The Boy from Baby House 10

From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America

Alan Philps, John Lahutsky

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780312576974
• eBook ISBN: 9781429958103
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

In 1990, a young boy afflicted with cerebral palsy was born, prematurely, in Russia. His name was Vanya. His mother abandoned him to the state childcare system and he was sent to a bleak orphanage called Baby House 10. Once there, he entered a nightmare world he was not to leave for more than eight years. Housed in a ward with a group of other children, he was clothed in rags, ignored by most of the staff and given little, if any, medical treatment. He was finally, and cruelly, confined for a time to a mental asylum where he lived, almost caged, lying in a pool of his own waste on a locked ward surrounded by psychotic adults. But, that didn't stop Vanya.
Even in these harsh conditions, he grew into a smart and persistent young boy who reached out to everyone around him. Two of those he reached out to—Sarah Philps, the wife of a British journalist, and Vika, a young Russian woman—realized that Vanya was no ordinary child and they began a campaign to find him a home. After many twists and turns, Vanya came to the attention of a single woman living in the United States named Paula Lahutsky. After a lot of red tape and more than one miracle, Paula adopted Vanya and brought him to the U.S. where he is now known as John Lahutsky, an honors student at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and a member of the Boy Scouts of America Order of the Arrow.
In The Boy From Baby House 10, Sarah's hus band, Alan Philps, helps John Lahutsky bring this inspiring true-life story of a small boy with a big heart and an unquenchable will to readers everywhere.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 The Half-Open Door
• 2 A Voice in the Silence
• 3 Pineapples and Peacocks
• 4 Beyond the Reach of Angels
• 5 A Superhuman Feat
• 6 Nobody Cares
• 7 The Mother’s Tale
• 8 The Rat
• 9 Message from the Gulag
• 10 The Sour Grape
• 11 A Narrow Escape
• 12 Babes in the Wood
• 13 Cognac and Chocolate
• 14 Groundhog Day
• 15 The Blame Game
• 16 Narrow Escape (Reprise)
• 17 The Empire Strikes Back
• 18 Christmas Pudding in July
• 19 The Caged Bird
• 20 One of Us
• 21 Candle Power
• 22 Potentially Very Good News
• 23 Ticket to Santa Barbara
• 24 An Evil Trick
• 25 A Prisoner of the Caucasus
• 26 A White Lie
• 27 Unforgiven
• 28 Reunited
• 29 A Bit of Sleuthing
• 30 The Sister’s Tale
• 31 The Vanya Effect
• Epilogue: The Boy from Bethlehem
• How This Book Came to Be Written