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Foster Care Reading List |
A Child's Journey Through Placement by Vera I. Fahlberg, M.D. - Considered by many to be THE basic reference for those working with and parenting children who will spend part of their growing up years in any type of out-of-home care. Perspectives Press, 1991.
A Guide to Foster Parenting: Everything But the Kids! - by Mary Anne Goodearle, M.S., This book will help foster parents take a more assertive approach to educate themselves about the inner workings of the foster care system and be able to make better sense of why the other players on the team do what they do. The author's insight as an adoptive and foster parent, and also as a foster care social worker provides information to the reader from both perspectives. Trafford Publishing, 2005
A Guidebook for Raising Foster Children by Susan McNair Blatt, M.D. - Contains helpful information about health, behavior, school, and many other aspects of a foster child's life. It addresses many of the major and minor problems that may arise with practical suggestions for resolving them, including when to call in a professional. Bargin & Garvey, 2000.
Another Mother by Sarah Gertenzang - A social worker's dramatic first-person account of becoming a foster mother and experiencing how the foster care system treats foster parents. Vanderbilt Press, 2007
The Heart Knows Something Different: Teenage Voices from the Foster Care System by Al Desetta, Editor. The voices of the children themselves tell the stories in this collection of essays. Some of the stories are told with humor, some with anger, and many with pain, but all resonate with unflinching honesty. Youth Communication, 1996
Kids Are Important Series by Julie Nelson - Includes Kids Need to Be Safe and Families Change. “Kids are important… They need safe places to live, and safe places to play.” For some kids this means living with foster parents. Straightforward words and full-color illustrations offer hope and support for children facing or experiencing change. Includes resources and information for birth parents, foster parents, social workers, counselors, and teachers. Free Spirit Publishing, 2007
The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein - Explores the genesis and aftermath of the landmark 1973 legal case filed against the New York State foster-care system.Ten years in the making, this viscerally powerful history of institutionalized child abuse and the criminalization of poverty, of civil rights and social change, is compelling and essential reading. Pantheon Books, 2001
Maybe Days: A book for Children In Care by Jennifer Wilgocki;Marcia Kahn Wright; Alissa Imre Geis -Addresses the questions, feelings, and concerns foster children most often face. Honest and reassuring, it provides basic information that children want and need to know, including the roles of various people in the foster care system and whom to ask for help. Magination Press, 2001
Parenting Someone Else’s Child: The Foster Parent’s How-To Manual by Ann Stressman. A "nothing can surprise me" compilation of helpful and enlightening approaches for hundreds of the parenting situations told with humor and grace by a mother who has fostered more than 100 children. Includes information for grandparents and adoptive parents as well. Aha Process, Inc., 2004
Walk a Mile in My Shoes; A Book About Biological Parents for Foster Parents by Judith A.B. Lee and Danielle Nisivoccia - This book will help foster parents and caseworkers "get into the shoes" of birthparents. Foster parents may use it as a self-help guide and workers will find it helps attune them to the tasks both foster and birthparents face. Child Welfare League of America, 1989
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NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children, Inc.
410 East Upland Road • Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 272-0034 • fax (607) 272-0035
office@nysccc.org
01/31/2008