Calon Cymru recommends … Books on fostering for International Literacy Day

International Literacy Day aims to promote the importance of literacy for all people. Good literacy skills allow people to improve their understanding of their world, environment and the things they are going through.

Being in foster care can be a confusing time for some children and young adults, reading and hearing stories about people like them can help them to find some understanding of their situations, to feel seen and heard and to feel less alone.

As adults caring for children and young people, finding ways to connect to the children in your care, to understand their experiences, can be key to creating a strong, trusting relationship.

Here are some of our recommendations for some of the best fiction and non-fiction books touching on topics such as foster care, identity, family, kindness and more.

For children…

The Story of Tracy Beaker – Jacqueline Wilson

Ten-year-old Tracy Beaker lives in a children’s home. She tells the other children that her mum is a glamorous film star who is too busy to look after her right now, but one day she will be back for her. One day writer Cam visits the home hoping to write an article and ends up finding more than a story, she finds Tracy. This funny and uplifting tale follows Tracy’s journey as a child in care, making new friends (and some enemies), working with social workers, meeting Cam and possibly finding her forever home.

A safe place for Rufus – Jill Seeney

Rufus is just looking for a safe place to settle, somewhere to feel calm, somewhere to dream but bad memories make it hard. Filled with beautiful illustrations this book discusses feeling safe, getting over fears and finding ways to fit in and feel comfortable in a new place.

The Forever Family – Sue Banner

The Forever Family is the story of a family of bears living in the woods. One evening Mama Bear sits down Little Bear and tells them the story of how they came to be a part of their loving family. Filled with beautiful illustration this book is perfectly positioned to help young children understand different family set ups.

Picnic in the park – Joe Griffiths and Tony Pilgrim

Jason is having a Picnic in the park for his birthday, and he has invited lots of guests. Amongst those guests are two- and one-parent families; adoptive and foster families; gay and lesbian families; and step families. The diverse group of guests in this story is an easy and informal way of helping to easily introduce children to a variety of family situations and structures.

Dennis and the big decisions – Paul Sambrooks

When Dennis and his sister have to leave their mum and dad, they are taken in by a duck foster family. But this leaves them with lots of questions, they miss their parents and want to know who is going to look after them. Will they ever get to go home?

This book explains how decisions are made about the children’s future and reinforces how the children’s views and feelings are still very important, but that sometimes adults will have to make decisions that ensure the children will be safe.

The huge bag of worries – Virginia Ironside

Jenny is a very happy young girl with a lovely family and good friends, she loves school and her dog, Loftus. But recently Jenny has been worrying. Jenny worries about her weight, how she is doing at school, her parents have been arguing and now her best friend is leaving. All these worries keep building up and now Jenny has a big bag of worries that she has to carry with her everywhere she goes. Ignoring it doesn’t help, throwing it away doesn’t help, even locking it out of her bedroom doesn’t help, it just keeps coming back, waiting for her!

It all gets too much for Jenny and she bursts into tears outside her home where, luckily, a kind neighbour sees Jenny and offers to help her with her worries.

The huge bag of worries addresses topics such as mental health, understanding how life can be hard sometimes but even when your worries feel too much you mustn’t ignore them, you have to face them and share them with someone you trust who can help you see things in a new light. It also highlights that some worries are not yours to have to deal with, you might be concerned but you are not responsible.

For young adults…

Free Verse – Sarah Dooley

After Sasha’s father died in the mines and her mother ran off, her brother was the last person she had left to rely on. So, when he gets caught up in a fire and passes away Sasha feels she has no one left, she feels broken and alone, and now they are putting her in foster care.

But when Sasha finds family she didn’t know about, things start to turn around for her. She develops a strong relationship with a new family member, Mikey, makes a new friend at school and is starting to find ways to heal through writing poetry. Just as things are looking up a tragedy strikes the mine where her cousin works. Fearing the worst Sasha takes Mikey and runs. This story shows how life doesn’t always go the way you hope but always moves forward.

All the Impossible Things – Lindsay Lackey

When Ruby’s mum ends up in prison following a pill addiction, she doesn’t really know what to expect when her social worker leaves her with a foster family. Jackson and Celine Groove are an older, interracial couple who run a petting zoo. They are calm and kind and don’t react to Red’s outbursts. Marvin, a Hawaiian boy who lives next door, decides to make himself Red’s best friend whether she likes it or not and Red finds herself growing to love being in the petting zoo with the animals. But something strange keeps happening, whenever Red feels angry or upset the wind picks up creating chaos wherever she is, making her feel even guiltier for what she has brought to the Grooves.

Through the use of emotional flashbacks to life with her mother and grandmother the author depicts the juxtaposition between her life before foster care and the new life she now lives with her foster family.

The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse – Charlie Mackesy

This book follows the journey of four unlikely friends as they explore the world around them. Filled with beautiful hand drawn sketches and handwritten conversation this book offers snippets of wisdom and authenticity that remind us of the fragility of each of us and how the world around us, however tough it becomes, is a beautiful one. The key message focuses on kindness, compassion and love.

One for the Murphys – Lynda Mullaly Hunt

When Carley Connors finds herself in foster care, she finds herself in a world she didn’t believe existed. In the Murphys’ home everyone eats dinner together around a table and ‘mum’ sends you off to school with lunch. Carley doesn’t let people in easily and isn’t fazed by much but now she is scared, she doesn’t understand her surroundings. With the help of her best friend, Toni, the Murphys finally help Carley to understand what it means to belong, that is until her mum wants her back. What will happen for Carley, will she lose her new family?

For When I’m Famous – Beth O’Malley M.Ed.

For When I’m Famous is a fantastic tool for teens who are trying to understand their difficult backgrounds. Navigating through potential trauma and moving into foster care can be complicated to understand but this book allows teens to start to dissect this.

For adults…

The A-Z of therapeutic parenting – Sarah Naish

This A-Z book on therapeutic parenting covers 60 of the most common problems experienced by parents, including topics such as issues with sleep and aggressive behaviour.  In this book you will find advice on what the triggers causing the issues and how to deal with these issues when they arise.

Parenting with theraplay – Vivien Norris and Helen Rodwell

Theraplay® is model of parenting focusing on attachment and helping parents to understand their child. Through a sequence of play activities rooted in neuroscience, Theraplay is a fun and easy way for parents and children to connect.

Careless – Kirsty Capes

When Bess finds out she is pregnant she doesn’t know where to turn. Her social worker, Henry, is useless, he won’t be any help. Her foster mother, Lisa, probably won’t understand and it has been weeks since she had spoken to Boy, but he should know, right?

A desperate cry for help – Maggie Hartley

When a fire destroys the children’s home that 12-year-old Meg has been living in she is taken to live with Maggie. She didn’t have much before the fire but now most of what she did have has gone. Now Maggie needs to take this vulnerable young girl and make her feel safe in her new home.

The Boy No One Loved – Casey Watson

At the age of five Justin and his brothers, aged only two and three, are left home alone again by their mother, a heroin addict. Later that day Justin finds himself being taken into care after deliberately trying to burn down the family home.

Far from the tree – Robin Benway

Three fostered teens find out that they are half siblings and decide to work together to look for their biological mother. The story follows how the three ‘new’ siblings grow a new bond.