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178th out of 548 books
—
380 voters
Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk A Caseworker's Story
Why does an infant die of malnutrition? Why does an eight-year-old hold a knife to his brother's throat? Or a mother push her cherished daughter twenty-three floors to her death? Marc Parent, a city caseworker, searched the streets--and his heart--for the answers, and shares them in this powerful, vivid, beautifully written book.
WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR
WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR
Paperback, 400 pages
Published
January 27th 1998
by Ballantine Books
(first published 1996)
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Children are not stone. Children have deep flowing roots grounded in complex ecological structures. When working with children involved in CPS there needs to be emphasis on the importance of valuing both the individual as well as the system in which leads to structural degradation and subsequent social patterns within groups. While a child’s life can ultimately be affected by the decision of an ECS worker, individual problems are the consequence of the societal problems at large. Structural barr...more
In today’s world of having an Internet site and a “Law & Order” for every criminal kink, child abuse may not be the great dark taboo that it used to be, but Turning Stones still gives a city caseworker’s insight to the pains of this everyday reality.
For a little over four years, Marc Parent was on the front lines at New York’s Emergency Children’s Services, making the call as to whether or not children should be taken from their living situations. Turning Stones chronicles seven of those ca...more
For a little over four years, Marc Parent was on the front lines at New York’s Emergency Children’s Services, making the call as to whether or not children should be taken from their living situations. Turning Stones chronicles seven of those ca...more
2 likes · like · see review
Jan 29, 2008
Kaitlin
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in social work, child protective services.
Shelves:
assigned-school-texts
This book is an account from a man who worked for CPS. It is heart wrenching and gives you a real understanding for the struggle the case managers go through when deciding when to remove and not to remove children from their families. What is best for the child? What is best for the family? What happens to the child after they are taken away? An excellent text. I couldn't put it down.
This book was a tough read, as some of the stories of abused children are really stomach-turning and difficult to read. At the same time, I think it's important to recognize how challenging life is for many children in our country, and how we have to work to address it.
Although I admired a lot of the book, there was one thing that troubled me (and that I found magnified in a very negative critique of the book I found online).
There was a strange element of stereotyping in this book. Although Par...more
Although I admired a lot of the book, there was one thing that troubled me (and that I found magnified in a very negative critique of the book I found online).
There was a strange element of stereotyping in this book. Although Par...more
This is the true story of a man who spent 4 years as a child protection worker in the city of NY. His experiences were fairly horrific. I read the book with some discomfort. Practice has improved in the last 15 years and I hope they have made some progress. But the severity and quantity of cases must still be the same. This book is read by all child welafre students and my child abuse and neglect class is reading it now. I look forward to the discussion. Coincidentally, the author Marc Parent is...more
This is the memoir of a caseworker for Emergency Children's Services in New York City. It is a true story that reads like a novel and has some of the best dialogue I've read in a long time. It is not perfect, however. There are a few pages here and there that don't quite seem to belong—reminiscences about the author growing up in Wisconsin, some of the portraits of his co-workers—but every word the author has written about the children and families he meets is just about flawless. This is a book...more
Marc Parent recounts his experiences during the four years he worked for New York City's Department of Emergency Children's Services. ECS was respon¬sible for children in all five boroughs of New York during nights and weekends when other social service agencies were closed. Just out of college, his job was to go anywhere in the city to respond to reports of trouble in which children might be involved, to assess the situation and report on it to a follow up agency, and to remove the children to...more
I think this book is valuable for building empathy for what kids in the foster care system experience, and for showing the difficult circumstances under which investigative workers work (e.g., a two-week training period, even for those with no relevant experience and unrelated fields of study; large caseloads and limited resources). It is also interesting to consider that Parent never learns the outcomes of any children whose cases he investigates (other than those whose cases are reported in th...more
Most of us in the field are reluctant to write about our work -- concerns about confidentiality, commitment to the children, and concerns about having a safe space to vent about our frustrations present roadblocks in presenting our experiences candidly. Parent, however, does an excellent job in describing the children we work for, the successes they experience, and the failures of an overworked system. Thought provoking, gentle, and real, this book is one I've read several times.
