A deaf widow leaves her eight-year-old son at an orphanage, hoping he’ll find a better life. She dreams that Girard College, a boarding school for fatherless boys, will be his Camelot.

What she doesn’t know is that emotional abuse, corporal punishment, bullying and pedophilia are the norm. And her son doesn’t know whether his mother is ever coming back, or if he’ll have to run away.

Boarding School Bastard is the memoir of a child’s first year at an orphanage in 1962.

Leavening the tragedy with humor, Boarding School Bastard reveals a world we’d prefer to avoid but is too riveting to ignore. To understand how a child survives the loss of his father and the abuse of his guardians, this stunning debut memoir is essential reading.

PRAISE FOR BOARDING SCHOOL BASTARD

“Sharavsky has dug deep for this gripping and emotional memoir, exposing a childhood sure to leave as big a mark on the reader as it did on the writer. Unforgettable.”

—Jon Clinch, Author of Finn and Kings of the Earth

“Sharavsky’s experiences, as depicted in this moving book, provide an important lens into the loneliness and fear felt by children who feel vulnerable and unprotected. Boarding School Bastard eloquently portrays the trauma experienced by victims and witnesses to child abuse.”

— Debra Schilling Wolfe, MEd, Executive Director, University of Pennsylvania

Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice and Research