Customer Reviews

Nap Time: The True Story of Sexual Abuse at a Suburban Day Care Center

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Ms. Manshel better not call herself a journalist. Journalists do not take sides even if they sympathize with a victim. I know this because I am one.

It is painfully clear that Manshel wanted to paint Kelly Michaels as an overweight childish woman desperate for sexual gratification by any means possible. She describes Kelly as "pungent" and makes fat-phobic comments about tight clothes and a double chin. Since when does being fat make someone a child molester?

I don't know whether she did it or not. I do know her conviction was overturned as a result of the questioning of children.

Ms. Manshel further proves her bias by painting Kelly's lawyers as overzealous (which they were) but making the prosecutors look heroic (they were just as overzealous)

I also found it sickening how at least half of this way-too long book went into disgusting and graphic details about sexual activities with children. It makes the book pornographic.

What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Now that Christmas is upon us, this tome would make an ideal stocking-stuffer for that special someone. Only problem is, that stocking would have to be made of latex, black leather, or a similarly kinky material. Because this allegedly Upstanding Defense of Children and Condemnation of the Perverted Female is more than a little bent itself.

WHY is the bulk of the book devoted to lip-smackingly-graphic descriptions of sex acts between a grown woman and small boys? WHY are we subjected to page after page of scatological and copulatory details, when the author does not even provide notes, trial transcripts, police records, or documentation of any kind? Nothing dry or factual please; go straight for the midsection.

Actually, there's another problem. All the cutest twists to the story were left out of this book. Little touches like, er, the fact that the prosecution's star witness (a mother) had been arrested for child abuse herself--and that her implausible verbal "evidence" against Michaels got her off the hook? Oh yes, and there's the little matter of the court focusing for two days on a lesbian experience Michaels had in college. (Wasn't suburban homophobia a handy courtroom tool in the 80's? Sigh.) And the fact that the child witnesses constantly (and emotionlessly) contradicted their own stories when questioned.

And why was Ms. Michaels forced to defend her interest in theater and poetry at her trial?

More than anything, this book reminds me of the moralistic, drooling postcards from the 1920's of innocent minorities being lynched. I assume it elicited the desired sensations and Ms. Manshel can be proud of her back-alley-creeping, raincoat-wearing clientele.

First of all, the title of the book praising itself as a true story of sexual abuse at a day-care is untrue. The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled that because of the ridiculious behavior of the people questioning children there is no way that it could ever be determined if allegations are accurate. Thus the conviction was overturned and Micheals has not been convicted to this day. To summarize Dr. Steven Ceci, professor of developmental studies at Cornell University, there is no doubt children in this case were abused...by the therapists who questioned them. Certianly Dr. Ceci carries much more credibility than the author of this... To gain an accurate report on how the allegations developed, read the Amicus breif submitted to the New Jersey Supreme Court by a group of concerned scientists available in the first volume of psychology, public policy, and the law.

While many still feel that some kind of abuse did take place at the Wee Care Day Care Center, the charges trumpeted by the prosecutors and Manshel herself were found to have been fabricated by overzealous (the most polite term) child-abuse investigators. The children were fed a script, and there was absolutely no evidence, physical or otherwise, to support Kelly Michaels's conviction. (It was later overturned, and the verdict declared one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice in American history.)

Manshel acknowledges the absence of evidence and the sheer physical impossibility of the children's stories. Yet she goes on with her fierce agenda, perhaps prompted by dreams of a best-seller or even baser motives. This is the saddest, most confusing aspect of the whole, sordid case: that a grown adult could ignore all evidence and common sense and continue to believe something so ghastly about another, apparently affable, young woman. Given the book's lack of documentation of any of its facts or "interviews," I will have to assume Manshel did not make them up and is merely unprofessional and naive. I hope so. Anyone who would so grotesquely libel a teacher in the name of protecting children is almost equivalent to a child molester.

Kelly Michaels was found not guilty. I don't think that this book should be sold, or read, again.

"...but all will be convinced that horrible things did indeed happen." Well, count me out, I've not been convinced...This book only succeeded in convincing me that the author was overly biased, against Michaels.
Nap Time, based on interviews with the prosecution team, doesn't discuss any hard evidence or forensic findings (probably because the case lacked any evidence, physical or otherwise) that solidified doubt into certainty for the prosecution team; it only relates emotions and (mis?)perceptions. For instance; Nap Time describes how an investigator, searching for some physical evidence to back up the wild accusations, finds peanut butter (allegedly used by Michaels in sexually explicit acts) in the day-care kitchen:
"She thought, `Oh God, it's really here, I found it!" Peg was surprised at herself for not having expected success, stunned, even after all she had heard, to be reminded (by the jar of peanut butter) that the sexual activity had actually happened...."

If a jar of peanut butter, found in a day care kitchen, is proof of sexual perversion --


There was no way for these children to demonstrate that he or she had not been abused. To the prosecution, "disclosure" meant the child had been abused, and refusal to disclose also meant the child had been abused but was threatened to remain silent.
Yet, again and again in Nap Time, Manshel records that after "disclosure," the children's behavior got worse, not better. Is this a sure sign that the children were abused for the seven months that Michael's worked at Wee Care?
The alternate explanation, sad to say, is that the children were traumatized because they had been through a psychologically terrorizing (and leading) interview process (over and over again) with grownups who wouldn't take "no" for an answer. In the name of building a case, the interviewers were the ones who performed the molestation of(the minds of)the children.

As a mother of two toddlers in day care, I take these matters seriously. However, Manshel failed to convince me of anything but her ability to write an unjournalistic viewpoint and call it a "true story".

I can't believe that people are still even looking at this book, the product of the 1980's daycare abuse "witch hunt."

For those who have given this a 5-star rating, or have passed it on to others to read--shame on you! You need to do a little research before you believe the first thing you read. Michaels' conviction was completely overturned--there was absolutely no evidence of any of the alleged crimes actually taking place.

This author ought to be ashamed of herself, as well, for writing such a total pack of lies, and trying to pass it off as truth.

I give this one star, since there is no lower rating available...

Having known Kelly in college, I knew she was innocent from the start and told anyone that would listen. I followed the real information of this trial and its aftermath.

The author of this book did not seem to be concerned with facts

This story is based on the case of the child sexual abuse trial of Kelly Michaels, told from the prosecutors point of view. To bring people up to date Kelly's conviction was overturned by the appeals court because, on review, the interviews of the children were so tainted by leading questions that they couldn't be believed. This book is best read as a "what can go wrong" when over-zealous prosecutors with tunnel vision decide to create a case against someone. (The author was closely tied to the prosecution.) Kelly Michaels story is not unique, The McMartin and Amirault cases come to mind.

The only value this book has, and the only reason to read it, is to see what can go wrong with these cases and to prevent this from happening again.

If you want the true story of the lunacy that went on here (and all across this country), get "No Crueler Tyrannies" by Dorothy Rabinowitz.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743228340/104-7063344-4802340?v=glance&n=283155

Note: I've had to rate this one star as Amazon does not provide a zero.

What a bunch of bologna....No mystery why this hastily put together book is not in print any longer....how about the true update, Margaret Kelly Michaels was found NOT GUILTY!!!!! Don't waste your time with the accusation of innocent people when there are real criminals to deal with out there! Good grief! Lisa Manshel should be ashamed of herself.