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R.C. Hartson
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Falling Up the Stairs Kindle Edition

by R.C. Hartson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 157 ratings
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Five-year-old Joey Harrison’s world is turned upside down when he and his seven-year-old sister, Beth, are placed in foster care in 1942. With the war in Europe underway and the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, the children’s father joins the Army despite the pleadings of his young wife.

From 1941 until 1947 Joey’s mother will have five additional children fathered by another man. All of the children are subsequently placed in foster care where Joey and his siblings suffer unconscionable abuse at the hands of foster parents. They are shifted from foster care to foster care, including one stay in an orphanage for Joey.

Joey’s mother is age 40 when she dies due to cirrhosis of the liver and the children’s father petitions the State of New York, requesting that Joey come and live with him. What follows for the boy, as well as his siblings, is a loveless path of more foster homes, formidable hurdles, and abuse until Joey ultimately triumphs and reaches the top of the stairs. It’s an inspirational journey the reader will witness as they see Joey and his six siblings become reunited after overcoming multiple hardships and are finally reunited over twenty-five years later.

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  1. Print length
    445 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    September 26, 2018
  5. File size
    851 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"I cried tears of anger, frustration, fear, and joy throughout this book. It is a must read for anyone." -Valerie (Sasha) Petova, author of Celebrate the Dandelions

"Anyone who has ever experienced tragedy will find this beautifully written novel both inspiring and self-affirming." -Beverly A. Heinz, author of Along the Jericho Road and Stand Strong

About the Author

R.C. Hartson has won multiple awards for his short stories and novels which include, two detective thrillers, Fatal Beauty and Triple Crossed. Hartson is married with six children and seven grandchildren. A retired U. S. Marine, he resides in Western Michigan with his wife, Lyn.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07HQMD766
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Black Rose Writing; 1st edition (September 26, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 26, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 851 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 445 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 157 ratings

About the author

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R.C. Hartson

R.C. Hartson

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Bob Hartson has won numerous awards for his short stories and poetry. Among those, a poem Shadows of Iwo Jima was published by the Marines in their Leatherneck magazine in 2003. He is also the author of a family saga novel titled, Falling Up The Stairs, to be released in the near future. Bob is married, with six children and seven grandchildren, and is a retired U.S. Marine who lives in Western Michigan.

Fatal Beauty is Bob's first published novel, but the second in the detective series will be out in early 2016 His numerous short stories and Poetry can be found at his web address rchartsonauthor.com

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
157 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kivalina Mauck
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2021
Verified Purchase
Read but nobody ever listens to what kids say. If the first social worker would have listened to Joey he might never went through so much abuse. This poor boysuffered way too mhch abuse I feel.Social service still has not changed, worse now. No child should EVER go to bed hungry for any reason. I have a picky boy, when he refusses what I fix I send him to make roman noodles or a PB&J that I know he loves. My pet peeve is hungry and hurt kids. My grandkids are loved and all the kids they have as friends..
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L. Dalzell
4.0 out of 5 stars What it is like to be a foster child?
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2019
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Read this book to find out. I enjoyed it and felt sorry for the kids. It was worth reading--just not my favorite.
5 people found this helpful
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DQueen
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding story of a broken family and triumph over the bad choices and failures our parents make. Joey Harrison is my new hero!
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is based on a true story and told with such accuracy and emotionally gripping details, you know it’s not made up. This little boys life has been turned upside down by the most tragic circumstances imaginable. I could hardly put this down. I kept having to check on Joey to see how he was doing. For older readers due to language and graphic violence.
5 people found this helpful
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Marie D. Reid
5.0 out of 5 stars Very gripping episodes of the Childs stuggle in foster homes.
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2019
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Excellent coverage on the feelings and challenges surrounding those at home during and following World War II. This story relives those times. It is a benefit for young or older readers.
4 people found this helpful
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P. Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars These were exceptional children.
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2019
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I’ve read many memoirs. None were as remarkable as this. Beautifully written and completely engaging. My heart broke and soared at the pain and resilience of these children.
4 people found this helpful
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Merrill Hartson
5.0 out of 5 stars Born in the cloud, lived in the cloud.
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2018
Not all clouds are storage repositories for memories, nor are they merely the Digital Era clouds of today's cyber-speak.
>> That's about the storage of data. This outstanding work is about the loss of the human connective tissue, the rupture of ties too little bound to be as one.
>> This is about a family unit torn asunder for the most conceivably noble of causes _ one grown man's answer to the call to go fight for his country.
>> "Falling Up The Stairs," a heart-tugging rendering of one family's diaspora, transcends the genre of virtually shop-worn tales of lives askew, of families in fracture, of broken homes and chaotic lives.
>> This is the story told so often, passed on to millions who had convulsive lives, growing up in a peculiarly lonesome form _ of infants, toddlers and just-plain kids struggling with the pressures of coping with adversity.
>> For this is a story of unity even in default.
>> What distinguishes "Falling Up The Stairs" from so many of the child-struggle accounts is how this family surmounted the travails of a family that fell apart.
>>
>> It's a story more about recrimination and latent resentment, because in these lives there was little time for reveries and too little information for remembrance.
>> Seven kids, there were, not enough to form either a platoon or a softball team. But too many to overcome, for decades, the familial breakup and separation, a sort of household divorce in which the principals went awry and the progeny was scattered far afield, dispatched to orphanages and foster homes, moving on to diffuse lives in which _ it seemed _ God's lone blessing was to keep the identical twins joined at the hip.
>> One can crawl over parched land in search of an oasis, and the Magnificent Seven were left to find an oasis individually. The nuclear family can implode and miraculously be the last family standing.
>> But over many years, and able to cart only the foggiest memories, these seven children lurched to adulthood in his and her inimitable ways, driven by pure survival instincts more than any single-minded quest for abject reunification.
>> Forty-eight years after the Japanese surrendered and the portrait of peace was captured by the photo of the sailor kissing his girl in Times Square, the Magnificent Seven found its own path to redemption and deliverance, a family reunion suggested by a wonderfully caring uncle who had played his own memorable role in the war.
>> The eponymous Joey,his bitterness surmounted, rejoices with his brothers and sisters in what would be the ground-breaking family bonding at a reunion in 1993 _ and for 25 years since this has become an annual affair.
>> To put this book aside unfinished would be akin to surrendering, even if unwittingly, to life's ever-hovering temptation to simply ignore pain and suffering and shuffle on to the next challenge, without coming to peace of mind or closure with all that was left unsaid and undone.
>> ___
>Merrill J. Hartson
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Sad story, and all of it true
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020
A biography told through the eyes of one of 7 children - all put in foster care because the parents were self-centered. The first 3 went together, but even they didn't get to stay together. What a sad tale for these children.
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Charles B. Cox
5.0 out of 5 stars Touching story of foster care abuse in the 1950's
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2018
A heart-wrenching chronicle of the seven Harrison family children and their struggles during World War II in 1942, up until 1956.

