Synopsis: Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years in fourteen different foster homes. Some homes were good, some were bad, one was awful, but somehow Ashley managed to survive and eventually be adopted by a loving family, who gave her the support she needed to become an advocate for foster care reform.
Review: I don't really know that you can review the story of someone's life. After all, who am I to question how Rhodes-Courter voices her heartbreaking, but uplifting story? What I can say is that anyone who cares about children should read this memoir. I have two children of my own, and even after staying up until four in the morning reading this book, I found that I wanted to have a little extra patience with them today and every day. I certainly can't understand how someone could physically hurt a child the way the Mosses hurt Ashley and the other children in their care, but this book reminds the reader that sometimes being apathetic or thoughtless can cause just as much damage as a physical slap. Apathy was the crime of most of the people who were supposed to care for Ashley. Most of them weren't really bad people, but they didn't do the job they were supposed to do. Ashley appropriately quotes Moliere: "It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable." While it is certainly unspeakable that such a young woman has to educate so many adults about this life lesson, it is also remarkable that Ashley's story ends happily enough that she has the fortitude to be just such an educator.
Comments