– David Carlson, MSW, LCSW

Having been in the service of serving abandoned, behaviorally disturbed children and adolescents for 32 years, I was able to reminisce and find memories explicitly tied to this book.

The messages are accurate, profound, and direct.

The chapters relive one man’s story but the themes are multiplied by the number of kids in care from yesterday to the present and the stories are wide and varied.

There are many stories in the lives of children from both yesteryear to this present day and age. The names change and the faces are different but the broken body and mind are still evident today.

When one reads this book you become acutely aware of why behavior, emotion, identity, can go awry. All of the clinical terminology which labels children in placement existed then and still does today.

What is remarkable and I have seen it over and over is that there are those who “will” to live, who “will” to grow, who never give up.

Out of all the chaos emerges a Rob Mitchell and there are numbers upon numbers who, in spite of the many abuses and neglect, rise to become vibrant creative human beings like he has.

This is a story of one of them. And, of so many of the children I have seen rise out of their pathology and into health, I have also seen a remarkable closeness to an abiding faith.

Rob Mitchell is a man of faith.

Castaway Kid is just one of many castaway kids.