Hope in Patience

Hope in Patience by Beth Fehlbaum
ISBN:  9781934813416
Lodi:  Westside Books
Plot - Ashley Asher suffered years of sexual molestation and eventually rape at the hand of her stepfather, Charlie, before being removed from her mother's home and going to live with her estranged father, David.  David and his wife, Bev, provide Ashley love, a safe home, and time with a therapist, Dr. Matt, who works with her to draw her out of hiding, out of self-destructive habits, and onto the long and painful road to recovery.  Her journey is complicated further, though, when Charlie and Ashley's mother, Cherl, arrive in the night to take Ashley back.  Charlie breaks Ashley's arm, and eventually they end up in court.  In her new home town, Ashley makes friends at her new school with other kids who just don't fit the mold of the east Texas town of Patience.  Ashley and her best friend, Z.Z., join the cross country team where Ashley meets Joshua, a boy gentle and kind enough to earn the right to spend time with Ashley by the end of the story, and Pam, the competitive, mean girl vying for Joshua's attention.  Throughout the story, Ashley encounters men use their positions of power to try to bully women.  She gets to watch strong women stand up and stop them, though, and eventually begins to choose to "wait," in her therapist's words, instead of hiding.  The reader will be pleased with the story's lack of a perfect ending, but instead simply the knowledge despite titanic forces dragging her into hiding, Ashley begins to make her own firm steps into the light of day.
Critical Evaluation - A courageous and compelling story, Hope in Patience stumbles and falters through unfortunately poor writing. Everything from poor grammar that's not part of teenage dialog, to clunky syntax to jarringly unreal dialog may trip the reader up and keep him or her from being immersed in Ashley's story.  The author knows her character thoroughly and loves her deeply, though, and so as a whole the book succeeds in its mission to let the world know just how devastating and real child sexual abuse is in our world today.
Reader's annotation - Ashley has been abused by her stepfather and rejected cruelly by her mother, yet with love and boundless support from her father and his wife, she fights her way out of despair into the light of real hope.
Information about the author - According to her website (http://www.bethfehlbaumya.com/), Beth Fehlbaum's knowledge of her character's experience is first-hand.  The author discovered that writing about a young girl who escapes sexual abuse helped her through her own recovery.  Fehlbaum first wrote Courage in Patience and then followed the story into this book. Born in Dallas, TX, Fehlbaum holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a master's degree in Education from Elementary Education from Texas A&M, Commerce.  She married her high school sweetheart, had three daughters, all now in collge or post-graduate school, and currently lives in East Texas, working as a fifth grader teacher in addition to writing the Patience books. 
Genre -fiction
Curriculum Ties - Most likely notBooktalk ideas

1. Ask students, what would you do if you heard about a friend's being hurt by one of her parents?
2. For older teens, find some statistics and other information about family sexual abuse.  Present the information and that of what Charlie does to Ashley.  Ask potential readers to imagine what they think Ashley's biggest challenge to healing might be.

Reading level - Grades 10-12
Challenge issues - Fairly graphic scenes of sexual abuse, and descriptions of emotional suffering; graphic depictions of self-mutilation; intensely negative mother figure.
Challenge defense ideas:

• Librarian has read the book carefully and decided to include it in our school's 7-12 grade library as a resource intended for older high school students.
• Librarian greets students and regularly discusses their reading choices; she provides individualized, age-appropriate guidance in book choice.
• Explain the ways in which the librarian accompanies and guides younger students looking for books, and knows students well as individuals.

Why I included this book - The book is included in our school's collection because it is one of a kind as far as plainly exposing an experience many many girls, and some boys, go through and are left to recover from largely in secret and alone.