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Abused wives United States Biography Adult child abuse victims United States Biography Dysfunctional families United States Case studies Forced marriage United States Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Graphic novels Picture books for children Polygamy United States Rock music United StatesSafran, Joshua.
Summary: Tells the harrowing, yet wryly funny story of Safran's childhood chasing the perfect life off the grid--and how he and his mother survived the imperfect one they found instead. More than just a coming-of age story, "Free Spirit" is a journey of the spirit, as Safran reconnects with his Jewish roots; a tale of overcoming adversity; and a captivating read about a childhood unlike any other.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Hyperion 2013
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 SAFRAN, JOSHUA SAFGlenn, Ruth M.
Summary: "The raw, uplifting, and unforgettable memoir from the CEO and president of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence chronicling her personal battle against abuse, violence, and even a murder attempt. Ruth M. Glenn wasn't surprised the first time her husband beat her. She was hurt and disappointed but after a childhood in a broken and violent home, she was not surprised. After all, this...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Atria Books 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 GLENN, RUTH M. GLECopies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Adult, Call number: B GLENN GLELari, Zahra
Summary: "After watching an ice-skating movie, young Zahra sets her mind to learn how to ice skate even though her family and friends doubt her abilities. After all, she's too old to learn, the rink is too cold, and figure skaters don't look like her... not yet at least! Illustrated with Sara Alfageeh's energetic lines and colors that pop right off the page, we follow Zahra's story as she glides across...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. 2024
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Juvenile Easy, Call number: JE LARKrosoczka, Jarrett
Summary: "In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving,...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: 2018
Sorry, no copies available
Means, Brittany
Summary: "I can't write a story about myself as the sad, quiet child of two drug addicts. That's not how it was, even when it was. To me, sleeping in the car was normal. Better, it was comfy and fun. I loved my bed made of clothes inside a trash bag that I sank into slowly like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family movie... I loved the motels and their swimming pools and trashy daytime TV channels......
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Zibby Books LLC 2023
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 MEANS, BRITTANY MEAGiles, Nyna
Summary: Gile's childhood had been spent in doctor's offices; she spent nearly every waking moment at her mother's side. As Nyna grew up, her mother became more and more distant. Carolyn Scott Reybold had been a model in 1947, a friend of Grace Kelly, and even a bridesmaid at her wedding. How had that confident, glamorous woman become the mother Giles knew growing up-- the mother who was now living in a...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: St. Martin's Press 2018
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 GILES, NYNA GILWall, Elissa.
Summary: Elissa Wall details her life growing up in the polygamous Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints religious sect, being forced into an unwanted marriage at the age of 14, and her courage to testify against FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.--From publisher description.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: William Morrow 2008
Sorry, no copies available
Place a hold to request this item.Myer, Sarah
Summary: "Sarah has always struggled to fit in. Born in South Korea and adopted at birth by a white couple, she grows up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors. People whisper in the supermarket. Classmates bully her. She has trouble containing her anger in these moments--but through it all, she has her art. She's always been a compulsive drawer, and when she discovers anime, her hobby becomes an...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: First Second 2023
Sorry, no copies available
Place a hold to request this item.Jeffs, Rachel
Summary: "In this searing memoir of survival in the spirit of Stolen Innocence, the daughter of Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed Prophet of the FLDS Church, takes you deep inside the secretive polygamist Mormon fundamentalist cult run by her family and how she escaped it. Born into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Rachel Jeffs was raised in a strict patriarchal culture...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Harperluxe 2017
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Large Print, Call number: LP 921 JEFFS, RACHEL JEFJeffs, Rachel
Summary: The daughter of the self-proclaimed prophet of the FLDS Church describes the abusive patriarchal culture in which she was raised by sister wives and dominating men and discusses how her father remains a powerful influence on his followers.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Copies Available at Fife Lake
1 available in Adult, Call number: 921 JEFCopies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 JEFFS, RACHEL JEFWall, Elissa.
Summary: Elissa Wall details her life growing up in the polygamous Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints religious sect; forced into an unwanted marriage at the age of 14, and her courage to testify against FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Tantor Media, Inc. 2008
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Audiobook on MP3 CD, Call number: MP3CD 289.3092 WALL, ELISSA WalMcCrae, Shane
Summary: "An unforgettable memoir by an award-winning poet about being kidnapped from his Black father and raised by his white supremacist grandparents. When Shane McCrae was three years old, his grandparents kidnapped him and took him to suburban Texas. His mom was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him from his father. In the years that...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Scribner 2023
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 MCCRAE, SHANE MCCWalls, Jeannette.
