Broken: A traumatised girl. Her troubled brother. Their shocking secret.
By (Author) Rosie Lewis
HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins
29th January 2018
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Adoption and fostering
Child abuse
Domestic abuse
Social work
Child welfare and youth services
True stories of survival of abuse and injustice
Coping with / advice about abuse
Psychotherapy: child and adolescent
Trauma and shock
362.733092
Paperback
320
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 20mm
230g
Nine-year-old Archie and his five-year-old sister, Bobbi, are taken into emergency police protective custody after an incident of domestic violence at their family home.
Rosie collects the children from their out-of-hours foster carer on New Years Day and instantly recognises Archie from a domestic violence workshop she helped with. Rosie remembers that when asked what he enjoyed most about the course, Archie said: the biscuits.
Social workers are concerned that Archie and Bobbi have been neglected. As Rosie gets to know the children, she begins to suspect that something far more disturbing lies in their past.
Archie, jovial and polite, bats away Rosies attempts to talk to him about anything serious with witty one-liners and sophisticated distractions. Bobbi reacts violently, lashing out and throwing herself around. Rosie has never seen a child as young a Bobbi behaving so viciously, but it is Archie she is most concerned about as the weeks go by.
After a worrying incident at school, Archie tearfully discloses the truth a shocking secret that has left him and his sister traumatised. Horrified at what she learns, Rosie is determined to help the young siblings find a forever-home that will provide them with the love and care they deserve.
'On every page there is the mark of someone who has spent many long hours in the trenches of child protection, but has not allowed it to deaden her passion and energy.
Shane Dunphy
Rosie Lewis is a full-time foster carer. She has been working in this field for over a decade. Before that, she worked in the special units team in the police force. Based in northern England, Rosie writes under a pseudonym to protect the identities of the children she looks after.