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1 April 2027. PRE-ORDER NOW

The second of ten children in an Italian immigrant family, Raffaele Della Corte grew up in the 1960s in The Plant, a Montreal working class housing project. School was not for him, nor he for school. At the age of 12, his father put him away in the “care of the state, at the boys’ home Weredale House.

Thus began a six-year odyssey that took him from the notorious Weredale House to juvenile prison and solitary confinement, and to the Shawbridge Boys’ Farm. Finally, he ran away to Hollywood via Vancouver, seeking freedom––and maybe Alice Cooper. In the trip, he fell in love, was abused, but survived.

Throughout it all, Ralph kept notes, jotting everything down, sometimes even on toilet paper. Things never got much easier, but Ralph credits his survival to Alice Cooper’s music, some good Samaritans, and a Montreal kid’s street smarts.

Crazy Little Child (the title of an Alice Cooper song) is a raw, heart-rending story of resilience in a repressive, dysfunctional Youth Protection System.

Ralph (Raffaele) Della Corte was born in Cellole, Italy in 1957. His family immigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1957. Unable to adapt to school and the new life he and his family found themselves in, he was put away in the Montreal boys’ home Weredale House at the age of twelve. Shuffled from school to school and from homes to prison, he managed to survive despite extreme hardship, hardnose judges, and youth protection officers. He is now part of a massive class action suit for people abused in Quebec Youth Protection centres. He lives in Saint-Eustache, Québec.

Gillian Cosgrove is an award-winning journalist whose 1975 feature story in the Montreal Gazette broke the story of abuse in Quebec Youth protection centres. She lives in Toronto.

Advance Praise

“The Youth Protection System valorizes dominant voices and received scripts. Despite the recently and laudable recognition of the need to center on the young peoples’ own stories, alternative voices struggle to be heard. CRAZY LITTLE CHILD by Ralph Della Corte breaks the sound barrier of the embedded narrative. A must read!”  Fred Anderson, Youth education specialist with 30+ years’ experience; author of Eyes Have Seen, From Mississippi to Montreal