Following a tragic accident Celeste needs a new home. She is content living with the Temples-but an estranged Aunt Sylvie,a Lincoln Socialite moves her to her mansion in Lincoln
where she faces emotional and sexual abuse-
The predator is a popular pastor. Or is he bogus?
The other abuser is Aunt Sylvie-
Later Celeste's pretend boyfriend from childhood, a boy who was her best friend's brother, discovers a rag princess turned Cinderella- The ugly duckling has blossomed but remains scarred from years of abuseA love story ensues in part three, the final half of the book
I chose to write this story due to my work with severely with abused children. Multiple sclerosis cut my work short.
I worked with kids ages three to seventeen. The cases were heinous. Until doing this work, I had no idea how bad it really was. With Celeste's story, I hoped to teach about the predator and the experience of the child. I included humor in the writing as a means of emotional breaks and because life includes humor. It is one way of coping.
While my work was with the children, I interviewed a male therapist who worked with the perpetrators. I think in order to catch abuse more quickly, the more we know, the faster we can intervene-The perpetrators are slick and good at what they do-using threats, gifts, anger, love, whatever the child buy into.
Many CHILDREN are afraid to talk and if their abuser is a parent, they feel guilty at the idea of incriminating someone they love-or they believe they are at fault-It wasn't unusual for a mother to blame the daughter-not wanting to believe the man she loves could do this or that her child has been hurt or that the home will be torn apart.
1. Among those I worked with_One child that I saw was beaten so badly by a mother's boyfriend that almost every major bone in his innocent sweet body was broken.
2.Another child had been strangled by his father. He hid under desks in the classroom and was afraid of everything much like an abused animal.
2. Another girl-came in week after week to talk about what she was doing wrong. It turned out that a very prominent parent was beating her out of rage.
3.With the sexual abuse, I had a child who was being abused by a predator, a friend of the family, while his mother, unaware, made supper in the next room. She thought the man liked her little boy and was playing with him. The same person had him for overnights and took him swimming in his pool where he proceeded to molest him. The young child was attacking other kids sexually.
Celeste, the main character-hopes to make a dent-In a sequel she marries-during the war-PRAIRIE BRIDE- a fun story-
