Book Review - Dani's Story

Dani's Story
Diane & Bernie Lierow
with Kay West

266 Pages
Non-Fiction
Easy Vocabulary, Emotionally Devastating

I want to start by saying that I don't rate this kind of book (involving someones life story particularly if is involves trauma) in the traditional manner. I have found that people are interested and able to read this type of thing (its not something thats easy to read) or your not.

When I picked up this book, I had never read anything on the topic of child neglect, I had no idea of the severity of this issue or the outcomes. I considered neglect to be more along the lines of ignoring a child, distancing it from loving connections, maybe so far as to say malnutrition in a grubby home. Because of this opinion I went into this thinking that it would be an easier topic than say, physical abuse or sexual abuse. I was incredibly wrong, I am now aware that children who suffer from this kind of abuse could be considered worse off than children who are subjected to more common forms of abuse. I find it to be such a terrible thing that people even have to write these kinds of books, as a reader it is comforting to tell myself that these are just stories, but they really are not. They are people who have been put on paper, these actions and this suffering is something these children have honestly been through. I don't think anyone can even imagine what those horrors would be like.

Dani was nearly starved to death when she was removed from her mother's care, often left alone (over night possible for days) with her disabled older brother. There where no signs of sexual or physical abuse (not to say they didn't happen). Her neglect was so sever it handicapped her, unless we learn how to turn back time we will never know if she could have been a perfectly normal person. Her mother had been reported to child services multiple times since Dani was 3 but she wasn't removed from that home until she was 7. Unable to speak, unable to feed herself and still in diapers. Her mothers home was uninhabitable, with the amount of garbage in the house it was filled with mice, cockroaches, spiders, lice, and mould.

My Youtube Review of Dani's Story

Dani's Website
'The Girl In The Window' - CBN.com
Update on Danielle's Horrific Story of Child Neglect | Where Are They Now? | Oprah Winfrey Network