Product Description

In I Speak For This Child, best-selling novelist Gay Courter recounts her experiences as a Guardian ad Litem, a volunteer court-appointed advocate for children involved in Florida’s court system. Following her first tentative approach to her local Court Appointed Special Advocates program to her more determined efforts, we get an insider’s glimpse on this hidden world and learn what it takes to ensure that America’s most vulnerable citizens are treated with care and respect. Courter’s story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, and is an inspiration for anyone who has ever looked up from a newspaper and wondered, “What can I do to help?”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #272561 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 420 pages

From Publishers Weekly
How Gay Courter (The Midwife) became a guardian ad litem, a court-appointed advocate for children caught up in the Florida justice system, is detailed with almost Dickensian touches of abuse and familial neglect in the lives of her charges. A serendipitous event led Courter to volunteer for this relatively new position in American justice. Inexperienced in the ways of the courts but fired with idealism and courage, Courter embarked on a mission to right wrongs for victimized children who fell between the cracks of foster care and the law. Here we follow her unflagging efforts to win the trust of her understandably wary clients, tireless travels through the maze of guardianship and, in one case, a hard-won victory in dismissal. No happy endings here: "most of them are in flux," reports Courter, whose heartwarming interventions should inspire others to volunteer in state judicial systems. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Since 1989, novelist Courter (The Midwife's Advice, LJ 9/1/92) has served as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem, a court-appointed guardian for children involved in custody battles or child abuse cases. She has worked on more than a dozen cases, privy to the children's wishes as she challenged state agencies, caseworkers, foster parents, and courts to seek her charges' "best interests." This book offers to the public her unique, insider's view of child advocacy in America. Through engaging and true stories of several children with abusive parents, Courter suggests that a child's primary need is "a permanent, safe, nurturing environment." She views the legal, bureaucratic, and emotional issues involved through the eyes of the children, vividly recounting their tumultuous placements in foster homes, humiliating court cases, heartbreaking separation from parents, and personal conversations. Her book will interest all who are concerned with the social health of American communities and will be particularly useful to students of law, public administration, and social work.
Cedar Carlton, New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The child advocate program in state judicial systems is a relatively new one and not administered exactly the same in every state. Courter explains the goals of the program: generally, they are to enlist an adult to champion a child's cause in court, to dig into records to support his or her case, and to ask probing questions of officials for the child's welfare. Drawing from her own experience as a guardian ad litem in Florida, Courter writes about the children she aids, bringing this whole process, its failures and successes, into focus. Moving testimony, certain to inspire others to follow her example and make a difference. Denise Perry Donavin

Customer Reviews

Read this book!
This chronicle of the author's experiences as a Guardian Ad Litem in Florida will alternately enlighten you, frustrate you, inspire you, and make you angry. Much, I would expect, like being a Guardian. Besides giving others a blueprint on "how to help," and serving as an education on some of society's problems that most people wish they could ignore, this book is great reading, chock full of emotionally-involving, often heart-rending stories. Prepare to be engrossed.

A look into the life
I picked up the book by Gay Courter and could not put it down. Inspiring! I can't say enough about it!

This book changed my life.
As a freshman in college, I stumbled upon this book in the library, and soon after dedicated myself to improving the child welfare system. Courter's account is incredibly inspiring, emphasizing the responsibility we all have to speak up for kids who have been wronged by our systems. I have now been a court appointed special advocate myself, and it is the most heartbreaking (but rewarding!) volunteer experience of my life.

If you're looking for a book that will be difficult to put down, and stories of kids who are difficult to turn your back on, then this book is for you.