Speak Gently: Surviving Father and the Anderson School

"Speak Gently" is the story of a young girl from a wealthy New York family, growing up on a dairy farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her seemingly idyllic childhood shatters when her parents separate, and she and her brothers are kidnapped by their father, and then taken to a town in New Mexico called Santa Fe. The ensuing war between her parents creates deep wounds within the family.

As tensions increase, she is shuffled off to a boarding school for children with special needs, the Anderson School, in Staatsburg, New York. Here she is forced to keep afloat in an environment where she feels she doesn't belong. Balancing humor and heartbreak, this moving memoir recounts a unique family history from the eyes of a teenage girl trying to come to terms with her life. A story about the traumatic effects of divorce and kidnapping, it highlights the human spirit to survive.

Judy Naumburg is married, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is the mother of two really cool kids. She has worked as a photojournalist and facilitated groups for children of divorce in public schools. She and her cousin continue their family’s one-hundred-year legacy in sponsoring free concerts in Central Park’s band shell.