In case your insta feed doesn’t look like mine, here’s your official announcement that May is Foster Care Awareness Month! Along with having conversations about foster care with your friends and family, one GREAT way you can raise awareness this month about foster care and those impacted by it, is to share books! Maybe that next birthday party you gift a great book, or donate a few to your child’s classroom or local library. These books will not only educate your community on the needs within foster care, but also equip them with the correct language for having good conversations about kids in care and their families. Books are a beautiful and creative way to learn about others, but often books like this get missed in the onslaught of options!
For Foster Care Awareenss Month, I am going to share my favorite foster care themed books, and a quick review of each to help you decide what will best suit your family. Many of you have been asking for suggestions, so here’s my master list.
I’m going to start with my favorite of all the foster care themed books I’ve read called The Moccasins, written by Earl Einarson, illustrated by Julie Flett (2004). This is a short autobiographical children’s book written by a man who experienced life in a foster family as a child. It is a beautiful, simple book about indigenous culture, foster families and passing on traditions.
I love everything about this book! The language is sweet and simple. The art is as well. The language conjures up feelings of warmth and safety. The story is about a pair of moccasins given to the author by his foster mother. The child feels secure and proud in his moccasins. When the boy grows up and has a son of his own, his foster mother gives him his moccasins a second time to pass on to his son. It is as heartwarming as it sounds.
There is no mention of the boy’s biological family. The book features an Aboriginal/Native Canadian boy and both the author and illustrator are Aboriginal Canadians. The Moccasins is great for preschool age and up, it’s a great gift and you can order here.
Maybe Days: A Book for Children in Foster Care written by Jennifer Wilgocki and Marcia Kahn Wright, illustrated by Alissa Imre Geis. This is a picture book that explains foster care to children. It is not a narrative, but rather it is a description what foster care is, why kids might be in care, who is there to help them, and works hard at validating the feelings that kids in care might be experiencing.
I love the language in this book. I feel like this is an awesome tool to help ANYONE understand the basics of foster care, and develop empathy for those experiencing it. I love the multi-racial aspect as well. Readers can enjoy seeing all kinds of family structure featuring people of all different ethnicities- there is no “norm” or noticeable “token” character. Order it here.
These next two are kind of a set, and I believe they are some of the most useful resources for helping children, both in and out of care, understand what foster care is and how it can help children and families. Families Change: A Book for Children Experiencing Termination of Parental Rights written by Julie Nelson, illustrated by Mary Gallagher (2007). This book is about foster care, adoption and kinship care. It is an awesome resource for any family with children who live with anyone other than their biological parents. It is also great for families who want to help their children understand why there are many types of families.
This resource, appropriate for children preschool age and up, is compassionately written in a matter-of-fact way.
Without glossing over the complexities, the book acknowledges the conflicting feeling children may experience and the the relationships children have with their biological families and their current guardians. It validates families of all types and can be ordered here.
The second book in this set is called Kids Need to be Safe: A book for Children in Foster Care, written by Julie Nelson, illustrated by Mary Gallagher (2006). It is also a simple, repetitive book. It does not attempt to answer all the questions that kids in care might have, rather the focus is on instilling two basic truths: 1. Kids are important, and 2. Kids need to be safe.
I love the simplicity of this book. Caring for vulnerable children is so complex. There are many reasons why children do not or cannot live with their first family, but we can still narrow it down to this brief statement “kids need to be safe” that encompasses so many much more complex truths.
This book can apply to so many children because creates a space to talk about one basic truth that covers many situations, and each family can have their own conversations about what that looks like in their story.
It’s easy to let our own ideals seep into our thoughts about child welfare. It’s easy for our preferred parenting in areas like education or sleep habits to distract us from the main goal in caring for children and helping them reunify with their families. This is a fantastic book for families pursuing foster care. It’s a great way to introduce the need for foster care to permanent children in your home and help them understand, in simple terms, the core need of each child in care. It’s also a valuable tool for initiating dialogue with children who join your family through foster care. Order here.
Love You From Right Here: A Keepsake Book for Children in Foster Care, written by Jamie Sandefer, illustrated by Pamela Goodman (2017) is a simple, repetitive reminder of the love the foster mom has for her child, no matter how the child is feeling or where the child may go.
This book, written by a stay-at-home foster mom as a tangible reminder of her consistent love, is sweet and easy to understand. There is space at the end of the book to fill in photos and details of the child’s time spent in the foster home. . It would be most appropriate for preschool age or early elementary aged children, but would also be a sweet keepsake for older children. It was immediately understood by my 5 year old.
This book was written with the author’s first foster placement by in mind, but keep your eyes open, because there are more on the way. The author wants to provide books that reflect more children- both boys and girls of various ethnicities. You can order the current book here, but keep your eye out for 5 more books exactly like this one but with multiple options for the child character coming in the fall. I know those of you looking for adoption and foster themed books for boys will be happy about that! Hopefully we will also one day see some diversity in the parent character as well.
Stellaluna, written and illustrated by Janell Cannon (1993) is a bittersweet tale of loss and reunion. When Stellaluna is separated from her mother, she luckily falls into the welcoming nest of a bird family. Hungry and lonely, the baby fruit bat learns to adapt in her new home by acting more like a bird than a bat. However, when she is reunited with her mother, Stellaluna discovers that her bat instincts are just right for her and that friends can still be there for you even if they are different than you.
Although not directly about foster care, this book is a classic that can resonate with foster families and the children that share their homes for a while. What starts out as a story of loss, turns into a beautiful example of acceptance and of course reunion, which is the goal of foster care. Because it’s not really explicit, it’s important that this book be accompanied by direct dialogue.
This book would be a beautiful gift for a child who is reuniting with their first family or a great addition to your home library, helping to spark conversations about diversity, individuality and the meaning of family. I recommend for children ages 5 and up. Order here.
Finding The Right Spot: When Kids Can’t Live With Their Parents, written by Janice Levy, illustrated by Whitney Martin (2004), is the story of a young girl who is living with a foster mom while her mom gets the help she needs in order to parent again. It is written in the first person narrative from the perspective of the girl.
The child talks about living in a shelter, the social worker, phone calls with her mom, living with “Aunt Dane” and dreams for the future. It touches on issues of loyalty, loneliness, disappointment and fear. Without making any statements about how the child should feel, this book is simply an opener for a lot of different discussions. It validates the feelings of the child and makes room for whatever the child is going through.
The protagonist in this book is not given a name or age But I think this book is helpful for kids aged 7 and up. Children with a lot of tough life experiences will bring their own perspective to the book and it may provoke a wide range of feelings. The book is honouring to all the roles within the web of foster care. One thing to note is that, because the book is from a child’s POV, there are phrases such as “my real mother” and the child talks about feeling safe in her “fat” foster mother’s hug. I am not offended by these. They are not used maliciously, rather they express things as a 10 year old would and allow for great conversation. Some families might not like it, but if this works for you, order here.
I hope this list is helpful as you seek to raise awareness about the need for foster families, and as your family delves into deep, complex conversations about the children and families impacted by foster care. Find more lists of recommended foster care and adoption themed books here.
Lanaya
