Fiction Friday #6

So I know I haven't been very good about posting Fiction Friday posts so far this year, but that is primarily because I haven't had a ton of time to read....which is horribly sad!!One of the first books I've read this year was A Killer Among Us by Lynette Eason. You may recall that I read Don’t Look Back by Lynette Eason at the end of last year, and since I got A Killer Among Us, the third book in her 'Women of Justice' series, for Christmas, I figured I should hurry up and read it! I loved the first two books in this series and the third was no different. In this book, hostage negotiator Kit Kenyon is adjusting to a new city, a new job, a new partner, and the discovery of her birth family she never knew, when she is thrown into a serial murder case. I love when I can't figure out the end of a book, and Lynette Eason is so great about writing stories that keep you guessing! I enjoyed reading this one as much as the first two and would once again recommend not reading these at night by yourself  it's a bit unpleasant! I'm definitely going to be trying to get my hands on some of Eason's other novels!Part of my job as a Reading Interventionist requires me to get my students reading actual books and discuss the happenings of the books in order to make sure they are comprehending what they are reading. During my first week, I found that a large number of students had read, were reading, or wanted to read A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. I knew I had read the book at some point during my middle school career, but I didn't remember much about it. Naturally, I went and checked it out to read this book all my kids were saying was "so good!" I don't know that I would ever describe this book as "good". Heartbreaking. Poignant. Painful. Horribly sad. Powerful. These are all words or phrases I would use to describe this book but "good" is not one of them. A Child Called It is a collection of Dave Pelzer's memories from his abusive childhood, which is considered one of the worst cases of child abuse in the history of the state of California. After years of happy living, something happened in his mother and she decided that of her five kids, David was one that didn't deserve to be treated like a person. She abused him in many unthinkable ways. She played horrible 'games' that risked his life. She starved him on a regular basis. Yet he lived. A Child Called It is the first of three books that Dave wrote about how he survived. The fact that he survived is amazing. The fact that he survived and has grown into a functional person who served in the AirForce and became a motivational speaker is absolutely shocking. I don't understand why so many of my kids love this book because it grieves me so much. It is extremely hard to read if you have kids, work with kids, or even like kids because of how horrible his mother treated him. However, it is a powerful story about "one child's courage to survive."