Critical Book Review of "One Child" by Torey Hayden

Sheila had experienced denial from the very first day of her indoctrination into Torey's class. I believe Hayden recognized this behavior at the onset, determining that Sheila was using denial as a coping mechanism for shutting out her problems. Evidence of this was Sheila's violence and unpleasant behavior in the beginning to keep people at arm's length from herself. It seemed that denial and anger were evident in Sheila at the same time. Torey Hayden worked extremely hard to move Sheila along through these troubled times. The bargaining phase was evident as Sheila repeatedly insisted that she could have done more to keep her mother from leaving. "If I'd been a gooder girl, she wouldn't have done that. She might still love me even now, if I could have been gooder."(Hayden, 1980, p. 188) The progress Torey had made with Sheila was brutally interrupted when "Unca Jerry" came to live with Sheila and her father in their one room shack. Sheila had been given a beautiful dress by Torey's boyfriend Chad. She loved this dress and never took it off. One day Sheila arrived at school wearing her old overalls and t-shirt.…