1993 movie with Kate Maberly, and a version done for the BBC in the 70's or 80's. All were very good. This one, however, is not so good. It is the most faithful to Frances Hodgson Burnett's story, but it doesn't give you the uplifting feeling that the book and other movies do. Gennie James is downright annoying as Mary, and I hated that the writer and director portrayed Dickon as a mystic who knows the future. THe location filming is very well-done, the story is great, but most of the actors didn't do a good job. Not a version of this great story to be remembered.

Little spoiled Mary Lennox is orphaned in India and sent to live with a distant relative. Alone and scared she has to learn the English way of life. Martha her maid teaches her how to dress herself, and gives her a jump rope opening up a whole new world to Mary. The gardens of the 100 room mansion. Here she meets the head gardener and learns of the Secret Garden. Mary also finds that there are many other secrets in this house, her hunchback caretaker that seems so sad, and the crying at night.

The setting of Yorkshire England and the rich cast of characters including the maid Martha, Dicken, Martha's brother, and many others make this a wonderful book for all ages. I have read the secret garden hundreds of times and each time I get something new out of the book. It's a true classic.

This has to be one of my all time favorite Hallmark movies. I have seen other movie versions of "The Secret Garden," all of which seem much darker. I have to say, Hallmark has made the most enjoyable version of "The Secret Garden" to date. the childeren in this movie are wonderful.

Child characters: "Mary Lennox," spoiled, lonley, sad child. Taken from her home to live with a guardian in England after her parents death. "Dickon", Mesterious boy who communes with nature. "Colin," son of Mary's guardian, is hidden from society.

In the movie Mray sets out to find and unlock the secrets to the mesterious garden, making friends along the way.

The scenery in this movie is breath taking at times. One of Hallmarks best! A must have for any Hallmark Hall of Fame fan. Good to have in any movie collection!