Someone Has Led This Child to Believe is the beautiful follow-up to Somebody's Someone, Regina Louise's harsh, often brutal, but always compelling" (Booklist) debut memoir about growing up in the US foster-care system. In this book, Louise once again draws on her experience as one of society's abandoned children to tell how she emerged from the cruel, unjust system, not only to survive, but to flourish.
After years of jumping from one fleeting, often abusive home to the next, Louise meets a counselor named Jeanne Kerr. For the first time in her young life, Louise knows what it means to be seen, wanted, understood, and loved. After Kerr tries unsuccessfully to adopt Louise, the two are ripped apart--seemingly forever -- and Louise continues her passage through the cold cinder-block landscape of a broken system, enduring solitary confinement, overmedication, and the actions of adults who seem hell-bent on convincing her that she deserves nothing, that she is nothing. But instead of losing her will to thrive, Louise remains determined to achieve her dream of a higher education. After she ages out of the system, Louise is thrown into adulthood and, haunted by her trauma, struggles to finish school, build a career, and develop relationships. As she puts it, it felt impossible "to understand how to be in the world."