Kristin Souers

As a school social worker, I have a difficult time rating this book since I have more training and knowledge about trauma than the intended audience. I think that this book would be good for new educators who have very little knowledge of trauma and it's physical and emotional impact on students. As a person of color, I felt that she did not address racial trauma and how that shows up at school. I would have liked her to go more in-depth regarding implicit bias of educators and school staff (who are majority white) and how that can cause more harm to students with trauma histories. As I was reading through the book, I felt this book was written by a white person for primarily white educators who mostly teach white students. I was put off by how she chose to describe certain personal experiences, which to me demonstrated her own bias. An example of this is on page 174: " I got lost on the way to the airport looking for a gas station...I ended up in a rather sketchy neighborhood at a gas station with bars over the attendant's window." That statement is a very loaded statement with a lot of assumptions about the area, and who lives there.
Despite my concerns with the book, I think teachers with no trauma training could use this book as a starting point in their education to becoming more trauma informed.
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