“Regina Louise is an extraordinary new voice! Readers will want to reach into her heartfelt memoir and hug the spunky woman, child heroine. Poignant, resilient and fresh, Somebody's Someone is a wonderful read.”
April Sinclair, author of Coffee Will Make You Black

“In a voice as textured as a little girl's cotton summer dress, Regina Louise enthralls you. This well-crafted memoir of longing reminds you of what it means to have a place of your own — especially a place inside yourself.”
Michael Datcher, author of New York Times bestseller Raising Fences

“. . . straightforward, sincere story . . . this rare look into the inner world of an unwanted child will enlighten readers concerned with the fate of at-risk children.”
Publishers Weekly

“This is a harsh, often brutal, but always compelling memoir, and its very existence is proof of the author's personal triumph in the face of enormous odds.”
Booklist

“A beautifully rendered and uniquely captivating story of a child's transcendence over unrelenting harsh circumstances that would condemn most of us to lives of cynicism and despair. This book is the very definition of hope.”
Martha Manning, author of Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface

“An amazingly powerful and unforgettable literary debut.”
Sapphire, author of Push

This is the true story of one child who makes it against all odds, whose resilience shines through each attempt to break her, and whose sheer will to not only survive, but to thrive, is a beacon to us all.

Regina Louise's mother abandoned her at birth, her father barely knows she's alive, and even the state isn't there to protect her because she's been dumped in an illegal foster home. Within its tattered walls, untold horrors befall her. At eleven years old, this child makes a pact with God and puts fate into her own hands by running away. But her attempt to free herself only lands her in the unloving hands of her mother, her father, and, finally, the state. Now in the "system," she is sent from foster home to temporary shelter and back again, until she's lived in too many places to count. With no parent willing to claim her, Regina is finally pronounced a ward of the court and sent to a children's shelter that's one stop short of a mental institution. But, in this most unlikely setting, she finds something so powerful and so transcendent that her Job-like trials all seem worth the price: Regina finds that she is loved.

This remarkable memoir shines a clear light on the fate of children with no parent to wake them up with a gentle kiss, to send them off to school with a packed lunch, to read them a bedtime story as they fall off to sleep. These are nobody's children—who, due to their cruel circumstances, are rarely able to climb out of the shadows of society and are left to fend for themselves in an inhospitable world. But while Somebody's Someone exposes the extreme trials these children endure, it is also a triumphant story of how one small girl makes it out alive.

Never before has the voice of an abandoned child been so unforgettably captured. With Somebody's Someone, Regina Louise emerges as an extraordinarily gifted writer whose voice is filled with raw emotion, shocking honesty, and pure lyricism. If Dickens were alive today, he would surely admire Louise's gift not only for deftly retelling this age-old story, but also for having lived it herself—and survived to tell the tale.