Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Lost Little Girl

This book will definelty pull your heart strings and make your stomachs cringe when you discover everything this little girl has gone through. Cathy’s is definitely an amazing person!!!

Most heart wrenching book ever. Sad that this happens to children everyday. Gives life a different perspective!!!

This book sat on my Mom's shelf for over a year...it was given to her by her friend from England and she never really intended to read it. I picked it up and read it in one sitting...beginning at 9 PM and finishing somewhere around 3 AM. I kept saying, "Just one more chapter...just one more page...then I MUST go to bed" but I could not put down the story of Jodie and Cathy. This story evokes a gamut of emotions...from harrowing sorrow to fierce anger. But, ultimately, it left me feeling hopeful...and grateful. Grateful that there are people in this world who stand up for the Jodies of the world. Jodie is a little girl who spent her first eight years in an abusive nightmare with her biological parents and their revolting circle of "friends". Once freed from that prison, she went through four foster carers in five months. You see, Jodie *is* damaged...damaged by her parents and damaged by the social system that failed her. Her violent personality reflects that. How can anyone come out of the other side of what she has been through and not be damaged/fragmented/lost. But her one, small, stroke of luck was ending up in Cathy's home. She and her amazing children provided Jodie with a safety net that she would never have been granted with from, most likely, any other family. This book will make you very, very angry. It may possibly make you weep. But you will also rejoice...and, like me, be thankful for the amazing Cathy...and the love she provided that saved a little, lost girl.

I read this book in two days. Cathy Glass is an amazing writer and an amazing person. Made me cry buckets and although it does not have a "fairytale" ending it leaves a lot of hope out there, knowing there are people like Cathy in this world. I also read her other book Hidden, which is equally good.

First things first, I love this book! It is very well written but the story is unbelievably heartbreaking! I had to put the book down a few times and just take a break from it. The things that happened to this little girl are horrid!!! I've read many books that dealt with child abuse, drug use, and many other books of the kind. But Damaged was the first book I've read that dealt with sexual abuse. Cathy Glass is an amazing foster mother and I commend her for the hard work that she does. I cannot imagine having to learn from the child herself what has happened to her in her short life. It's ridiculous. My heart absolutely breaks for this child. She will be in my heart forever and ever. Thank you Cathy Glass for caring enough to tell this little girls story so that maybe it will help someone who's gone through the same thing. Maybe this story will catch somebody's attention about a child they know of who may be going through sexual abuse and take he or she out of the situation before it is too late. Every child deserves the chance to live a happy childhood. Children are little blessings from Heaven. They are so innocent and fragile. I hate that there are people out there who do not feel the same way. A child's duty is to run in the park, paint pictures of the parents they love, and to just be a child. NO ONE has the right to take that away from a child.

If you know someone who doesn't believe child abuse exists, this is a great gift for that person. If you know someone who is a survivor this is a great book, if you want to understand true feelings, read it.

Cathy Glass writes a powerful visual book which cannot fail to unleash a stream of emotions in the reader. The disturbing account of little Jodie's eight long suffering years filled me with despair, and more. The incompetence and short sightedness of the Social Services brought intense anger. But, thanks to her carer, Cathy, who introduces stability, structure and most of all love to this damaged child, made me realize there is always hope. This is a well written page turner.