The story focuses on the protagonist, the oldest Harrison boy, Joey, who began his ordeal at the age of six when he and his older sister, 9-year-old Elizabeth, entered foster care in 1942. Their father, Joe, had gone off to fight in the war, leaving his pregnant wife, Alice, and the two children behind to go it on their own, failing to inform the Army of his dependants and providing no means for their welfare. They lived with Alice's mother and father, Lillian and Carl Powest, and as times were hard, the two children were given over to the foster-care system "until your daddy comes home and we get things straightened around...".

That brief period turned into months, then years, as Alice began having an affair with Fred Simms, a man she met while working in a bar, and eventually having four more children by him --all also put into foster care-- and Joe returned home to find his wife unfaithful and his children displaced, and then left for New York City to take up with a woman named Connie who had four children of her own.

Both children go from one home to another, suffering physical, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of various foster care families. In time they're joined by Brian, their younger brother, and the two new children of Fred and Alice, twin stepbrothers Mitchell and Merrill. Finally all the children are separated into different families and begin to lose touch with one another as they grow up. One thing remains constant, however, and that is Joey's longing to be reunited with his mother and father...

I was very touched by this novel and became quite invested in the fate and future of little Joey. It was heartbreaking to witness the tribulations that he went through over the years, nearly none of which resulted from bad behavior or misdeeds on his part, but were the fault and responsibility of the misguided --or downright evil-- people who were entrusted with his care. None of the other Harrison children suffered the type or severity of abuse or mistreatment that Joey did, yet in the long run the little guy persevered and came out of it alright.

There were several places where the author reused phrases and situations. These irked me a bit, but they were certainly not detrimental to the story nor would cause a reader to put the book down.

Some might say that the book was overly-long, but I didn't feel that way. There was a lot of story to tell, and it took every page the author used.

Highly recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars 😥
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2022
Verified Purchase
What a sad little life of all kids involved. Based on a true story it's truly heart wrenching. . .
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R A.E.Giglio
5.0 out of 5 stars What War Wroughts
Reviewed in Canada on December 11, 2019
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Falling Up the Stairs

When the war in the Pacific started in 1941 it also caused an implosion of American families across the Nation. One of those families was the Harrisons. In this poignant well written book, the author starts on the bottom and marches us up step by step as we read about the mishandled responsibilities not only to each other, but to their children and the outcome of disaster they wrought through their own selfishness; as they abandoned a generation of children. These children for whom they were responsible were helpless in a Government System that doled them out like playing cards to random families. They struggled to maintain their dignity while subject to a loveless existence as well as some unspeakable abuse by some greedy fawns of the System. Their lives are in this must-read book of fiction, based on a true story. The indomitable fortitude created in these children results in their stellar achievements as they overcome the desperate years they are forced to endure.
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marg
5.0 out of 5 stars heartwrenching
Reviewed in Australia on April 1, 2019
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loved and hated this book, couldnt put it down, as a mother I found it heart breaking, beautifully written in childrens eyes.
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Susan Ricketts
4.0 out of 5 stars A Look Into the System
Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2019
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The tale of two children sent off to live in foster care with no explanation and no idea why. Their trek through both good and bad homes is harrowing. As their lives to on they find that there are seven more brothers and sisters who follow them. Butt after surviving there is redemption and an acknowledgement that they can rise above their raising and find happiness and joy in this world for them all.
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Angela Morgan
5.0 out of 5 stars Falling up the stairs
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2019
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Bought this book not quite knowing what to expect. So pleased I did, loved it. Beautifully written with such insight into what life was and can be, for some children. So, when I read at the end that it was based on a true story, it came as no surprise. Can well belive that many children went through the same fear,cruelty and bewilderment and unfortunately probably still do.
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