Sheila (Hayden)
Sheila is a book published in Germany in 1984 , written by Torey L. Hayden and originally published in the USA in 1980 under the title "One Child" (German "Ein Kind"). “Sheila” has now been translated into 27 languages, dramatized as a one-act opera, filmed in a television film in 1995 with the title “Untamed Love” and reworked into a Japanese puppet play.
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The book is about Sheila Renstad, who comes from a broken family background. Her mother was fourteen when she was born and had to marry Sheila's thirty year old father. After the mother had let her daughter feel that she was only a burden to her and left her on the highway, she left the family with Sheila's little brother Jimmie. Then Sheila grew up in a mining community with her father.
At the age of six, Sheila joined the “waste class” of psychologist Torey L. Hayden, who deals with dysfunctional children . Previously, Sheila had kidnapped a 3-year-old boy from the neighborhood on a November evening, tied him to a tree and wanted to burn him. Since there was no place for the girl in the psychiatric clinic , she was placed in Torey Hayden's special class.
During the five months that Sheila is with her, Torey Hayden realizes Sheila's enormous intelligence - IQ 182 - and the background to her destructive rage. With Torey's help, the girl succeeds in finding her place in life. "Sheila" is subtitled A Courageous Teacher's Struggle for a Child's Buried Soul and it is Torey L. Hayden's first book.
"My time with Sheila"
“My time with Sheila” (published in the USA in 1995 under the title “The Tiger's Child”) tells how Torey Hayden meets the now 13-year-old Sheila Renstad again. Puzzlingly, Sheila hardly seems to remember the extraordinary time in the special class of the psychologist, her psychological problems have intensified again since then. Torey has to take up the fight again.
Current situation of the main character of the book
Torey L. Hayden's website (see web links ) tells how things went on with Sheila R.: she is now over thirty years old, has worked her way up to the manager of a fast food restaurant and is still unmarried. Sheila says herself that she is happy today.