Marc Parent tells an honest, heartfelt account of the children and parents (usually mothers) he met while working with NYC's Emergency Children's Services. An idealist, Marc fought hard for every family he met, and writes their stories with reverence and poise, never accusatory to the parents who failed or the system that was disorganized and unsupportive. It was a very educational and inspirational book for myself, as I once thought about becoming a DCF caseworker, and have considered social wo...more
This book will stay with me for a long time. Marc Parent may not be a great writer, but he is a hero in my book. What type of person can work within a broken government system, with limited resources, an ever increasing work load, and find children in the most horrific circumstances without loosing their humanity? Very few unfortunately, and as a society we are in their debt.
Apr 15, 2009
Dana
is currently reading it
This book is right up my alley as I am a GAL and an officer of the Court. It tells the struggles that a NY newly graduated child welfare worker experienced. There are many short stories within the book. Very interesting and gives a new perspective to child welfare workers.
I think the meat of the book is in chapters 7-8, the epilogue and the afterword. For me, chapters 1-6 seemed too out of place. Felt like the author was trying for the "shock factor" before reeling in the reader for his actual message. I understand the importance of chapters 1-6 but being a child protective services worker myself, the chapters didn't make sense and didn't fit together with each other. The chapters were too disjointed and seemed not to have much of a purpose. I would have liked to...more
Aug 01, 2007
Sharon
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those who want to read about the scary situations that CPS workers are in, without any context
While Marc Parent tells a pretty accurate picture of life as an overnight, emergency child protective worker I found this book to be lacking in the development of connections between his work and that of the agency as a whole. Mr. Parent shows little understanding of the complex dynamics that create the families that he served (poverty, mental illness, etc.). Additionally, his experiences seem to be told as much for shock value as for his own personal therapy, and not in a way that is useful to...more
The author writes about children and families in some hard situations, so this can be difficult to read. Worth the time though. He gives a complete picture of the range of emotions and reactions a social worker experiences.
This is a great book--follows a child protection service caseworker out in the field to pull abused children from their homes...sad, but inspiring and motivating to help the children.
Great book from a first hand account as a CPS worker, it was eye opening and heart wrenching. Well written and I could empathize with every word on the pages
Jul 10, 2010
*•.♥.•*Sabrina Rutter*•.♥.•*
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
i-own,
non-fiction-miscellaneous
If you have ever wondered what it's like to work for child protective services this book gives you a pretty good idea. marc Parent tells us about a handful of the thousands of cases he has encountered in this book. He also tells us of the dangers involved in the in this line of work. This is not a fact and statistics book but a memoir about Marc's time working in the mean streets of New York to help as many children as he can.
What drives mothers to starve their children, believe God is telling t...more
What drives mothers to starve their children, believe God is telling t...more
Jan 22, 2009
Leeann
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
social workers, parents,
Shelves:
books-that-i-keep-forever
Hair raising case histories from a social worker who pulls no punches.
Heartfelt, disturbing, incredible.
Heartfelt, disturbing, incredible.
An entirely new world to me. I can see how social workers burn out so fast.
But then, I'm a social worker. Take it for what it's worth.
Pretty amazing book, some of the stories are very sad.
Well written and difficult to hear, this memoir is amazing!
I should probably begin by saying that I decided to read this book based on my interest in entering the child protective service field. I wanted to some insight from someone who has experienced the field & I could say this book gave me a little bit of that. I give this book three stars because I caught myself wanting to skip more than a few pages and put the book down whenever the author wasn't referring to anything related to the cases in the book, however the story still tugged at my emoti...more
Another heartbreaking read!
Goodread!!!
anna quindlen...
This is a text I'm reading for my major, and it's riveting. It's the kind of writing that led me to Human Services.
This book was good. It's value is in the author's experience. A lot of memoirs are about nothing too special, this one is one that deserved to be written. The guy has a story to tell, and his anecdotes from working in the field of child services in NYC are interesting as hell. It Is thankless, dangerous work. He spent four years emersed in it, and this is his worthwhile story.
Well written and intense- "The Things They Carried" of the social worker world.
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Oct 04, 2007 04:31pm
Jun 21, 2008 12:14am