Silent Boy: He was a frightened boy who refused to speak – until a teacher's love broke through the silence - Tapa dura

"Torey Hayden deserves the kind of respect I can't give many people. She isn't valuable, she's incredible. The world needs more like Torey Hayden." Boston Globe

“A story rich in reasons for hope.” Publisher’s Weekly

“A skilful storyteller... Torey Hayden writes vividly about the challenges and frustrations of working with disturbed children.” Washington Post Book World

From the author of Sunday Times bestsellers One Child and Beautiful Girl comes a heartbreaking story of a boy trapped in silence and the teacher who rescued him.

When special education teacher Torey Hayden first met fifteen-year-old Kevin, he was barricaded under a table. Desperately afraid of the world around him, he hadn’t spoken a word in eight years. He was considered hopeless, incurable.

But Hayden refused to believe it, though she realised it might well take a miracle to break through the walls he had built around himself. With unwavering devotion and gentle, patient love, she set out to free him – and slowly uncovered a shocking violent history and a terrible secret that an unfeeling bureaucracy had simply filed away and forgotten.

Torey refused to give up on this tragic “lost case.” For a trapped and frightened boy desperately needed her help – and she knew in her heart she could not rest easy until she had rescued him from the darkness.