The Unbreakable Child, by Kim Michele Richardson

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So this book, by our own Little Red Barn, just crawled into my head. I'll borrow my review of it from AuthorScoop to kick off a discussion.

Anybody else read it yet? It's a story I won't soon forget.

***

AuthorScoop’s friend, Kim Michele Richardson, is deep into the launch tour of her memoir, THE UNBREAKABLE CHILD, and I wanted to take the opportunity to post my thoughts on the book as it goes out into the world.

The two-strand narrative twines together the story of a ground-breaking lawsuit against the Catholic Church with the recollections of an orphan’s journey through a maze of abuse and abandonment in a place commissioned by vows to be a safehaven.

As I read and reflected on it, the book set a match to the fuse of so many questions. How can this happen? Why were these women (and men) so cruel? How can children, orphaned children, spark wrath and brutality over compassion and simple caring, all within a building full of nuns and priests?

And how do some of these children survive to grow so bold and strong?

Kim Michele Richardson’s book is forgiven for leaving more questions than it answers. That’s the way it should be. There are no easy answers for how and why these things happen, or explanations of what darkness is required to harden conscience after conscience to feats of denial and protectionism. But these are questions that the victims shouldn’t bear alone. Justice starts with questions.

THE UNBREAKABLE CHILD is a hard book to read, softened with some truly beautiful language. Ms. Richardson joined forces with ranks of survivors to unsilence the collective who’d been smothered under shame and flimsy placation for decades.

The least we can do, is look and listen.




proceeds from the sale of THE UNBREAKABLE CHILD are donated to Family and Children’s Place and SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
 
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Thomma Lyn

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I've read it, and it is outstanding. Here's the review I posted on my blog:

The Unbreakable Child is a beautifully-written memoir which chronicles heart-wrenchingly grim experiences: Kim grew up in a Catholic orphanage and was brutally abused by the nuns and the priest to whose “care” she was entrusted.


As I read the book, my heart went out to the young Kimmi: such a strong, brave little girl. Though she endured unspeakable horrors, she managed not only to retain her capacity for love and joy but even to nurture it, becoming as an adult a much-loved — and much-loving — wife and mother.


And reading the book, I rooted for the adult Kim, as she worked with her lawyer along with forty-four other former orphans to bring to light terrible abuses which had been sanctioned by the Church.


As a little girl, Kimmi wanted so much to be loved. I cried for her; I wanted to travel back in time and give her hugs, to take her far away from that terrible orphanage and to tell her each and every day what an wonderful little girl she was and what an amazing woman she would grow up to be.


Throughout those horrible years at the orphanage, Kim endured treatment which ran the gamut from physical, mental, and emotional abuse to ice-cold neglect. I applaud her with all my might that she was able to escape that soul-crushing spectrum with her heart and mind intact, not only to enjoy a life of love and joy with a forever family of her own, but I also applaud her for her indomitable spirit and courage in writing her memoir, a force for good to help and inspire so many.


Thank you, dear Kim, for your compassion, for your courage and your grit, and for your boundless loving heart. The world needs more people like you.