They were four problem children-put in Torey Hayden's class because no one else knew what to do with them. Together, with the help of a remarkable teacher who cared too much to ever give up, they became almost a family, able to give each other the love and understanding they had found nowhere else.

Hayden has chronicled experiences from her long career as a special education teacher in several books, including One Child and The Tiger's Child. Successes in this difficult and often frustrating field can be few and hard won, a fact which Hayden deftly illustrates while simultaneously offering hope and joy in small victories. This time she brings to life the story of a scruffy seven–year–old, Venus, who is so unresponsive that Hayden searches for signs of deafness, brain damage or mental retardation. The author is relentless in her attempt to diagnose the cause of Venus's 'almost catatonic' state, which is punctuated by occasional violent outbursts. In this first–person narrative, Hayden also shares her own thoughts, worries and reflections on the strained relationship with a mismatched classroom aide, creating a rich tapestry of the dynamics of a group of special needs youngsters and the adults who try to help them.

Desperate to see change in the boy, the staff of Kevin's adolescent treatment center hired Hayden. As Hayden read to him and encouraged him to read, crawling down into his cage of chairs with him, Kevin talked. Then he started to draw and paint and showed himself to have a quick wit and a rolling, seething, murderous hatred for his stepfather.

Nine-year-old Cassandra, kidnapped by her father and found starving, dirty, and picking through garbage cans -- a child prone to long silences and erratic, violent behavior, whose hard-won recollections of the nightmare she endured could not be fully trusted.

Charming, charismatic four-year-old Drake, who would speak only in private to his mother -- his tough, unbending grandfather's demands for an immediate cure threatened to cause the delightful boy and his family irreparable harm.

And though she had never worked with adults, Hayden agreed to help fearful and silent eighty-two-year-old massive stroke victim Gerda -- discovering in the process that a treatment's successes could prove nearly as heartbreaking as its limitations.

He isn't good at school, or talking to people, or making friends. He's been in six different foster homes, and he can't really remember his parents. It seems like he'll never have anything all his own.

Then he finds an owl egg. With the help of Mab, the skinny "girl genius" of his class, he names it King Arthur and sets out to hatch and raise an owl of his very own. As they wait for King Arthur to hatch and as they raise the funny-looking owl chick, Mab and David become true friends.

But Mab's father thinks they should return King Arthur to the wild. Can David give up his owl? Is it even the right thing to do? What can David do if the worst thing of all happens?