A review by bellaruffell
My Name Is Why, by Lemn Sissay
5.0
This book blew my mind and opened my eyes to a world that quite frankly I know nothing about. I am now determined to learn more. In My Name Is Why, Lemn Sissay tells the story of his upbringing through the social services documents about him that he had to fight in court to get hold of.
Lemn learnt about his childhood through reports - I can’t even begin to imagine what that would be like. He didn’t even know what his real name was for most of his childhood. Although Lemn starts in foster care with what initially seems to be a caring family, we quickly realise that this is not the case. Lemn was emotionally/mentally and even maybe physically abused during his early life with this family. One can’t even begin to imagine the level of rejection he was made to feel. Lemn then moves between multiple children homes as a teenager. The system even managed to hide the fact that his mother was looking for him.
8,000 are currently living in a children’s home and of course when a family is not able to - for whatever reason - be able to look after a child it is important these homes are there to look after them and are staffed by caring people. However this can quite often not be the case, as it was with Lemn.
I am so glad that a book like this exists to open peoples eyes to the lives of children living in care who might have been forgotten. His success goes to show that any child can do or become anything they wish. However I wish this was a story that didn’t have to be told. After all children are the future are we should be doing everything possible to invest in them.
I will seek Lemn Sissay’s work out wherever and whenever it can be found. It is the least one can do to honour the brave heart of the man and all those who had the misfortune to share these experiences.
Lemn learnt about his childhood through reports - I can’t even begin to imagine what that would be like. He didn’t even know what his real name was for most of his childhood. Although Lemn starts in foster care with what initially seems to be a caring family, we quickly realise that this is not the case. Lemn was emotionally/mentally and even maybe physically abused during his early life with this family. One can’t even begin to imagine the level of rejection he was made to feel. Lemn then moves between multiple children homes as a teenager. The system even managed to hide the fact that his mother was looking for him.
8,000 are currently living in a children’s home and of course when a family is not able to - for whatever reason - be able to look after a child it is important these homes are there to look after them and are staffed by caring people. However this can quite often not be the case, as it was with Lemn.
I am so glad that a book like this exists to open peoples eyes to the lives of children living in care who might have been forgotten. His success goes to show that any child can do or become anything they wish. However I wish this was a story that didn’t have to be told. After all children are the future are we should be doing everything possible to invest in them.
I will seek Lemn Sissay’s work out wherever and whenever it can be found. It is the least one can do to honour the brave heart of the man and all those who had the misfortune to share these experiences.