Wednesday’s Children: Memoirs of a Nurse-Turned Social Worker in Appalachia by Kathryn Anne Michaels

“Wednesday’s child is full of woe” was first printed as part of a days-of-the-week nursery rhyme in 1744 in England. It was first published in 1780 in America in a Mother Goose nursery rhyme book. As a social worker in Western North Carolina, Kathryn Anne Michaels was charged with the responsibility of dealing with abused children. Please do not open up this book until you have plenty of tissues ready and time to read the entire book without interruptions. The 189 pages are likely to go pretty fast, since you may well really get into it. The tissues are for both the heart-wrenching abuse that some parents get away with, but also the occasional happy endings for both the kids and their parents. Michaels does not sugar-coat. The f-word pops up occasionally from the mouths of abusive parents, but even once from the author’s own lips addressing the defense lawyer for a child abuser. She has even less sympathy for judges who side with abusers. There is plenty of social work drama and more d