Growing up, Susan always felt something was missing in her life. Then, at age sixteen, her parents finally told her their Big Secret. Susan was adopted. With no information regarding her birth family, but with hope and determination, Susan ventured into the unknown to put together the pieces of her own personal puzzle. The child of closed adoption, she would encounter many obstacles as well as many amazing discoveries in her quest to uncover the biological family she never knew. The Lonely Child is one woman's incredible thirty-year journey of search to find the answers to her unanswered questions: Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

From texting and social networking sites to after-school activities, young people have many opportunities to interact with one another, and yet loneliness and isolation trouble today’s youth in increasing numbers. Many children and teens report feeling lonely even in the midst of family and friends, and childhood loneliness is a prime risk factor for adult alienation. Lonely Children and Adolescents: Self-Perceptions, Social Exclusion, and Hope illuminates seldom-explored experiences of social isolation among young people as well as the frustrations of the parents and teachers who wish to help. This groundbreaking book conceptualizes loneliness not simply as the absence of social connections, but as a continuum of developmental experience, often growing out of the conflict between opposite needs: to be like one’s peers yet be one’s unique self. The author draws clear distinctions between loneliness and solitude and identifies genetic and environmental characteristics (i.e., social, psychological, familial, and educational) that can be reinforced to help children become more resilient and less isolated. In addition, therapeutic approaches are described that challenge loneliness by encouraging empowerment, resilience, and hope, from proven strategies to promising tech-based interventions. Highlights include: • Developmental perspectives on loneliness. • Schools and the role of teachers, from preschool to high school. • Peer relations (e.g., cliques, bullies, exclusion, and popularity). • Lonely children, lonely parents: models of coping. • Loneliness in the virtual world. • Prevention and intervention strategies at home, at school, in therapy. Asking its readers to rethink many of their assumptions about social competence and isolation, this volume is essential reading for researchers and professionals in clinical child, school, developmental, and educational psychology; allied education disciplines; social work; and social and personality psychology.

“At times I felt like I was going to my own execution.” This personal story entails my birth and my growing up with estranged, unknown parents who forced me to become an adult while still being a very young child. The disappointments and sufferings that I confronted as a child were horrible and overwhelming along with the agony and the intense physical anguish of the forced departure from my grandmother who, like a mother, raised me from birth As I was yanked from my grandmother’s arms, I was forced to leave my childhood and heaven behind to enter into a different world while enduring and tolerating the abuse of my unwanted parents. I was always treated like a maid or a stepchild. Finally, I was brave enough to escape from them to begin my life as an adult to face new challenges. I could see my memories, my past, and all the events being projected in front of my eyes as I escaped from the parents as well as the struggles I endured as I entered my adult world, encountering different abuses with toxic relationships that forced me to face situations of life and death. This is the chronicle of my journey to the horizon of my life.

Have you heard of the Beasts? No? Well, I'm not surprised. Not many people have. That's because the Beasts are very rare. This is the tale of one Beast, the rarest of the rare, a Beast who decides he is lonely and sets out to find the other Beasts. Will his daring and dangerous journey lead him to some friends?

A lonely doll named Edith finally finds friendship with two visiting teddy bears.

In The lonely child, this resilient soul faced life's relentless blows with an unwavering spirit. Despite enduring unimaginable hardships, including the trauma of sexual abuse, incarceration, and the heart-wrenching act of self-defense that led to a tragic outcome, she never succumbed to despair. Through each dark chapter, she found strength within herself to rise again, refusing to be defined by her past. Her journey, though fraught with pain, was a testament to the indomitable human spirit, demonstrating that even in the face of harrowing circumstances, one can find the courage to persevere and rebuild their life with newfound determination and hope.