Showing results for "Catcher" in Growing Up & Facts of Life

Fifteen-year-old Kate Steiner is not sure why she is suddenly boarding at an East Coast school for troubled kids, though there is evidence that her lawyer parents are having marital problems. It is the mid-1970s, and at the progressive school where she has landed, Kate is initiated into a stratified society inhabited by kids who fell through the cracks. Kate must grapple with moral ambiguities when she discovers that Patrick, her first boyfriend, is also a slip-sliding drug addict.

Hazel Kaplansky and new student Samuel Butler investigate rumors that a Russian spy has infiltrated their small Vermont town, amidst the fervor of Cold War era McCarthyism, but more is revealed than they could ever have imagined.

In the years leading up to the 1950's, there were no resources for the challenged. They were placed in asylums or back rooms and left to die. They were never talked about or acknowledged. They were the silent children. The ones no one wanted. The ones who were never given a chance to live. Yvonne Mason tells the story of Stan, her brother, who was never supposed to succeed. He was supposed to fail.

In this story the child is invited on a journey where self empowerment is modeled through an interaction between the narrator and a fictionalized character known as the Catcher Dream. This is a story where the narrator models strength and courage once an uncomfortable matter is identified through self-assessment. "The Catcher Dream” offers a standing invitation to the child. The child will learn that they are individuals in charge of safeguarding their physical and emotional space.