Childre Should Be Listened to And Have a Voice
Dead Dog Road by Diane Black is the True Story of a counsellor whose determination to set up Roosevelt House and the surprising way the help that comes pouring in from unexpected quarters is heartening, and a reminder of human decency.
Diane recounts her time running a Texas children’s home, focusing on one case involving three Russian children. Dianes life takes an unexpected turn, starting with a simple request from Child Protective Services to perform a psychosocial evaluation on a father and his adopted children in a nearby town. When Diane hears the story of horrific abuse from Alexey Diane promises she will do everything she can to help the three children.
Diane finds she is up against a systematic failure in Texas that resulted in the child welfare system returning the children repeatedly to their abusive home but Diane refuses to back down when times get bad as she remains steadfast in helping the children. This story is the heart retching true story of abuse, a system that failed children and the sincere account of one woman’s determination to save all three children from abuse. Diane tried diverse ways to help these children but, they fell through the cracks!
My heart broke whilst reading the tragic stories of these children and the tears ran down my face. This book is a gripping read and the illuminating story is frequently uplifting, as neither Black nor Alexey surrender. In this book there are plenty of warning signs and it is incredibly sad that even today with everyone being alerted to these tragedies on the news, people still do not feel children should be listened to and have a voice. This book is professionally written, and it is good to know there are good people out there.  Thank you for sharing your story. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers of this book for giving me a free advance copy of the book to preview and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a heartbreaking story, a devastating reality for many children. There are agencies that many parents fear but for the ones that need the agencies the most they seem to fall through the cracks. When most people hear stories about children who are adopted from other countries, usually it is seen as an ultimate act of sacrifice for the person to spend money and to want to try to help children in other countries that are less fortunate. However, these three children were adopted from Russia and they were adopted by a sadistic woman. As soon as these children arrived home they spoke Russian and she slapped them in the face and told them never to speak Russian again. These were children and they did not have a choice to come and did not understand. Then when the boy tried to run away and hid under a house the sheriff's office took him back to the home he was abused in! While there are so many reports child protective services still believe the adoptive mother's account of events and the denial of any abuse, they leave the children there.
However, while under the investigation there was a director from a children's home who spoke to the children and tried to help these kids from unspeakable acts but she is met with a series of brick walls. The director tried different ways to help these children but ultimately they fell through the cracks! This is a heart-wrenching story that shows just how children can fall through the cracks of different agencies and how people can literally get away with it! Thank you Black Flower Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this one!

The story tells how an agency designed to protect children can let them down by not providing them with the protection they need. It shows us how these kids can end up lost and forgotten. The story is really powerful and emotional, and it makes you feel for these kids who've been let down by a system that's supposed to help them.

A heartbreaking story of the lows encountered with adoptions and CPS. Very eye opening and important book that everyone should read.

A systematic failure in the Texas child welfare system resulted in three children, adopted from Russia, being returned time and again to an abusive home. A children's home director unknowingly puts her career on the line to help these children only to find the authorities don't want to upset the status quo. This is her story.

From what I gather, foster care narratives are an entire genre of literature in Great Britain. This narrative is actually a factional memoir and not at all a fictionalized or composite version of events which makes it all the more gripping. This book reminds me of A Child Called "It" in a good way, Like that memoir, Dead Dog Road is also highly compelling.

What a heart wrenching true story of abuse and a system that fails abused and neglected children. Diane did everythingg she could to help the children but with the system so corrupt she didn’t stand a chance. You need to read it to find out what happened to Alexey (pictured above) and his sisters 💙💗💗

I was gripped by this story and read it in one sitting

Trigger warnings but highly recommend

This title will be released on 24 March on KU
@dianeblackauthor

this book was absolutely gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and eye opening.

thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy!

I"m glad I read this book. It was a tough subject to read but it was really helpful to understand this particular tough topic. It's one that will stay with me long after I finished the last page. This was a new to me author.

I really appreciated the author sharing their story with us. It was a moving and hard hitting story. It was written perfectly, and was able to tell the hard-hitting facts of the story.

This was an impressive read yet shocking at the same time. And yet not really shocking, after reading about so many kids killed while under the purview of CPS, etc. through the years. A sad real life story in Texas. Should be made into a movie.

This is a good book on a hard subject matter that exposes the failures in our country’s Child welfare services and the abuses the run .
It is heartbreaking to the core but the story is well told and engaging.

This one was hard for me.
I liked the tenacity of the author, trying different ways of trying to help the three adopted siblings.

However, I did feel that she broke the law by not reporting the children's whereabouts. I could understand why the sheriff and CPS were concerned with her actions.

I thought that the book was really bogged down by the author continuing to say that her home life was pretty perfect, her daughters the best, normal kids. This happened almost every other chapter.

The ending was ok, but I felt like a large piece of the story was missing. Why did the Deckerts get the kids from Russia. Did the Deckerts face ANY kind of repercussions for their child abuse? Where are the Deckerts now?

I was left wanting to know more but also kind of done reading about the author.

Overall I struggled with this book.

This book is gripping and extremely heartbreaking and fills your heart with frustration and anger.. You put your faith into agency to protect children and to watch them fall through the cracks like that. And not really falling through the cracks they were pushed in the holes by CPS, law enforcement and the government. And then to prosecute those who ARE helping!! This is an unfair and cruel world.

I received this book as an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity.

Diane Black has written a thoughtful and compassionate book.

Because of her tenacity, altruism and sacrifices she was able to assist these children.

The world needs more people like Diane in it. Thank you Diane for writing this book and bringing attention to so many disturbing agency ignorances and failures.

#DEADDOGROAD
#NetGalley #goodreads

A heart-wrenching account of one woman’s struggle to protect three children who were adopted into an abusive home in the USA from Russia. It’s such a hard read but an important one as it highlights the inadequacies of the social care system and the impact it has on innocent people. Diane’s tenacity in fighting the system is awe-inspiring and her sheer selflessness and humanity contrasts with the inhumane behaviour of the children’s adoptive parents.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a case that is way beyond kids falling through the cracks of CPS and social worker. It's is downright appalling to read about so many people, including law enforcement, that let's these poor kids down.
The lengths that the author goes to to help is kids is absolutely amazing. She risked so much.