Tag Archives: Special Education

Aug16

August Authors – Torey Hayden – Just Another Kid

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August Authors – Torey Hayden – Just Another Kid

For Bee’s Challenge:

Author August – Isabelle Allende – Zoe

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Bee says:

This month I challenge you to share one of your favourite authors every day. As an additional challenge also share a song that connects in some way with that author.

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As I mostly do, I’m featuring a favorite book instead of author. To me, favorite author means I get all their books and wish for more. If I like one book by an author, that doesn’t make them a favorite author, though the book might be.

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“Just Another Kid”, by Torey L. Hayden, is just one of the author’s many books. I’ve read them all many times, and can say she is one of my favorite authors.

Her career is in childhood education, more specifically, she teaches special needs children. She writes of the specific children (names changed, of course), and everything that happens in her classes. There are many tears, lots of laughter, and more than that, there is learning, and love.

This book concerns her dealings with one of the children’s mothers. That the mother signs on as a classroom volunteer/aide, is a great help to Ms Hayden. However, she is to find out the mother has many problems of her own. Ms Hayden helps her work through her difficulties, just as she does with the children. So, in a way, she is ‘just another kid’.

If you’ve never read one of Torey L. Hayden’s books, I would highly recommend them.

She was born & raised in Montana, and now lives in the country of Wales.

Here’s her bio from Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torey_Hayden

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“Bless the Beasts and the Children”,  by The Carpenters, is on their 1971 album of the same name, and on their 1972 album, “A Song For You”. It was written by Barry DeVorzon, and Perry Botkin, Jr. and is on the A & M label. This song was  the theme song for the 1971 movie of the same name which was adapted from a novel.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_the_Beasts_and_Children_(song)

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2025  BS

Aug28

Recycled Book Reading Challenge – Ghost Girl

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Recycled Book Reading Challenge – Ghost Girl

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https://lifexperimentblog.com/2016/01/26/recycled-book-reading-challenge/

It’s time for the monthly Recycled Book Reading Challenge.

This is where we take a book we’ve been meaning to read, that has been stacked up in our ‘to be read’ pile for awhile, and actually read it. I know I have a lot like that. We are to give a review of the book, one that has been bought at a discount, at a yard sale or thrift store, or any used book store. There’s where the ‘recycled’ part comes in. Giving these used books a chance can lead to some great reading. 🙂

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This is the recycled book I read for the month of August.

“Ghost Girl”, by Torey L. Hayden, is one I’ve read before. This exact one is from a library book sale, I’m pretty sure. It still has the library stamp inside. It was printed in 1991.  

They have since closed down the Air Force Base here.

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I’ve read a lot of Torey Hayen’s books, and there have been quite a few. She is one of my favorite authors. As a teacher of special education children, she relates her experiences in this area. Her specialty is in elective mutism, where a person is fully capable of speaking, but refuses to do so, due to psychological reasons. She writes of her struggles in teaching those with this problem, and also those with autism, handicaps, traumas, and developmental delays.

All her books are very easy to read, with recalled conversations, and the day to day minutiae of a classroom of children with diverse learning abilities.

In this book, she has a student named Jadie. She does not speak. Ms Hayden keeps working with her, to bring her out of her withdrawn state, and soon discovers, Jadie can speak. This is only to her, in the privacy of the classroom coat closet. There, she tells the most horrible tales of abuse that has happened to her. The thing is, she names those who abuses her as the television characters of the show, “Dallas”. Now, Ms Hayden tries to figure out if all that Jadie is saying is for real, with actual people in her life, or if she is just making all this up. She goes to her principal, and social services, but is hesitant to get authorities involved, if all this that Jadie is saying, is just make-believe. But, she does , and what is found out, is much worse than anyone could imagine.

I know this subject matter is not for everyone, but it is good to know of these kind of circumstances, and that there are those, like Ms Hayden, that are there to help the children, in any way she can.

I recommend all of Torey L. Hayden’s books.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace }i{

© 2017 BS