this was a great read. shows how to love forgive and go the distance ( )

I loved this book for its characters and the story of a feral girl, six years old. The scenes between Julia and the child were riveting and very touching. The little girl had spent time with wolves and learned their way of seeing the world through the scent mostly. She had not developed language. The most intriguing part of the story for me was not the plot but the understanding and the research of language acquisition.

At what point is it too late to learn a language? Children can learn at least three languages simultaneously but it is more difficult for adults to learn a second language. What situations make it easier to learn the language? My son was a teenager when he started to learn Chinese or Mandarin. It was difficult for him until he took a Chinese course in college and lived in Beijing. He is still living there and is more fluent in Chinese than English. My husband moved from Taiwan to the United States as a young adult, but his Chinese is still better than his English. He still struggles with it. With tenses, pronouns, and pronunciation, it is all difficult for him. I took my first Chinese class in my late thirties, and I struggled with it even though Chinese often makes more sense to me than English. What Kristen Hannah wrote about language progression in a child made me have more questions. What happens in our brains that makes it easier to learn when we are younger? Are there ways that language could be taught to adults that would make it easier? All this makes me want to read more research on language acquisition.

Back to the book, at the beginning, Julia, an expert in child psychiatry, was publicly blamed for not predicting and preventing a tragedy. It was easy for me to empathize with her. I was trained in counseling and I know there are times when you cannot predict what a person will do. I enjoyed the love story between Julia and Max. The main obstacle was trust, and a desire to commit. I loved the side characters too.

I really enjoyed her book. ( )

Dr, Julia Cates is a psychiatrist who was sued for not disclosing violent tendencies in a teenage patient who killed 4 others. Although she was absolved of any legal responsibility, the press made sure that she could not continue practicing psychiatry, due to lack of patients. When her sister Ellie Barton, Chief of Police, asks her to come to treat a young feral child who appeared in Rain Valley, Washington, on the edge of a large rain forest, she agrees. Julia, a bookish child, and Ellie, a beautiful and outgoing child, never did quite see eye-to-eye. They agree to work together to unravel the mystery of Alice, the feral child, who the state children's welfare agency is seeking to place in a residential facility in order to study her. ( )

A Psychiatrist who was accused of causing a girls death is hired to help a girl who has lived in the woods for a long time. Great author and excellent read. ( )

After an unfortunate "scandal" with one of her patients, child psychiatrist Julia Cates flees her California practice and returns to her hometown in Washington state to escape the media and her feelings of failure. Shortly after she arrives, a young girl emerges from the nearby forest, accompanied by a wolf pup, refusing (or unable) to speak and obviously having undergone some type of trauma. Julia's sister Ellie, chief of police in their small town, initiates a search for the girl's family. In the meantime, Julia, with her psychology background, takes in the girl, fosters her, and attempts to discover her history.

I feel kind of like a broken record when I write a review for one of Kristin Hannah's books, and I know this is somewhat of an unpopular opinion. I like the actual stories -- the plots are good, if not a bit too predictable. But I continue to have trouble with her writing. Along with the predictability factor, her writing just doesn't seem polished. It's too cliche, too trite, too banal. Often times it's overly dramatic, and I think in this case, the audiobook reader didn't help things in that respect. Knowing that I've been critical of her writing before, I tried to go into this one with an open mind, but I still found myself rolling my eyes frequently. So why do I keep coming back? Because I do like the stories. And I want to keep hoping that she'll get better. ( )