Call Me Hope

i love this book. it really touched me and made me cry. i strongly recommend this book.

This review is written by an entire classroom of 5th grade students (and their teacher). We loved this book! This book talks about a girl's life dealing with verbal abuse from her mother. She is a very strong girl who deals with the abuse by keeping it to herself and developing a point system (earning points for keeping quiet). This book makes you think about verbal abuse and about life. It makes you think about how to deal with these kinds of problems. This book is very emotional.

Call Me Hope is a very inspirational book. Hope is an 11-year-old child that feels unloved and unwanted by everyone. These feelings arise from the verbal abuse that her mother inflicts on her daily. From her mother calling her an accident to stupid, Hope struggles to find a way to deal with it all. Hope devises a play to award herself each time her mother calls her a name or makes a face. Each word or gesture was given a point value. Throughout the story, she would accumulate points and mentally give herself an award. Hope is a protagonist character within this story. She is very bright and independent natured. She finds refuge in a number of places within the story and makes many new friends along the way. In the end, with help, she is able to begin to solve her issues with her verbally abusive mother. This book takes a topic that is not widely saw as a problem and explains it through the words of a child. Verbal abuse is not as recognizable or as common as physical abuse. This book allows you to experience verbal abuse with the child, acknowledge systems, and offer solutions. It truly allows one to hope. A teacher or counselor could very easily use this book in their classroom to explain verbal abuse and the effects of name-calling. I would highly recommend it for grades 4-5.

Call Me Hope by Gretchen Olson made me cry. This book is about a pre-teen girl named Hope who is constantly verbally abused by her mother. To take her mind off her mother's hurtful comments about her, she has created a point system. She goes on being tortured by her mothers words, causing her to feel exactly what her mother says. She becomes close to two ladies, who work at the 'Next to New' consignment store, who treats Hope like she should be treated. When her classmates, teachers, counselors and even the principal finds out that she isn't allowed to go on the 6th grade camping trip, they all try to help her.Call Me Hope This book brings in the 'Hands & Words Are Not For Hurting Program' [...]

"Call me Hope" is an extraordinary look at how verbal abuse can and does impact on children. Hope represents so many youngsters just entering their teens who have no parental support, who cannot in any way rely on the primary family adult for any kind of succor, or even the routine information to which most "tweens" are entitled. The author presents this dilemma not with effusive sympathy, but with accurate assessment of how a young girl is affected by such abuse. She does this not only with valid insight into the mind of a typical adolescent verbal abuse victim, and with obviously well-researched facts, but also with wit and understanding. Hope becomes real to the reader, participating in all the usual shenanigans of a typical school kid, believing that no one in her peer group or any of her teachers are aware of what is going on. She lives next door to many of us. Provided are solutions to this sad scenario. solutions which, in fact, are actually in play at various schools and which have been proven to work effectively. The book gives actual and concrete hope for one and all... not just via "fairy tale happy ending" but with proven resources available to everyone of us... even the concerned next door neighbor or school counselor. It's a must read for young adolescents and adults alike! Doris Colmes