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Beautiful Child

Beautiful Child

The school year that followed would prove to be one of the most trying, perplexing, and ultimately rewarding of her career, as Torey struggled to reach a silent child in obvious pain and need and, at the same time, create an atmosphere of learning and cooperation in a class bent on chaos.

It would be a strenuous journey beset by seemingly insurmountable obstacles and darkened by truly terrible revelations-yet encouraged by sometimes small, sometimes dazzling breakthroughs-as an intrepid teacher remained committed to help a “hopeless” girl, and patiently and lovingly lead her toward the light of a new day.

In this remarkably moving account, Torey Hayden once again displays the insight, intelligence, humor and, most importantly, the indomitable heart that have made her previous books not only phenomenal bestsellers worldwide but required reading for anyone personally touched by or interested in the treatment of emotionally disturbed children.

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Meet The Author

Torey Hayden

Invisible Girl UK Cover – Torey Hayden

The Invisible Girl

By

In foster care after having experienced violence, neglect and sexual abuse as a young child, Eloise, age 14, has created a fantasy companion for herself, leading to confusion for the social workers trying to help her, because they do not know what is fact and what is fiction.

Then Eloise develops a troubling obsession with another teen.  In a mistaken belief Torey Hayden can help reunite her with this girl, she agrees to work with Torey, who is challenged to meet Eloise’s complex behavioural needs.

Lost Child UK – Torey Hayden
Lost Child USA – Torey Hayden

Lost Child

By

In a forgotten corner of Wales, a young girl languishes in a home for troubled children.  Abandoned by her parents, Jessie, aged nine, is at risk of becoming just another lost soul in the foster system. Precocious and bold and convinced she is possessed by the Devil, Jessie is utterly unprepared for the arrival of Torey Hayden.  Armed with patience and compassion, Hayden begins working with Jessie, and then Jessie makes a stunning accusation against one of Hayden’s colleagues.  Hayden’s work doubles.  Now she must not only help Jessie with her troubles but also find out if what the girl alleges is true.

Ziji and the Very Scarey Man
JUST ANOTHER KID Swedish paperback edition

Ziji | and the Very Scarey Man

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This book, written by renowned meditation master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and educational psychologist Torey Hayden shows young children how following our breath can calm us down—and how practicing compassion shows us that even Very Scary Men can be frightened sometimes too.

A detailed appendix at the end of the book gives further guidance for parents and teachers.

Innocent Foxes

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“The thing you got to understand about foxes,” Dixie said, “is that they’re innocent of what they’re doing. They got no idea they’re destroying what they love most.”

Abundance, Montana, once a lively mining town in the days of the wild west, is now not much more than a ghost town.  Local girl, Dixie, a struggling single mother who has just lost her baby, tries to make ends meet while her feckless boyfriend Billy drifts from one job to another, always believing his next moneymaking scheme will be the winner.

Above them in the magnificent mountains surrounding Abundance, jaded Hollywood actor Spencer Scott conceals himself from the paparazzi on the ranch that has been his pristine sanctuary until the arrival of his obnoxious, nine-year-old son.

Then Billy puts into motion a plan almost too appalling to contemplate, and from which there is no escape.  As all four are forced to confront the brutal reality of the Montana mountains, so too are they forced to face their damaged lives in this moving new novel of loss and redemption from bestselling author Torey Hayden.

Ziji | The Puppy Who Learned to Meditate

Ziji | The Puppy Who Learned to Meditate

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A very special book for children aged 4 to 8 written by Torey and Tibetan lama and meditation master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche which, along with the story of Ziji’s adventures, includes an appendix for parents and teachers with suggestions for using meditation with young children.

Ziji is a noisy, bouncy puppy who lives with the Anderson family – Mom, Dad, Jenny and Baby Jack.

He loves to bark and play and – most of all –chase pigeons in the park.

Then one day Ziji sees the new boy from Jenny’s school, Nico, sitting in the park. What is Nico doing? Why does he look so calm and happy? Ziji can’t wait to find out.

Seven-year-old Venus Fox’s unresponsiveness was so complete that Torey Hayden initially believed the child was deaf.

Venus never spoke, never listened, never even acknowledged the presence of another human being in the room with her. Yet an accidental playground “bump” would release a rage frightening to behold, turning the little girl into a whirling dynamo of dangerous malice. Of the five children in Torey’s classroom that September, Venus posed the greatest challenge-though the other four had serious problems of their own that could not be overlooked.

