A Silence Of Mockingbirds (Child Abuse Prevention Month)

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Over 3 million children estimated to have suffered from this in the last year. Nearly 2,000 of them died, murdered, neglected. The US leads the industrialized world in child abuse.

My friend Karen Spears Zacharias has a new book called: A Silence of Mockingbirds. The book reports on the investigation of a young girl’s murder in Oregon, shows why child abuse continues to slip through the cracks in our country, and how a season journalist finds herself caught up in a headline story. I have not yet read this, but care about this issue deeply, as I was a victim of child abuse for most of my elementary school years.

Here’s what others are saying about this book:

“Zacharias emphasizes the broader context of this case in the U.S., which has the highest incidence of child abuse in the industrialized world and in which child abuse is grossly underreported. Detailed and revelatory investigative reporting.”- ALA Booklist

“A Silence of Mockingbirds is beautifully written by a very talented investigative journalist. A must read. Compelling and heartbreaking.”- Ann Rule, author of Don’t Look Behind You and In the Still of the Night

“Karen Spears Zacharias has written a compassionate and comprehensive story of howabuse affects us all.”–Sara O’Meara, Chairman, CEO & Yvonne Gedderson, President of CHILDHELP

The Greater Baton Rouge region has named The Silence of Mockingbirds as their One Book One Community Read! And the book has been nominated for a Pacific Northwest Bookselller Award!

I hope you will consider checking it out and will also make it your business to raise awareness about this important issue!

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I’ve written about child abuse here: