Audiobook Narration
Available now
Abby's Story is the second book in the Thrown Away Children series by author and foster mum Louise Allen.
She doesn't want this baby. She can't look after this baby. She will never be able to love this baby. Little Abby's life begins badly, then just gets worse. Now foster mum Louise and her family must help her deal with the truth of her past to give her the chance of a future.
This series follows a format. Part one tells a fictionalised telling of what might have befallen the child - based, we assume on Louise Allen's gleaning of information and ideas from her direct experience and other sources. The second part is a memoir of Louise's direct experience while the child is in her care. All of the stories are harrowing and sometimes very difficult to read but what makes these books have weight is the considered view of our social care system and society's attitude towards 'looked-after' children in general. Louise is an intelligent and creative person and gives fascinating yet not melodramatic insight into this world. This approach provides the balance needed to save the stories from becoming mawkish. They are vividly real, no-nonsense and very human. Louise is also someone who has a sense of humour and this comes across and that's important too because in my opinion nothing shows humanity like the use of humour especially when dealing with consequences the dark side of human nature.
Abby's story is the second in the series.
Recorded for W F Howes at my studio in Sheffield.