Sharon's review
Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk: A Caseworker's Story
by Marc Parent
Sharon's review
Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk: A Caseworker's Story by Marc Parent
Sharon's review
rating:
recommended 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 those who are attempting to undertand the child welfare system. Of course, we must also take into account the time in which he worked and his lack of social service work prior to coming to work for emergency services.
