Don't Hurt Laurie!

Written by: Willo Davis Roberts

First line: Laurie sat on the edge of the table, not looking around her because it always frightened her to see all of the emergency room equipment.

Why you should read this book: Even though it's thirty years old and not often discussed in literary circles, there seems to be an unwritten law that keeps this book in the collection of every single children's library everywhere. Eleven-year-old Laurie has suffered almost unspeakable abuse at the hands of her own mother for as long as she can remember, and even though her eight-year-old stepbrother has figured out what's going on, no one's going to listen to him, and Laurie's mom arranged it so that no one else can ever get close enough to Laurie to learn her terrible secrets. A sad, intimate story about a little girl suffering through the pain and her experience of a parent who is terribly mentally ill, but all the child has ever known.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Graphic descriptions of horrific child abuse.