WARMING THE STONE CHILD Myths and Stories on the Peculiar and Wondrous Powers of the Abandoned Child

The author, a Jungian psychoanalyst and revered cantadora—keeper of the old stories—shares a small collection of powerful tales to illustrate how societies across ages and cultures have regarded children who are abandoned or receive insufficient mothering. Interspersed between her magical delivery of the stories, she softly describes how such children become fragile adults who have trouble recovering from life’s ordinary losses and insults. Dr. Estes’s palpable emotional engagement (and obvious desire to speak to those in pain) can be heard in the flowing, calming sound she creates with each interlocking syllable, reflective pause, and change in vocal intensity. The arresting beauty in both her writing and narrative performance will make listeners believe that they can internalize the mother’s ability to soothe themselves and find emotional balance, whether or not they ever received such mothering. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2011]