Summary: Journalist Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary and their four children lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary painted...
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Simon & Schuster 2010
Copies Available at East Bay
1 available in Compact Disc Audio Book, Call number: CD 362.82 WALCopies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Compact Disc Audio Book, Call number: CD 921 WALLS, JEANNETTE WALCopies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Compact Disc Audio Book, Call number: CD B WALLSSummary: "FAR FROM THE TREE follows families meeting extraordinary challenges through love, empathy, and understanding. This life-affirming documentary encourages us to cherish loved ones for all they are, not who they might have been. Based on Andrew Solomon's award-winning, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling non-fiction book "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Sundance Selects 2019
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC FARSummary: In a unique collaboration with photographer and educator Wendy Ewald, eighteen immigrant teenagers create an alphabet defining their experiences in pictures and words. Wendy helped the teenagers pose for and design the photographs, interviewing them along the way about their own journeys and perspectives. America Border Culture Dreamer presents Wendy and the students' poignant and powerful...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: 2018
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 305.23 EWAPelzer, David J.
Summary: "All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself." These words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self reliance. Dave's father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality, denying him food and clothing, torturing him in any way...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Dutton 1999
Copies Available at Fife Lake
1 available in Adult, Call number: 362.76 PELCopies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 PELZER, DAVE PELCopies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Adult, Call number: B Pelzer PelPelzer, Richard B.
Summary: "Richard Pelzer tells the courageous and moving story of his abusive childhood. From tormenting his brother David to becoming himself the focus of his mother's wrath to his ultimate liberation - here is a horrifying glimpse at what existed behind closed doors in the Pelzer home"--Container.
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Time Warner Audiobooks 2005
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Compact Disc Audio Book, Call number: CD 362.76 PELQu, Anna
Summary: "As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family's garment factory in Queens. At home, she is treated as a maid and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: she is Chinese, not American, and such is their tough path in their new country. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Catapult 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 QU, ANNA QUMontesanti, Gabe
Summary: "Gabe Montesanti grew up queer in a working-class, conservative Catholic family in the Midwest, where she was taught to prioritize strength and impenetrability over vulnerability and honesty. In this emotionally, physically, and spiritually abusive environment, she developed a severe eating disorder, never learned to trust herself, and lived in constant fear. As she enters graduate school, she...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: The Dial Press 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 MONTESANTI, GABE MONClinton, Chelsea
Summary: Profiles the lives of thirteen American women who have left their mark on U.S. history, including Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Margaret Chase Smith, and Oprah Winfrey.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Philomel Books 2017
Copies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J920 CLIMahmoody, Mahtob.
Summary: The author tells the story of her and her mother's escape from an abusive, fanatical Iranian father when she was six, as well as how she lived her subsequent life under the shadow of fear of her menacing father, and eventually was healed by her faith in God.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Nelson Books 2015
Copies Available at East Bay
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 MAHDrayton, Tiffanie
Summary: "After following her mother to the US at a young age to pursue economic opportunities, one woman must come to terms with the ways in which systematic racism and resultant trauma keep the American Dream inaccessible to Black people. In the early '90s, young Tiffanie Drayton and her siblings left Trinidad and Tobago to join their mother in New Jersey, where she'd been making her way as a domestic...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Viking 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 DRAYTON, TIFFANIE DRAStevens, Michelle
Summary: "Michelle Stevens has a photo of the exact moment her childhood was stolen from her. In it, she's only eight years old and posing for her mother's beguiling boyfriend, Gary Lundquist--an elementary school teacher, neighborhood stalwart, and brutal pedophile. Later that night, Gary locks Michelle in a cage, tortures her repeatedly, and uses her to quench his voracious and deviant sexual whims....
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: G.P. Putnam's Sons 2017
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 STEVENS, MICHELLE STESullivan, Teresa
Summary: When Mikey is young, the Sullivans are a closely knit unit, all of them devoted to caring for her. But as Mikey grows older, she also grows increasingly violent. By the time she's twelve, institutionalization is the only available option--and without the shared purpose of caring for Mikey, the family begins to unravel. As her family falls apart, Teresa searches for relief and connection during...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: She Writes Press 2017