Lives Shaped by Historic Childhood Tornado

KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As current as today's headlines, as timeless as a child's nightmare, Carolyn Glenn Brewer's latest book, Caught Ever After: Children of the Ruskin Heights Tornado (http://carolynglennbrewer.com) recounts long-buried stories from children of this 1957 F-5 storm. On the evening of May 20, 1957, hundreds of unsuspecting children found their reality altered forever by the Ruskin Heights tornado. This monster not only destroyed lives and property, it undermined the security and trust of its youngest survivors.

Caught Ever After is the only book devoted to the viewpoint of children tornado survivors. Brewer emphasizes the point that by not talking about their experience the tornado never really left their lives - even 50 years later. Brewer, who grew up in Ruskin Heights and interviewed over one hundred of her former classmates and friends, tells of her own terror of being separated from her family while the tornado chewed up her house. "I was seven and didn't know what a tornado was," she says. "I just knew something angry and ugly was keeping me from my parents."

BookReview.com calls this, "An excellent book." Kikus Review says, "An almost unbearably vivid tale ... emotionally wrenching." Local media response has been very positive and lectures by the author well attended.

Amazon customer reviews give Caught Ever After five stars. One calls Brewer, "a sincerely gifted storyteller." Another says, "Brewer does a wonderful job of placing you in the mind of an innocent child of the '50s who is about to have her life changed forever.

The 71-mile long tornado that changed Brewer's childhood touched down at 6:15 p.m. on May 20, 1957 two miles southwest of Williamsburg, Kansas. Growing in strength from an F-4 to an F-5, it tore through the communities of Ottawa and Spring Hill, Kansas and Martin City, Grandview, Hickman Mills and Ruskin Heights, Missouri. Forty people were killed, 531 were injured and 842 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.

Author Bio

Carolyn Glenn Brewer, writer, historian, teacher and lecturer, is also a child of the Ruskin Heights tornado. This is her second book. Her widely acclaimed first book, Caught In The Path, A Tornado's Fury, A Community's Rebirth, has been featured on local and national television and radio programs and adapted into a one-act play. She has also written for JAM Magazine. She and her husband live in Kansas City, where besides writing she spends her time as a band director and musician.

Contact:

Carolyn Glenn Brewer
[email protected]     
816-361-1354

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SOURCE Carolyn Glenn Brewer