Foster Care System

Some children scream. Maya Sanders didn’t. At just seven years old, Maya is returned to a home filled with shadows—and when the system checks the boxes, she says nothing. Not because she’s okay. Because she knows silence is safer. When Maya is placed with Janine Thompkins, a foster mother who sees beyond behavior, a quiet war begins—not just for custody, but for truth. As Janine uncovers what Maya cannot say, she faces a system designed to measure compliance, not pain. A devastating, lyrical novel about the cost of being unheard—and the quiet revolution it takes to be free. Some ...

An award-winning scholar and author of Killing the Black Body exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system “A brilliant and impassioned call for abolition.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse...

Becoming a foster parent might be the most challenging, most rewarding, and most important calling, but nothing can truly prepare you for the reality of caring for God's most precious children. However, the good news is you're never alone. Based on her personal experience-from her own trauma-filled childhood to becoming a four-time foster mom-author Lisa Baptist offers inspiration, guidance, humor, and practical advice for those on the same journey with this faith-focused memoir/guide to foster parenting. Told in an easy-to-read, conversational style with helpful insight into the foster ...

In an age of growing skepticism, many demand hard evidence before believing anything is true—especially when it comes to Jesus and the Bible. A kind of "artifacts or it didn't happen" attitude. Perhaps nowhere is this attitude more prevalent than when considering the claims of Christianity...

Breeanna's life was marked by homelessness, addiction, and survival on the streets of Georgetown. Living in a deteriorating motorhome and caught in a volatile relationship with her boyfriend, Anthony, she faced overwhelming challenges. When she became pregnant, she knew she couldn’t care for her child. Desperate for support, she turned to her father, who entrusted the baby to compassionate family friends—a devoted couple determined to provide the love and stability the infant needed to recover from opioid withdrawal. But their efforts were upended when Anthony emerged from jail, ...

This is the raw and unfiltered true story of Nate Bustamante—a boy who grew up in one of America’s most unforgiving child welfare systems, only to fall into the chaos of the streets, addiction, violence, and incarceration. But what began as a story of survival against impossible odds became something more: a testimony of resilience, redemption, and the fight for freedom.

Told through the stories of six former foster youth, a jolting exploration of a broken system from an award-winning journalist By the time Maryanne was 16 years old, she had been arrested for murder. In and out of foster and adoptive homes since age 10, she’d run away, been trafficked and...

How to end homelessness in America: a must-read guide to understanding housing instability, supporting our unhoused neighbors, and reclaiming our humanity. A deeply humanizing analysis that will change the way you think about poverty and homelessness—for the socially engaged reader of Isabel...

If you’re wondering if God can truly move in the life of someone with all the odds stacked against her, look no further than Tori Hope Petersen. Tori grew up in the foster care system, a bi-racial child in a confusing and volatile world. Growing up with a mentally ill mother and living in...

A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. The...

A bit of magic, a sprinkling of adventure, and a whole lot of heart collide in All the Impossible Things, Lindsay Lackey's extraordinary middle-grade novel about a young girl navigating the foster care system in search of where she belongs. "Wise and wondrous, this is truly a novel to cherish...

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR Thrown Away Child is a memoir covering Louise Allen’s abusive childhood in a foster home, how she survived - using her love of art as a sanctuary - and how she hopes to right old wrongs now by fostering children herself and campaigning for the...

Who are the children of foster care? What, as a country, do we owe them? Cris Beam, a foster mother herself, spent five years immersed in the world of foster care looking into these questions and tracing firsthand stories. The result is To the End of June, an unforgettable portrait that takes us deep inside the lives of foster children in their search for a stable, loving family. Beam shows us the intricacies of growing up in the system - the back-and-forth with agencies, the rootless shuffling between homes, the emotionally charged tug between foster and birth parents.

A Foster Family Field Guide I finally did it. After caring for 27 foster children over 55 years, I now have the time to share some practical guidance with those who are, or aspire to be, new foster parents. Whether you’re a foster parent, teacher, social worker, foster youth, or advocate, “Foster Family Field Guide” is a heartfelt, action-ready guide to help you love bravely, grow your “nest,” and endure, without losing your relationships or your sanity. Here’s just a glimpse of what you’ll discover inside: Actionable trauma-responsive strategies for managing challenging ...

The heartbreaking, iconic true story of an abandoned little boy’s horrific journey through the American foster care system. On a misty evening in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch’s mother, too sick to care for him, left her eight-year-old son at an orphanage with the words, “I’ll be...

Lara was seven when her birth mother died from a drug overdose. With no extended family to look after her, she was put into foster care. The care system failed Lara and now she is failing her son. Lara and her one-year-old son, Arthur, are brought to experienced foster carer, Cathy Glass, by...

Maryann Petri continues to champion parents and families abused by family court. She is also exposing the entities that feed the money machine courts have become in our country and around the world. Through her podcast, Slam The Gavel, Maryann provides an ever-growing platform that gives voice to all those who have a story to share that brings forth change. Raised By These Wolves Vol II is the second in her series which contains 25 chapters filled with the true experiences of people she has met on her podcast and through crisis calls. This second volume focuses on the human trafficking ...

""This debut is a gritty teen drama full of mature themes that unfurl in compassionate ways and will resonate with many readers...Heartbreaking and powerful."" —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Euphoria meets Girl in Pieces in this coming-of-age story of a girl trying to put a grief-stricken...

The American child welfare system is bent toward protecting adults, not children. Kids in danger are treated instrumentally to promote the rehabilitation of their parents, the welfare of their communities, and the social justice of their race and tribe. It is time to stop letting efforts to fix the child welfare system get derailed by activists who are concerned with race-matching, blood ties, and the abstract demands of social justice, and start asking the most important question: Where are the emotionally and financially stable, loving, and permanent homes where kids can thrive?

Shenandoah Chefalo is on a wholly dysfunctional journey through a childhood with neglectful, drug- and alcohol-addicted parents. She endures numerous moves in the middle of the night with just minutes to pack, multiple changes in schools, hunger, cruelty, and loneliness. Finally at the age of 13, Shen had had enough. After being abandoned by her mother for months at her grandmother's retirement community, she asks to be put into foster care. Surely she would fare better at a stable home than living with her mother?