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Book Review - They Cage The
Animals At Night: The true story of an abandoned child's struggle
for emotional survival
By:
Jennings Michael Burch
Disclaimer: This book review is my opinion of
the book. If you have a different opinion of the book that is great. I know I have loved
several movies and books that other reviewers have not liked and disliked movies and books
that receive great reviews. I think we all have. If you would like to submit your own
review, I may consider posting it. Otherwise feel free to share you reviews on the Forum.
Thanks.
I can honestly tell you that this book was life changing for me. I
have been a houseparent for over ten years and before I read this book, I
was seriously looking for the exit sign. I was tired; I was frustrated
and I was thinking there had to be an easier way to make a living. By the
time I was halfway through the book, I didn't want to put it down and
realized there was no other thing I could possibly see myself doing besides
caring for the children I care for.
The book is a true story about a child that suddenly finds himself in and
out of orphanages, institutions, and fosters homes over about a four year
period while his mother was in and out of hospitals battling physical and
mental illness. He has to deal with abandonment as well as a great
amount of abuse at the hands of many of those charged with caring for him.
His resilience and strength, as well as the love and influence of a few key
individuals, helps him to make it through the ordeal.
This all takes place during the early 1950's, so the techniques and programs
are very different from what you would find today and it makes me thankful I
don't do childcare in the BAD old days. Reading this book will not
give you any new techniques to help you be a better houseparent or childcare
worker but it will help you to see the different kinds of people that work
caring for children as houseparents and foster parents, and to recognize the
kind of person you should want to be. It did for me. Though I am
convinced that the level of abuse described in this book would never be
tolerated today, I believe there are still many of the same kinds of people
still doing the work.
The Bad
- Sister Frances - is a gruff, rough and very direct type
of worker. She is very physical and expects good behavior for
convenience (to make her job easier) She seems to be one those "you
have to break-em and then mold-em" kind of people. She does care
about children and at times, shows great compassion but does not appear to
respect children.
- Sister Barbara - appears to not like her work or the
children. She expects perfection from the children to make her job
easier. She rules with fear and is very abusive.
- Mrs. Abbott - is even more despicable than Sister
Barbara. Not only does she hate her job, rule with fear and abuse
children, she also degrades them in such a way that is more damaging than
anything physical.
The Good
- Sister Clair - appears to enjoy her work and working
with children. She is compassionate and respectful to the children.
She is concerned about the problems of the children and takes the time to
explain the rules and expectations to the children and why they are
needed.
- Sister Ann Catherine - is much like Sister Clair but
more affectionate.
He also lived with three very different sets of foster parents:
- The Carpenter's - are the type of foster parents that
saw foster care as a business or job. They are abusive to the
children and had no concern for them. They were only concerned with
the money and were pretty good with faking it with social services.
- The Frazier's - are the type of foster parents that
seemed generally concerned for children. They felt good about
helping a poor disadvantaged child and generally tried to meet his needs.
Though their house staff was very connected, they themselves did not seem
to be very emotionally connected to Jennings.
- The Daly's - are the type of foster parents that are
very concerned with the children. They are concerned about their
emotional as well as their physical needs. The thing that stands out
most about them is that they are willing to make a personal sacrifice to
help a child they are caring for.
For those of you that don't work caring for children, you should know that
some of the greatest and most positive influences for Jennings were people
he didn't live with, like: teachers, a bus driver, a night watchman,
policemen, etc. There were also those that didn't have such a positive
influence on him, like: teachers, social workers, policemen, etc. You
also need to know that things are very different in 2007 than they were in
1952. We don't put bars on the windows or barbed wire around the top
of the fence to keep children in. We don't let one person supervise 30
kids, assign them numbers like prisoners, or make them live in dormitories
with 30 or 40 other kids.
I would recommend this book for any person that works in the foster care
system, especially houseparents. I also think it is a very good to
read to get the perspective of a child that has been in the system.
Even though it is dated, I believe most of the children in care today
experience many of the same feelings and fears that Jennings did over 50
years ago. Feelings of loneliness, sorrow, fear, shame, abandonment,
and depression are just as painful today as they were back then.
Finally, I also noticed that many of the people that had a positive
influence on Jennings were never able to to see the results of their
influence. This is no different than how it is today. When you
are working with disadvantaged children and caring for other people's
children, you may never see the results of your labors. Being able to
see how it has worked for others should help you to keep doing it anyway.
The book is published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a
division of Penguin Group, Inc., New York, NY.
Copyright 1984. It is currently only available in paperback, but
hardcover copies can be found used on Amazon and other places. It is
293 pages long.
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