One Small Boat: The Story of a Little Girl, Lost Then Found [Hardcover]

Kathy Harrison (Author)

Book Description

This story of one little girl's journey through our foster-care system forms an intimate portrait of foster care in America and the children whose lives are forever shaped by it.

Augusten Burroughs called Kathy Harrison's memoir Another Place at the Table a "riveting and profoundly moving story of a hero, disguised as an everyday woman." In One Small Boat, Harrison tells the story of one little girl who arrived on her doorstep, and describes how caring for this child was an experience that challenged everything she thought she knew about foster-care parenting and the needs of the children she shelters.

Daisy was five when she arrived in Harrison's bustling home. Mother of three children by birth and three by adoption, and with a handful of foster kids always coming and going, Harrison had ten children under her roof at any given time. But Daisy was in many ways unique. Daisy's birth mother wasn't poor, uneducated, or drug addicted. She simply couldn't bring herself to take care of her little girl, and the effects on the child were heartrending. Daisy was unwilling to eat-even frightened of it-and seemed to have a severe speech impediment. After two weeks in Kathy's loving home, however, Daisy began to thrive. What had happened to her? And how can a foster-care parent give back all that has been taken from a child like Daisy-knowing that she might leave one day very soon? Harrison had seen many children pass through her doors, but this one touched her in a way she didn't immediately understand.

One Small Boat will be of deep interest to anyone who has nurtured and cared for a child or anyone interested in the intricate web that is our social welfare system.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a follow-up to her account of providing foster care to at-risk children, 2003's Another Place at the Table, Harrison focuses on one particularly challenging child. Foster parents in Massachusetts since 1988, Harrison and her husband have three children by birth, three by adoption, and a flock of kids staying with them who need short-term care. Into this mix comes Daisy, a five-year-old with a speech impediment who slowly reveals a history of sexual abuse. The way in which Daisy folds into the busy Harrison family, and the difference in her behavior when she's around her spaced-out birth mother, demonstrate how much environment can affect a child's demeanor and development. Harrison shows such honesty about her emotions and her limitations as a foster parent that Daisy's heartbreaking story is even more searing. The memoir also offers a glimpse into the lives of foster parents, who are often depicted as indifferent or awful. Harrison and her husband, on the other hand, are good, caring people who struggle to care for a passel of emotionally bruised children—and usually succeed. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Harrison, who was named as one of Massachusetts' Foster Parents of the Year and is the author of Another Place at the Table (2003), this time offers an intimate portrait of one of the hundreds of children she has nurtured in her home. Five-year-old Daisy suffered from eating disorders and a severe speech impediment, and had a history of a violent relationship with her mother. Unlike Harrison's other foster children, Daisy was from a well-to-do, though emotionally ineffectual, family. Harrison struggled to fathom how and why Daisy was in the foster system and learned her harrowing secret, falling in love with the quirky little girl. All the while, Harrison cared for other foster children and learned that her own adopted daughter, Karen, had developed Tourette's syndrome. Harrison offers frank and honest assessment of the foster care system, as well as her own shortcomings and occasional hubris. She focuses on the emotional and psychological damage to some children and the desire for storybook endings in the face of the reality of dubious adoption placements and children returned to ill-prepared parents. A riveting, deeply personal look at foster parenting. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (April 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158542465X
• ISBN-13: 978-1585424658
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #439,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book that is true to life!, July 16, 2006

By 

A. Smith (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Small Boat: The Story of a Little Girl, Lost Then Found (Hardcover)

I couldn't put this book down and read it in one day. I have also read Kathy Harrison's other book "Another Place at the Table" which is also a great book. I feel that this book is very true to life from what I have experienced dealing with the foster care system. Kathy gives faces and names to the injustices that often occur to children in this system. She also talks very realistically about the horrible trauma and abuse suffered by children before they enter the child welfare system. This would be a good read for any prospective foster or adoptive parent to give them an idea of the sorts of things they may have to deal with. My husband and I have adopted one son from foster care and it has been the best and hardest thing we have done. Some times I wish I did not know about what happens and has happened to children in foster care because that would be easier. On the other hand I know that I have been put on this earth to advocate for certain children that have crossed my path and I would change nothing. I think that Kathy Harrison must feel the same way and I admire her greatly.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Daily nitty-gritty, April 23, 2007

By 

Anatidae Ling "Anatidae Ling" (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Small Boat: The Story of a Little Girl, Lost Then Found (Hardcover)

I read this book because I had loved her previous book, Another Place at the Table. Both are her true memoirs of being a foster mother. She's really loving and kind and also down-to-earth and real and funny.


These are the stories of kids who ended up in foster care because they had been abused, so it's not always a light-hearted subject matter. But the books are far from sad. They're really hopeful and inspiring. It's so wonderful to see how a mother's love (in this case, a foster-mother's love) can make such a difference to a child. They're not sappy, though. She stays away from sap. A lot of it is about the daily nitty-gritty of parenting -- getting supper on the table even though the high-needs toddler is clinging and the older kid needs to go to the doctor, etc. etc. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very moving - couldn't put it down!, May 29, 2006

By 

E. MacDonald (Wakefield, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Small Boat: The Story of a Little Girl, Lost Then Found (Hardcover)

This is an amazing story. I couldn't put it down becuase I became so interested in the fate of the characters. How blessed they are to have been able to be part of the author's home in the midst of their turbulent lives - even if for a short time. But the author reiterates that it is SHE who has been blessed by their presence. Very poignant, highly, highly recommended.