Parents' Guide to Educated: A Memoir

Young Tara Westover's big dream is to be EDUCATED. But her survivalist father no longer believes in public schools. Her herbalist mother tries homeschooling Tara (she's one of seven kids) but soon loses interest. If Tara wants to learn, she'll have to do it on her own. At 10, Tara finds herself put to work in her father's junkyard. It's a dangerous job that will later lead to an accident that leaves Tara with a spike embedded in her leg. That's not the only danger in Tara's life. Her older brother Shawn is physically abusing her, and no one in the family has tried to put a stop to it. But when her brother Tyler makes an unexpected return home from college (the only child who's defied their father and his views about higher education), he steps in and stops Shawn from beating up Tara. Tyler tells her that she has to find a way to leave, that he knows a way she can go to college. So she buys books and begins to study on her own. At 16, she scores well on the ACT and is accepted at Brigham Young University. But should she go, or will God punish her for applying? Go she does, and a whole new world opens up for her. She has roommates who wear shorts and watch movies on Sunday, learns about the Holocaust and the civil rights movement, and has a first boyfriend. A study abroad program takes her to Cambridge University in England where she'll return as a graduate student. There's also an admission from her older sister that Shawn abused her as well, a hope that her parents will finally acknowledge what he's done, a confrontation with Shawn, and a final visit home.