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A Chance in the World

An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"Pemberton's beautifully told story is a rags to riches journey—beginning in a place and with a jarring set of experiences that could have destroyed his life. But Steve's refusal to give in to those forces, and his resolve to create a better life, shows a courage and resilience that is an example for many of us to follow."

—Stedman Graham, author, educator

Home is the place where our life stories begin. A Chance in the World is the astonishing true story of a boy destined to become a man of

  • resilience
  • determination
  • and vision.
  • Down in the dank basement, amidst my moldy, hoarded food and beloved worm-eaten books, I dreamed that my real home, the place where my story had begun, was out there somewhere, and one day I was going to find it.

    Taken from his mother at age three, Steve Klakowicz lives a terrifying existence. Caught in the clutches of a cruel foster family and subjected to constant abuse, Steve finds his only refuge in a box of books given to him by a kind stranger. In these books, he discovers new worlds he can only imagine and begins to hope that one day he might have a different life, that one day he will find his true home.

    A fair-complexioned boy with blue eyes, a curly Afro, and a Polish last name, he is determined to unravel the mystery of his origins and find his birth family. Armed with just a single clue, Steve embarks on an extraordinary quest for his identity, only to find that nothing is as it appears.

    Through it all, Steve's story teaches us that no matter how broken our past, no matter how great our misfortunes, we have it in us to create a new beginning and to build a place where love awaits.

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      • Kirkus

        November 15, 2011
        Corporate executive Pemberton spins a grim, touching memoir of his life as an abused foster child and his search for family. Shuttled from home to home, the author finally found a permanent residence with the Robinsons in New Bedford, Massachusetts. From all outward appearances they were caring adults, but once the social service workers left, they became monsters. The mother was shrewd, manipulative and feral; the father was all menace and brutality. When he was not being psychologically abused or denied the simple pleasures of childhood, he was having his hands held over a stove's lit burners or getting the kinds of beatings that landed him in the hospital. Books were his saviors, but so too was his diligent quest to find his biological parents, which became equally charged with ambivalence once he learned their identities. His father "had denied me the identity and role I had most wanted, that of a son," while his mother "had failed at nearly everything, but her greatest failure was motherhood." Pemberton also managed to track down brothers and sisters, yet these were also fraught affairs. Still, amid the cruelty and mayhem, the author found moments of peace, like his white-brick garage sanctuary: "I had sat in its shade immersed in my latest mystery. I had scaled its walls and watched fireworks from its roof. The world always seemed so much bigger from its height, filled with a promise that eluded me." Speaks directly to the miracle of surviving a childhood without love.

        (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

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    Languages

    • English

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