Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found

Written by Jennifer Lauck

Narrated by Jennifer Lauck

With the startling emotional immediacy of a fractured family photo album, Jennifer Lauck's incandescent memoir is the story of an ordinary girl growing up at the turn of the 1970s and the truly extraordinary circumstances of a childhood lost. Wrenching and unforgettable, Blackbird will carry your heart away.

To young Jenny, the house on Mary Street was home -- the place where she was loved, a blue-sky world of Barbies, Bewitched, and the Beatles. Even her mother's pain from her mysterious illness could be patted away with powder and a kiss on the cheek. But when everything that Jenny had come to rely on begins to crumble, an odyssey of loss, loneliness, and a child's will to survive takes flight....

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2000
• ISBN: 9780743542050

Jennifer Lauck

Jennifer Lauck is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Blackbird and its sequel, Still Waters. She lives with her husband, son, and daughter in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews for Blackbird

[caymil · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is definately a book worth checking out. It is a story about a young girl who's life is thrown totally out of control by a series of circumstances out of her control. It is a tragic story full surprises. "Still Waters" (by the same author)is a continuation of the story and is equally worthwhile.

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

i'm not sure that this is all true but even as a novel it's good. are memoirs ever 100% true?

[libraryclerk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow, what emotions this can bring to your heart. A 5 year old girl, Jenny, looses her momma to illness. A mean cousin reveals to her she's adopted. Her step-brother, Bryan, ignoring her. Father remarries, step kids not nice, neither is the step mother. Dad dies of heart attack. Step mother denies them from seeing fathers relatives, keeping them only for the SS money. Bryan holds back his anger and does what the step mother, Debb, tells him to do. Jenny tries but can't help it if she doesn't understand what is expected without instructions. So much happening to this little girl that it breaks your heart reading it. Thank goodness her grandparents come to the rescue!!

[justablondemoment · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book grabbed me, shook me and when I wouldn't let go, sunk it's teeth in and devoured me. SOOO why didn't I give it 5 stars? Well I always give 5 stars to any author that deals with abuse etc and the healing from telling their story. A bravery that goes beyond any star point system. However, the BOOK has to be spot on with no questions as to its accuracy. This is a Memoir/ Bio and in such terrible tales effect the other people involved in the telling of that tale. I have a really hard time with books of this caliber telling me the truth from a child of tender years as being the truth beyond a doubt. I don't remember such things at that age but then I wasn't abused either. So for me unless it is explained like diaries or court documents or another's testimony etc. it is all suspect as to how the author can recall such vivid memories from an age that one usually cannot recall. Do not get me wrong the book was excellent and the trials the author went thru were unspeakably cruel. Read this book, weep for a little, then sing with joy that the author was able to paint a rainbow at the end. But to get a five star put in the book somewhere the "how" the memories were brought to the surface.

[teeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book about a child who is resilient and has a will to survive under hard circumstances.

[laurengommert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazingly shocking view of the author's tumultuous childhood. Losing first her mother, and then her father, Lauck was orphaned at a young age, leaving her and her brother in the hands of a stepmother who never wanted them. Despite being tormented, teased, abused, and abandoned Lauck somehow manages to find her way through life, meeting a handful of characters along the way who help to make life livable. A true testament to the human spirit and a child's resistance.

[salander_9277 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This poignant memoir about a young girl who loses her childhood, innocence and mother all too soon, touched me deeply. What a gorgeous story of this girl's journey through a neglectful and abusive childhood to emerge at the end of it shaped by her experiences. Jennifer Lauck does an incredible job of depicting somewhat delicate situations she experienced and telling them through the voice of a child so masterfully. Definitely a story that will stick with me for years to come.

[bhowell_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jennifer Lauck has written a moving and riveting story of her traumatic childhood of abuse and neglect. Highly recommended.

[readingrat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A moving memoir of a real-life fairy-tale gone wrong.

[invisibleinkling · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a genre pretty well saturated by the likes of Sedaris and Burroughs (who I also love), it's refreshing to get a female voice in the mix. Go hunt out the sequel for the rest of the story.

[mrshillreads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't usually like biographies--but this one is really good. This is good for the students who have read (and loved) "A Child Called It"--but this is SO much better written.

[suesbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a very well-written memoir written from the point of view of the 5-11 writer. There were times when she sounded too adult, but the book frequently stayed true to the protagonist's age. All events are difficult to believe, but I found it very interesting and worth reading.