Here are a selection of books that have been recommended by our staff and current foster carers. Some are stories from children in care or foster carers, others are advice and guidance on how to support children in care. Either way, they provide a great insight into fostering.
If you would like to speak to us about fostering get in touch.
We hope you enjoy learning more! There are some moving stories and emotional tales of overcoming adversity.
1. Hackney Child – Hope Daniels
At the age of nine, Hope Daniels walked into Stoke Newington Police Station with her little brothers and asked to be taken into care. Home life was intolerable: both of Hope’s parents were alcoholics and her mum was a prostitute. The year was 1983. As London emerged into a new era of wealth and opportunity, the Daniels children lived in desperate poverty, neglected and barely nourished.
2. Damaged – Cathy Glass
Although Jodie is only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass… Cathy, an experienced foster carer, is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie’s challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months but Cathy decides to take her on to protect her from being placed in an institution.
3. Attachment, Trauma and Resilience – Kate and Brian Cairns
Over a 25-year period Kate and Brian Cairns, along with their three birth children, fostered 12 children ranging in age from four to 15 at the time of joining the family. In this remarkable and inspirational book, Kate and Brian draw upon the wealth of their personal and professional experience to offer an insight into the realities of family life with children who have lived through overwhelming stress. Vividly described scenarios show how the family responded to children displaying powerful feelings and difficult behaviours following their experiences of attachment difficulties, loss, abuse and trauma.
4. What Every Parent Needs To Know – Margot Sunderland
Covering everything from breastfeeding to brain development, this book includes the latest thinking on how screen time affects your child’s brain, and a focus on how love, nurture, and play contribute to your child’s development. With a wealth of fascinating chapters including ‘sleep and bedtimes’ and ‘why children behave badly’, What Every Parent Needs To Know is the ultimate handbook for parents who want to make evidence-based decisions about how to care for their child.
5. The A-Z of Therapeutic Parenting – Sarah Naish
Therapeutic parenting is a deeply nurturing parenting style, and is especially effective for children with attachment difficulties, or who experienced childhood trauma. This book provides everything you need to know in order to be able to effectively therapeutically parent. Providing a model of intervention, The A-Z of Therapeutic Parenting gives parents or caregivers an easy to follow process to use when responding to issues with their children. The following A-Z covers 60 common problems parents face, from acting aggressively to difficulties with sleep, with advice on what might trigger these issues, and how to respond. Easy to navigate and written in a straightforward style, this book is a ‘must have’ for all therapeutic parents.
6. Holding On and Hanging In – Lorna Miles
This honest, open and heartfelt account takes us through the highs and lows of Lorna and her family’s dedicated perseverance to help Wayne move from despair and anger to health and recovery. Lorna describes her feelings and responses to the events that take place and is often able to portray the humour of situations, alongside the difficulties and frustrations, which present themselves.
7. The Boy No One Loved – Casey Watson
This is Sunday Times bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson’s first heartbreaking memoir. Justin was five years old; his brothers two and three. Their mother, a heroin addict, had left them alone again. Later that day, after trying to burn down the family home, Justin was taken into care.