Those are the words of Jennings Michael Burch, who at the age of eight painfully concluded love only meant loss. His lonely odyssey began one rainy day in Brooklyn when his mother, too sick to care for him, left him at an orphanage, saying only "I'll be right back." This stay was the first in a series of bleak foster homes and institutions, and he never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend. To protect himself from the dull ache of loneliness, Jennings clung to a tattered stuffed animal, the sole source of warmth in a frightening world. This is the poignant story of his lost childhood. But it is also the triumphant tale of a little boy who finally gained the courage to reach out for love - and found it waiting for him.

• New American Library, 1985, 293 pages.