Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Nice Children Stolen from Car

Awesome news! My friend and fellow child of a hoarder, Barbara Allen, author of the Nice Children Stolen from Car blog, has written a book with the same title, and it is now available from Amazon!

Here's a little blurb from Amazon's book description:
Humorous yet heart-wrenching, Barbara Allen's memoir, "Nice Children Stolen From Car," tells the story of her teenage years in the chaotic household of her father, a compulsive hoarder. Through a series of stand-alone vignettes, Allen shares, from a young adult perspective, what it was like for her and her siblings to be raised in a house where nothing was ever thrown away, where no visitors were welcome, where basic necessities like food and running water were not always available. Excerpts from Allen's book have been posted on her blog by the same name and have generated a number of responses like this one: "[Allen] has a true gift... the stories and style remind me a bit of Augusten Burroughs' work..."
Barbara is as wonderful and witty as they come, and I hope that you will consider buying her book!

Update: Now there is a Kindle version of Barbara's book, too!

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Siblings: Foster Children and Children of Hoarders?

I've been a fan of David Hoffman's documentaries for a few years, and he recently did a series of short interviews with foster children for the city of Santa Cruz. While being a foster child and being a COH are obviously different experiences, I was struck by the similarities in the language used in this interview with the language used by many COH to describe their own experiences.