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His name was Kevin but his keepers called him Zoo Boy. He didn't talk. He hid under tables and surrounded himself with a cage of chairs. He hadn't been out of the building in the four years since he'd come in. He was afraid of water and wouldn't take a shower. He was afraid to be naked, to change his clothes. He was nearly 16. Desperate to see change in the boy, the staff of Kevin's adolescent treatment center hired Hayden. As Hayden read to him and encouraged him to read, crawling down into his cage of chairs with him, Kevin talked. Then he started to draw and paint and showed himself to have a quick wit and a rolling, seething, murderous hatred for his stepfather.
Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Avon; Reissue edition (July 30, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380652277
ISBN-13: 978-0380652273
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #241,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #66 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology > Abuse #234 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Special Needs #646 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Child Psychology
When readers are first introduced to Kevin, then 15, he is a ward of the state in a psychiatric facility. He has barricaded himself under a table and his voice had been unheard since his admission to the place when he was seven.In time, Kevin is drawn out from under the table and begins using materials provided during therapy sessions to free himself from his internal torment. Kevin, described as a skilled artist, used drawing to present events that took place early in his life. In time, Kevin begins to speak and he discloses an early life replete with brutality and horror; he and his sisters were sexually abused and beaten by their stepfather and one younger sister was beaten to death. Kevin and this sister were especially close and it is through dogged determination that the child's school, death and social services records are unearthed. The girl had been "buried" twice: the first time when she was killed and the second time when the social services bureaucratic agencies involved in Kevin's case felt that disclosure of the child's murder would preclude him from being viewed objectively. This reasoning seems bizarre and is never explained.Kevin's natural expression was often poignant; in one passage, he talks of "mirror-ghosts;" people who have, in his words died of "heart rot" because they have never been loved. The song "Where is Love" from "Oliver!" would be the song to underscore a good portion of this book.Kevin's progress accelerates; he learns to swim over the summer after some setbacks; he works with another child who is part of the Big Sister/Big Brother program and the pair appear to work well together; by fall of that year, Kevin was given a clean bill of health and promoted to a group home.
I read this book in high school & recently re-read it. Torey is to be commended for her undying idealism & hope with severely disturbed kids. Also excellent was the vivid description of elective mutism...a little known psychological re-action to trauma & fear where a person, usually a child goes MUTE & doesn't speak at all. (If you read Ann Martin's Baby-Sitters' Club #131, Mary Anne Spier goes through something similar when her house burns to the ground-she goes nearly mute in fear). Torey gets Kevin to speak with patience & understanding. I love how she probes into the human mind & not only with Kevin, but with other people in her life, she has a fascination for why people behave the way they do. When Kevin finally gets the courage to speak, he reveals horrifying abuse in his background & one awful incident where he watched his sister get beaten to death! The way the sister's death was described was really shocking & chilling & even more scary was that Torey discovers that this abusive stepfather was allowed to return home after only four years in prison! Boy, Kevin's mother was APPALLING in that she chose to keep her awful husband at home & put Kevin in an institition! Poor Kevin! I could see why he had a lot of hate & anger toward both of them. It was good that Torey got angry at that piece of information. I'm a writer & some people consider me a bit peculiar myself & once someone asked me if I identified with the kids Torey worked with & I said no, I identify with Torey because Torey is idealistic, liberal & open-minded like me. I'm also interested in what makes people act they way they do.
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