Little Girl Lost by Leisha Joseph (paperback)
Until she was eight, Leisha Joseph lived a happy life in a suburban world surrounded by loving brothers and a caring mother. Her world began to fall apart in her eighth year, when her father died and her mother’s mental health began to decline. In the years leading up to high school, Joseph was mentally abused by her mother and physically abused by her mother’s boyfriends. When her mother, in a fit of rage, burned down the house and was subsequently placed in a mental institution, Leisha felt abandoned and alone. Attending a Protestant church with a friend, she discovered that the love of God and her newfound religion helped her to overcome her loneliness. In a moment of disillusionment, however, she gave up religion and succumbed to the attractions of drugs until a near fatal overdose drove her back to God. As she began to grow in her new commitment to God, she was showered with many blessings: an engagement to a deeply committed Christian man; participation as a finalist in the Miss Teen USA pageant; graduation with honors from high school. Suddenly, her world was shattered anew, when she was raped in a mall parking lot by a serial rapist. According to Joseph, God intervened to give her the strength to survive her attack as well as to confront her attacker in court. After the attack, Joseph prayed for her attacker and eventually gave him a Bible to demonstrate the depth of God’s love for him. Joseph’s dramatic and harrowing memoir reveals a faithful and courageous woman seeking to act always according to God’s guidance.