The six-year-old twins, Shane and Zane, suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and its accompanying mix of high agitation and low concentration. At nine, cocky, aggressive Billy had already been expelled from school twice. Eight-year-old Jesse suffered from Tourette’s Syndrome.

And then there was Venus. Though they all had different needs and afflictions, they each shared two things in common: a profound, sometimes violent dislike of one another, and the desire to be almost anywhere other than Torey’s class.

“With compassion and sensitivity, Beautiful Child takes the reader into a world where unfailing patience and dogged determination don’t always yield tangible results but where the few and hard-won victories can be life-changing. [Hayden] describes stories that point to progress and hope.”

Chicago Tribune

Where Are They Now?

Venus is currently working as a waitress. She is currently living with a partner and has an eighteen-month old daughter. She hopes to contribute to this page in the future.

Jesse has graduated from business school and is now in a management position with a local company. He is married and has no children.

Shane and Zane both continue to work in sheltered programs as far as Torey knows. She has not managed to contact them again.

Billy has graduated from college and has a job in the defence industry.

He writes:

I’m the person who was Billy in BEAUTIFUL CHILD. Torey’s cool. I can’t believe I’m doing this. You want to know if things turned out okay? Yeah. I’m still a dickhead though. <g> I’m not married. I got a girlfriend. No kids. No dogs or anything. A 12-year-old BMW that might as well be a kid. I’m working for the bad guys right now (the government.)<g> I might be a used car salesman when I grow up, plenty of practice. Can’t think of anything else. Hope everybody enjoyed reading this stuff. Have a good day.

Beautiful Child available on amazon.co.uk

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Lost Child UK – Torey Hayden
Lost Child USA – Torey Hayden

Lost Child

By

In a forgotten corner of Wales, a young girl languishes in a home for troubled children.  Abandoned by her parents, Jessie, aged nine, is at risk of becoming just another lost soul in the foster system. Precocious and bold and convinced she is possessed by the Devil, Jessie is utterly unprepared for the arrival of Torey Hayden.  Armed with patience and compassion, Hayden begins working with Jessie, and then Jessie makes a stunning accusation against one of Hayden’s colleagues.  Hayden’s work doubles.  Now she must not only help Jessie with her troubles but also find out if what the girl alleges is true.

Invisible Girl UK Cover – Torey Hayden

The Invisible Girl

By

In foster care after having experienced violence, neglect and sexual abuse as a young child, Eloise, age 14, has created a fantasy companion for herself, leading to confusion for the social workers trying to help her, because they do not know what is fact and what is fiction.

Then Eloise develops a troubling obsession with another teen.  In a mistaken belief Torey Hayden can help reunite her with this girl, she agrees to work with Torey, who is challenged to meet Eloise’s complex behavioural needs.

The Tiger’s Child

By

Torey didn’t want to write a sequel to ONE CHILD initially.

When ONE CHILD was published, her editor thought Sheila’s life after leaving Torey’s classroom was so grim that it would be better not to say anything about it.

Torey also felt it would be hard to follow up ONE CHILD because ONE CHILD had been “something of a fairy tale” and had left the reader with the impression of “happily ever after”. A sequel would make “real life all too apparent”.

In the end she wrote THE TIGER’S CHILD on a dare from Sheila, who had teasingly said she never would.

One Child British Original 80s paperback
ONE CHILD American paperback original

One Child

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ONE CHILD did not start out as a book. Torey wrote it as a personal story to record for herself her extraordinary time with Sheila. It was only after the story was completed that she considered publishing it.

ONE CHILD is Torey’s first book and it was the first thing she ever submitted for publication.  The story itself was written very quickly – only eight days from start to finish.

It took only 42 days from the time she started writing ONE CHILD until she signed a contract with G.P. Putnam’s Sons to publish it.

ONE CHILD is currently in 28 languages and has been adapted in several diverse forms, including a one-act opera, a Japanese puppet play and a TV movie.

SOMEBODY ELSE’S KIDS American original hardback
SOMEBODY ELSE’S KIDS American paperback 2000s edition

Somebody Else’s Kids

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This is the one book Torey finds impossible to go back and read. It was written very quickly, about 20 pages a day, and being very busy with a real-life class at the time, Torey did not take much time to go back over it. She says she now can’t read it because “the writing’s really rather bad” and ruins the story for her.

Torey confesses another reason for not being able to go back and read it is that SOMEBODY ELSE’S KIDS “is a bit of a revenge book”, expressing her frustrations with the teacher portrayed as Edna in the book and with the mainstreaming law.

“It probably would have been a better book if I had been just a little less angry when I wrote it,” she says.