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The Boys of the Dark
Michael O’McCarthy and Robert W. Straley were teens when they were termed “incorrigible youth” by authorities and ordered to attend the Florida School for Boys. They discovered in Marianna, the “City of Southern Charm,” an immaculately groomed campus that looked more like an idyllic university than a reform school. But hidden behind the gates of the Florida School for Boys was a hell unlike any they could have imagined. The school’s guards and administrators acted as their jailers and tormentors. The boys allegedly bore witness to assault, rape, and possibly even murder. For fifty years, both men---and countless others like them---carried their torment in silence. But a series of unlikely events brought O’McCarthy, now a successful rights activist, and Straley together, and they became determined to expose the Florida School for Boys for what they believed it to be: a youth prison with a century-long history of abuse. They embarked upon a campaign that would change their lives and inspire others. Robin Gaby Fisher, a Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling After the Fire, collaborates with Straley and O’McCarthy to offer a riveting account of their harrowing ordeal. The Boys of the Dark goes beyond the story of the two men to expose the truth about a century-old institution and a town that adopted a Nuremberg-like code of secrecy and a government that failed to address its own wrongdoing. What emerges is a tale of strength, resolve, and vindication in the face of the kinds of terror few can imagine. Praise for The Boys of the Dark "[The Boys of the Dark] reads seamlessly.... A worthy exploration of a regrettably long-lasting true-crime nightmare." —Kirkus “This deeply moving story is highly recommended to readers of heart-wrenching memoirs, 20th-century American studies, or true crime.” —Library Journal After the Fire
"After the Fire" debuts on New York Times bestseller list Sept. 14 See the "After the Fire" Facebook page for the latest news and reviews
Review in USA TODAY Review in Minneapolis Star Tribune Review in Rocky Mountain News STARRED REVIEW-Publisher’s
Weekly. June 30, 2008 Excerpt from New York Daily News Book
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Last chance highIn 2004 her series "Last Chance High," about a special school for troubled teens, was also a finalist for a Pulitzer. The series received the Nieman Foundation's 2005 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers. Read the series
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A story that garnered national attention, this is the harrowing tale of two men who suffered abuses at a reform school in Florida in the 1950s and 60s, and who banded together fifty years later to confront their attackers.
On
January 19, 2000, a fire raged through Seton Hall University's
freshman dormitory, killing three students and injuring 58 others.
Among
the victims were Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, roommates from
poor neighborhoods who made their families proud by getting into
college. They managed to escape, but both were burned terribly.
AFTER THE FIRE is the story of these young men and their courageous
fight to recover from the worst damage the burn unit at Saint Barnabas
hospital had ever seen. It is the story of the extraordinary doctors
and nurses who work with the burned. It is the story of mothers
and fathers, of faith and family and the invisible ties that bind
us to each other. It is the story of the search for the arsonists--and
the elaborate cover-up that nearly obscured the truth. And it is
the story of the women who came to love these men, who knew that
real beauty is a thing not seen in mirrors.
Order
"The Boys of the Dark"
from Amazon Order
the "After the Fire"
from Amazon Read
the series |
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