The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz, 288pages

The full title of this book is "The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook--What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing."

I approached this book with trepidation.  I am not a fan of true crime or horror but I am happy to say this truly was a book of hope.  I wanted to read (listen) to this book because my Rotary Club is getting ready to work with a local elementary school whose teachers and staff all plan to read this.  Students who have adverse childhood experiences don't learn or behave like students who have a happy and stable home life. 

We all need appropriate love and interaction from birth and some families are not equipped to provide that.  In order to help traumatized children succeed and thrive, they need adults who can step in and be supportive and love them even when they are acting out.  That's a tall order, but this book explains why and how caring adults can impact lives.