Speak Gently is the
story of a young girl from a wealthy New York family,
growing up on a dairy farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Her seemingly idyllic childhood shatters when her parents
separate, and she and her brothers are kidnapped by their
father, and then taken to a town in New Mexico called Santa
Fe. The ensuing war between her parents creates deep wounds
within the family.
As tensions increase, she is
shuffled off to a boarding school for children with special
needs, the Anderson School, in Staatsburg, New York. Here
she is forced to keep afloat in an environment where she
feels she doesn't belong. Balancing humor and heartbreak,
this moving memoir recounts a unique family history from the
eyes of a teenage girl trying to come to terms with her
life. A story about the traumatic effects of divorce and
kidnapping, it highlights the human spirit to survive.
