An eye-opening account of life in China's orphanages. Kay Bratt vividly details the conditions and realities faced by Chinese orphans in an easy-to-read manner that draws the reader in to the heart-wrenching moments she has experienced in her work to bring hope to these children. -Dan Cruver, cofounder and director of Together for AdoptionWhen her family relocated to rural China in 2003, Kay Bratt was thrust into a new world, one where boys were considered more valuable than girls and poverty and the one-child policy had created an epidemic of abandoned infants. As a volunteer at a local orphanage, Bratt witnessed conditions that were unfathomable to a middle-class mother of two from South Carolina. Based on Bratt's diary of her four years working at the orphanage, Silent Tears offers a searing account of young lives rendered disposable. In the face of an implacable system, Bratt found ways to work within (and around) the rules to make a better future for the children, whom she came to love. Her story balances the sadness and struggles of life in the orphanage with moments of joy, optimism, faith, and victory. It is the story of hundreds of children-and one woman who never planned on becoming a hero but became one anyway.

Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage

Biographies & Memoirs

Bratt, Kay

Arts & Literature

Mariner Books

Irrepressible memories. Vacant eyes. A child being dangled from a third story window. A boy tied to a chair. Children sleeping in layers of clothing to fight off the bitter cold. An infant dying from starvation. Some things your mind will never allow you to forget. Silent Tears is the true story of adversity and triumph in one woman’s fight against bureaucracy to help orphaned children. In 2003, Kay Bratt’s life changed dramatically. A wife and mother of two girls in South Carolina, Bratt relocated to her family to rural China to support her husband as he took on a new management position for his American employer. In seeking a way to fill her time and overcome the isolation she experienced upon arrival, Bratt began volunteering at the local orphanage. Within months, her simple attempt to make use of her time transformed into a heroic crusade to improve conditions and minimize the unnecessary deaths of Chinese orphans. Silent Tears traces the emotional hurdles and daily frustrations faced by Bratt in trying to change social conditions for these marginalized children. The memoir divulges how she was able to pull from reservoirs of inner strength to pursue her mission day after day and leaves the reader with the resounding message that everyone really can make a difference.

Silent Tears: A Journey Of Hope In A Chinese Orphanage

Community & Culture

AmazonEncore

An American volunteer in a Chinese orphanage learns to pull from the hidden strength within her to improve conditions for the children. If you have ever wondered what day to day life is like in a Chinese orphanage, this will tell it. If you have ever wondered what it is like to love a child so deeply, even though they aren't yours, this will tell it. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to move to a different country, this will tell it.

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

After an episode of prejudice rocks her usually secure world, Mia hops a plane back to the country of her birth to search for details about her birth parents, and confront the feelings of abandonment she has kept buried throughout her life. What begins as a simple tour of the Chinese orphanage where she spent her first few years quickly becomes complicated as Mia fights to untangle the web of lies that is her finding details. As she follows the red thread back through her motherland, she is enamored by the history and culture of her heritage—strengthening her resolve to find the truth, even as Chinese officials struggle to keep it buried. With her unwavering spirit of determination, Mia battles the forces stacked against her and faces mystery, danger, a dash of romance, and finally a conclusion that will change her life. 91,000 words, 344 pages.

Chasing China: A Daughter's Quest for Truth

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Mei Li has just about had it with Cameron's teasing, and she daydreams of having a fairy godmother. Instead she is granted with a wise old teacher from China who appears at her bedside! With his magic cane and his gentle ways, Laoshi takes Mei Li on an adventure to China and back to the day she was born to show her how her story began. Together they perch on a shaky pagoda and look at the Great Wall of China, a flowing river, and even pandas as the wise old Laoshi guides her through some hard questions she has been holding in her heart. Laoshi teaches Mei Li that a family is not just about who you were born to, but can also be created through the amazing gift of love.   Age range primarily 4-10 years old.

