MY OTHER KIDS

A child advocate recalls her experiences with four siblings from a troubled family in this debut memoir.

The book opens in a Pennsylvania courtroom in 2014, where Savitch appeared for the first time in her new role as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. The case involved the fates of four siblings, ages 2 to 9, whose single mother, “Dawn Johnson” (names were changed to protect identities), had a long history of drug use and neglect. “It struck me that monumental decisions affecting children and their families were made in such an ordinary room with the input of barely trained newbies like me,” she writes. The author recounts her seven-year association with the siblings as she navigated complicated family drama, mental health crises, and bureaucratic red tape. While Savitch is sympathetic to Johnson and sensitive to the socioeconomic barriers she struggled to overcome, the author notes the mother’s antipathy toward Savitch and other caseworkers (“I don’t want you around us,” Johnson once wrote the author in a profanity-laden text message). The author focuses on her relationship with one sibling in particular, CJ, whose problematic behavior—including inappropriate sexual comments to teachers and impulsive outbursts of anger—was often exacerbated, rather than helped, by the various agencies tasked with protecting him. Despite the harrowing depiction of the child welfare system (“This system harmed the most vulnerable, those it was meant to protect”), the book is ultimately inspirational as it details how Savitch’s seven-year relationship with CJ and his siblings helped to shape them into thriving young adults—and how they affected the author as a Jewish woman, wife, and mother, in return. While the text is novel-like in its storytelling, it also provides an insider’s perspective on the intricacies of the child welfare system.

The poignant story of an advocate’s journey.