Billy Straight author: Jonathan Kellerman rating: asin: 0345413865 binding: Mass Market Paperback list price: $7.99 USD amazon price: $7.99 USD

I am a big fan of Jonathan Kellerman’s books, particularly those in the Alex Delaware series. However, my favorite book by Jonathan Kellerman, who is also a child psychologist, is not one of the Alex Delaware books. It is the book Billy Straight, which only has a brief cameo appearance by Alex Delaware at the end of the novel.

Billy Straight is a twelve-year-old boy (but looks much younger) who is living on the streets after running away from home. He witnesses a murder, so the police are trying to find him. The book talks about all of the dangers that Billy runs into as people try to take advantage of a young boy who has no one to protect him.

While the book presents the story from Billy’s point of view, it also provides insights into other things that Billy fails to see. For example, Billy is unaware that the guy at the hot dog stand is just pretending not to notice each time Billy steals a hot dog so that he can eat. The librarian has noticed that Billy steals and then returns library books (he cannot get a library card without a home address), but she says nothing. She also lets him stay in the library longer than the other patrons so he can stay warm and safe a litte longer. Throughout the book, there are people who notice Billy and try to help in little ways that he never sees.

As somebody who grew up believing that nobody noticed my trauma or cared, this book was a powerful way for me to “hear” that there were people who cared along the way. There were the teachers who gave me extra attention at school. There was also somebody who told the cops, because a police officer tried to rescue my sister and me. (We were too afraid to trust him and denied that the abuse was happening.)

Billy also encounters cruel people who want to exploit him because he is living on his own. He does not know whom he can trust, and he risks pushing away the people who truly to want to help him.

Jonathan Kellerman shows his skills as a child psychologist in this book by providing a profile of the mind of an abused child. This is both an interesting book and an educational one for anyone seeking to understand the mind of the traumatized child.