Sky: Immensely Compelling and Highly
Emotional Story of Love, Faith and Hope
Early in the decade of 2000, the Department of Human Services of Ellsworth, Maine, Child Protective Division, along with other municipalities, came under scrutiny for their questionable policies and immoderate tactics. Discover how a toothache led to a two-year nightmare for this quiet and law-abiding family. (Well… kinda quiet and law-abiding) SKY is a multi-emotion provoking love story about a mismatched couple and their struggle to save their marriage amidst their valiant battle for custody of their child against this powerful but once highly criticized state agency. An essential read for any parent who has picked up a drink or a drug. Interspersed with actual documents from the case, including brief news clippings, highly-personal letters and court decisions, Mr. West offers in chronological exposé, a passionate exploration and stark contrast to the realities of substance abuse and parenting, with mental illness and morals and with his occasional awareness of a presence of God. Written with wry humor, seemingly at times to mask his own heartbreak, West lays out his perspective with blunt, piercing honesty while allowing the reader to be the ultimate judge.
About the Author
William West is a laid-back, easy-going, family-oriented gentleman from the carefree times of the sixties, coping with Asperger’s Syndrome in today’s fast-paced, often nonsensical world of confusion. He resides in Bucksport, Maine, a ritzy little town, located halfway up the Maine Coast. He has two adult daughters from a previous marriage to Janet. In 1996, after their daughters had come of age, Bill and Janet divorced after twenty-two years. In 1998, at the age of forty-six, and after twenty-plus tiresome years of tediously painting wealthy people’s million dollar homes for a meager living, Bill attended Hesser Community College in Nashua, New Hampshire. 
There, he took many courses in psychology and sociology in hopes of perhaps becoming a substance abuse counselor. However, he found himself receiving far better grades in the many writing courses they offered; achieving nearly all A’s and making the President’s Lists and Dean’s Lists on numerous occasions. Through the college curriculum, he began an internship at Keystone Rehab in Nashua. After about a week into his internship, and during his less than half-hearted attempt at becoming a substance abuse counselor, he met and fell in love with an inpatient of the rehab; a former NYC erotic dancer with anger issues named Rinska. The next five years of their lives play out in Bill’s emotion-packed love story about a family’s struggle with Child Protective Services to regain custody of their little girl caught up in a system of corruption, entitled SKY : CHILD, INTERRUPTED.
Customer Review
Emotional, with clever wit and sarcasm and an original and refreshing style of narration by Jill Wagner
OH MY GOD! I love this book! This is an amazingly beautiful and thought-provoking book and everything it’s hyped up to be and much, much more! I was so moved by reading this true and endearing family story. The nightmare this family went through in battling this particularly cold and heartless Child Protective Services for custody of their little daughter has stayed with me since I finished the book. It made me cry, it made me laugh and it made me get angry, sometimes all at the same time.
Although a very serious topic, the author manages in keeping the reader amused with clever wit and sarcasm and with a very appealing and refreshing style of humor and narration. The story is so enticing and intriguing to the point where you’ll almost want to skip ahead to see what happens next. But what happens next is rarely what you might expect.
I totally fell in love with the characters. Bill, the father of SKY is sweet, lovable and totally wimpy, but I particularly loved Rinska. Rinska is Sky’s mom. She’s a streetwise, former NYC erotic dancer who takes crap from no one, especially these power-hungry caseworkers that the family has to deal with. It’s not likely they’ve ever met the likes of her, which makes her even more captivating to the reader.
Amazon
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