My Gentle Barn

Creating a Sanctuary Where Animals Heal and Children Learn to Hope

By: Ellie Laks

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Founder Ellie Laks started The Gentle Barn after adopting a sick goat from a run-down petting zoo in 1999. Some 200 animals later (including chickens, horses, pigs, cows, rabbits, emus, and more), The Gentle Barn has become an extraordinary nonprofit that brings together a volunteer staff of community members and at-risk teens to rehabilitate abandoned and/or abused animals. As Ellie teaches the volunteers to care for the animals, they learn a new language of healing that works wonders on the humans as well.

My Gentle Barn weaves together the story of how the Barn came to be what it is today with Ellie's own journey. Filled with heartwarming animal stories and inspiring recoveries, My Gentle Barn is a feel-good account that will delight animal lovers and memoir listeners alike.

©2014 Ellie Laks (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

" My Gentle Barn is a wonderful book. You'll love Ellie Laks and the animals she rescued - and who rescued her back." (Sy Montgomery, The Good Good Pig)

Loved it!

Great book! Such an amazing woman that followed her dream and created a wonderful organization!

Lifechanging

The love Ellie feels, one can feel it with the narration. This is very stimulating and motivating for readers who plan on following on her footsteps. Beautiful book, beautiful narration. I cried and laughed with her all along.

Highly recommend

I enjoyed reading the story of Ellie and Gentle Barn. So much to relate to🥹I hope I can meet Ellie in person one day💚

This book has changed my diet!

Laks’ story is heartfelt and at times heartbreaking. I cried in several places. The narrator, Hillary Huber, gives the story warmth and grace, her golden voice leading me gently through the tough spots. I’m a beginner at being a vegetarian. My goal now is a vegan diet. Thanks, ladies. Can’t wait to visit The Gentle Barn.

I'm now a vegetarian

Any additional comments?

I listened to this book faithfully each morning, and often had difficulty pulling myself away. I found myself relating to the author, who was taught from a young age that her interests and goals were silly and impractical. Yet, she persevered and allowed the universe her to assist her, as she determinedly nursed injured animals and created a sanctuary for them. That she motivated herself and worked past her discouragements, I found inspiring. The author's stories of neglected and abused farm animals, and tales of rescued veal calves, ultimately led me to become a vegetarian -- and to limit my consumption of milk products (since it's dairy cows that ultimately produce veal calves). The author was successful where others had not been -- she convinced me to act upon my feelings.