Mei Li and the Wise Laoshi

Children's Books

Growing Up & Facts of Life

Many believe that those who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread. If that is so, the fates of Chai and Josi are weaved together and tied with a knot that cannot be broken. Chai has been the self-appointed protector of her best friend, Josi, since their toddler days. Their lives are as far from extravagant as can be imagined ― but they don’t need material things to be content. Their carefree childhood comes to a screeching halt when they are snatched together and sold as house help, and possible future brides, to a family far away. This novel chronicles the girls’ struggle to adjust to their harsh new realities once the comforts and security of their old lives are stripped away. While Josi and others around them in the same situation have reluctantly accepted their new roles, Chai’s warrior spirit cannot be broken. She remains strong and refuses to give up hope of finding a way home. Due to the infamous gender imbalance in China, thousands of females are trafficked every year to be sold as brides in remote villages and cities. Because of the lack of family resources, and the minimal efforts of the government to break up these criminal rings, many of the girls are never heard from again. Follow this story to find out what happens when despite one father’s lack of allies or money, he refuses to allow anyone to disrupt his quest to find his daughter.

A Thread Unbroken

United States

BRILLIANCE AUDIO ^

Having survived torture and imprisonment during China’s Cultural Revolution, Benfu escaped to find love with his compassionate and beautiful Calla Lily. Together they build a fulfilling life around the most menial of jobs—Benfu’s work collecting trash. As he sorts through the discards of others, he regularly discovers abandoned children. With unwavering determination, he and Calli spend decades creating a family of hand-picked daughters that help heal the sorrow and brighten their modest home. But all is not perfect and when crisis threatens to separate their family, Benfu—or possibly his band of headstrong daughters—must find a way to overcome the biggest hardship yet. 
Inspired by a true story, and set against the backdrop of a country in transition, The Scavenger’s Daughters is a sweeping present day saga of triumph in the face of hardship, and the unbreakable bonds of family against all odds.

The Scavenger's Daughters (Tales of the Scavenger's Daughters)

Lake Union Publishing

With the bad memories of the Cultural Revolution and a life of hard work behind them, Benfu and his treasured Calla Lily are content watching their daughters blossom—six young women who they adopted as their own. But when a clue to the whereabouts of the biological daughter they lost decades ago suddenly surfaces, they begin a frantic search to find their beloved Dahlia…
Li Jin has lived thirty years at the mercy of cruel foster parents and a bleak orphanage, often surviving on the streets. But now that she has a son, she must try to make a better life for them—even if it means withstanding the abuse of a seedy foreigner in exchange for a home. But when Erik’s treatment turns truly sadistic, she must find a way to escape once and for all…
A beautiful yet haunting story about the “lost girls” of China, Tangled Vines takes us on a journey of heartbreak and then hope as we witness a woman’s quest to change her fate and a family’s last chance to untangle the lies of the past.

Tangled Vines (Tales of the Scavenger's Daughters)

In her first work of contemporary women’s fiction, bestselling author Kay Bratt draws on her own life experiences to create a raw, yet inescapably warm, novel about friendship and a wary heart’s unexpected capacity to love.
A hungry, stray dog is the last thing Cara Butter needs. Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara’s heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone—on foot.
Cara sets off to Florida to see the home of her literary hero, Ernest Hemingway, accompanied only by Hemi, the stray dog who proves to be the perfect travel companion. But the harrowing trip takes unexpected turns as strangers become friends who make her question everything, and Cara finds that as the journey unfolds, so does her life—in ways she could never imagine.

Wish Me Home

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bratt, Kay. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bratt, Kay

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bratt, Kay. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage

Silent Tears: A Journey Of Hope In A Chinese Orphanage

Silent Tears: A Journey Of Hope In A Chinese Orphanage

Chasing China: A Daughter's Quest for Truth

Mei Li and the Wise Laoshi

A Thread Unbroken

A Thread Unbroken

The Scavenger's Daughters (Tales of the Scavenger's Daughters)

Tangled Vines (Tales of the Scavenger's Daughters)

Wish Me Home