Book Project
Three little words
Introduction
author, Ashley Rhodes-courter
Book cover
Ashley and her guardian who got her out of foster care
Summary
Dusty runs into trouble with the law. Luke and Ashley are then taken away from her family when Ashley was 3 years old and is put in a foster home. Over the next nine years she will live in 14 different foster homes. In her mothers occasional visits Lorraine makes promises of taking back Ashley as soon as she gets a nice home and a good paying job.
Soon Ashley and Luke move in with their grandfather where they are happy and smothered in-love by their grandfathers lady-friend Adele. Though they are happy they live in constant fear of being removed since their grandfather and Adele are not married, and their Grandfather is frequently in jail and a known wife-abuser. During an argument one day their grandfather was shot right in front of them and they were quickly removed from the house.
After the incident with their grandfather the kids are moved to their seventh foster home in 2 years. It was over populated, smelly and filled with screaming foster parents and children, As horrible as it sounds this wasn't the most horrible foster home the kids encountered. The worst was Mrs.Moss house. The women would starve, and beat children until a social worker showed up and then she was all smiles. The Mosses crowded disgusting home struck fear into all children living there.
Ashley and her brother were moved into a community home filled with other foster children and Ashley is adopted by the Courters. A lovely couple with 2 other children in college. The Courters shower Ashley in affection and love. They help her accomplish her dreams, and even get her to reconnect with her mother. With their help Ashley sues the Mosses and puts them in jail. She speaks and writes often about the foster care system and gives a voice to children in foster care.
"I have had more than a dozen so-called mothers in my life. Lorraine Rhodes gave birth to me. Gay Courter adopted me. Then there are the fillers. Some were kind, a few were quirky, and one, Marjorie Moss, was as wicked as a fairy-tale witch. No matter where I lived, I waited impatiently to be reunited with my mother. Sometimes we had frequent visits, but other times—for some unexplained reason—I did not see her for years at a stretch."
Review
I would recommend to anyone looking for a true-life page turner. It's depth into the way children are treated is eye-opening. I would not recommend this book for the faint though, it touches on a lot of truths that most people would turn there backs to.
This book is fantastic. You will cheer as you read Ashley overcome her ruff childhood and become an aspiring young woman. It will make you cry as Ashley and her brother go through the ruff tides of the child care system. But most importantly it will motivate you to think more about the way you treat people. All-in-all this is one of the most important and astounding books I have ever read.