I must say that I truly enjoyed the telling of this story even though it was as one reviewer described it, a 'train wreck that you can't get off'. It was touching and it was very telling about the state that a lot of young children in this country are in.

There are comments about the book saying it doesn't sound plausible, that it is impossible for her to remember the conversations she had at such young ages. My answer to that is that this woman apparently had a very trying childhood, one that isn't considered normal by any stretch of the imagination. In order to get that story into some sort of readable form she must fill in quite a bit with what she thinks 'may' have happened. She more than likely remembers snatches and bits and comments made and has either turned them into full conversations or looking back through her life she reviewed certain situations and conversations and still remembers the gist of them. If she hadn't done this, the book would have been such a disjointed mess that nobody could read it.

Give the woman her due, I whole-heartedly believe her story is true and I commend her and her siblings for breaking out of what could have been a vicious cycle of poverty and abuse. Someone commented on the lack of the mothers' believability, that mother acts JUST like my sister and we had a very normal childhood. The resentment of the children and the artistic bend, the lack of any interest in the home itself and the odd views towards the children esp when it comes to medical issues and such. So mothers like Jeannette's DO exist here in America in 2008!