This collection contains materials on the topic of foster care from the DIVerse Families bibliography. Foster care stories discuss children and teenagers who are put through the foster care system and are now being taken care of by foster families, which include foster parents and foster siblings. In many of these stories, foster care can, but not always, eventually lead to adoption.
Family relationships grow through the connections we create with the people in our lives. Your family can be made of blood or non-blood relatives, friends, or pets, or a combination of these. Diverse families and their relationships are slowly becoming the new norm and will only continue to grow as the world progresses.
Browse by Family Relationship:
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A Different Home: A New Foster Child's Story
John DeGarmo and Kelly DeGarmo
When Jessie is placed in foster care, she finds it difficult at first but slowly begins to like her new home. First person recount. Story is designed to help children aged 4-10 to settle into care. Includes notes for foster parents.
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Adoption and Foster Care
Kathlyn Gay
Describes how these placement systems work and reveals the feelings of young people who find homes through adoption and foster care.
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A Family is a Family is a Family
Sara O'Leary
When a teacher asks the children in her class to think about what makes their families special, the answers are all different in many ways -- but the same in the one way that matters most of all. One child is worried that her family is just too different to explain, but listens as her classmates talk about what makes their families special. One is raised by a grandmother, and another has two dads. One is full of stepsiblings, and another has a new baby.
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A Forever Family
Roslyn Banish and Jennifer Jordan-Wong
Eight-year-old Jennifer Jordan-Wong describes her adoption by a family after four years of living as a foster child with many different families.
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After Tupac & D Foster
Jacqueline Woodson
In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.
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A House Between Home: Youth in the Foster Care System
Joyce Libal
Discusses the laws that govern the foster care system, the newest and most innovative programs available today and provides an overview of the history of foster care, including the orphan trains and the British home children.
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A List of Cages
Robin Roe
When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he's got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn't easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can't complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian; the foster brother he hasn't seen in five years.
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All Families are Different
Sol Gordon and Vivien Cohen
Discusses differences in families in today's society, as well as what makes each family special.
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Arcady's Goal
Eugene Yelchin
When twelve-year-old Arcady is sent to a children's home after his parents are declared enemies of the state in Soviet Russia, soccer becomes a way to secure extra rations, respect, and protection but it may also be his way out if he can believe in and love another person--and himself.
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At the Bottom of the World (Jack and the Geniuses Series #1)
Bill Nye and Gregory Mone
Traveling to Antarctica for a prestigious science competition, twelve-year-old Jack and his genius foster siblings, Ava and Matt, become caught up in a mystery involving a missing scientist.
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Billy Had to Move: A Foster Care Story
Theresa Ann Fraser
Child Protection Services have been involved with Billy and his mother for some time now. He has been happily settled in a kinship placement with his grandmother and enjoys his pet cat, interacting with neighbors and even taking piano lessons. As the story unfolds, Billy's grandmother has unexpectedly passed away and so the story of Billy Had To Move begins. Unfortunately, Billy's mother cannot be located. Mr. Murphy, Billy's social worker, places him in the foster home of Amy, Tim, and their baby "Colly." Billy experiences great loss resulting not only from his grandmother's death, but also the loss of the life he knew. Billy's inner journey therefore has also begun and with the help of Ms. Woods, a Play Therapist, there is hope.
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Can We Get Along? Dealing with Differences
John Burstein
Learning to tolerate different opinions, perspectives, and beliefs is vital to a healthy society. Slim Goodbody's Can't We Get Along? helps students understand the need and importance for tolerance, and the steps they can take to increase peace in their lives and in the world.
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Celebrating Families
Rosemarie Hausherr
Presents brief descriptions of many different kinds of families, both traditional and non-traditional.
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Clara Hale: Mother to Those Who Needed One
Bob Italia
Presents the life of the New York woman whose love of children led her to establish a foster care program to help babies born addicted to drugs.
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Coping as a Foster Child
Geraldine M. Blomquist and Paul B. Blomquist
A discussion of ways to make living with foster parents and living in a foster home a better experience.
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Dear Yvette (Throwback Diaries)
Ni-Ni Simone
After a street fights ends with a jail sentence, Yvette is forced to live far from anything and anyone she's ever known, but starting her life over again may show her what it means to have a real family.
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Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #2)
Seanan McGuire
In Down Among the Sticks and Bones, twin girls Jack and Jill find themselves thrust into a world of monsters and mad scientists, and something they thought they'd never experience: choice.
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Edgar Allan
John Neufeld
When the Fickett family decides to adopt a little black boy, they are faced with threats, angry phone calls, a burning cross on the lawn, and an ultimatum from their oldest daughter.
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Elliot
Julie Pearson
When Elliot's parents do not know how to take care of him, a social worker takes him to live with a foster family, which begins a series of changes that leave Elliot worried and anxious, until he finds a forever home and a forever family.
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Everything on a Waffle
Polly Horvath
Eleven-year-old Primrose living in a small fishing village in British Columbia recounts her experiences and all that she learns about human nature and the unpredictability of life in the months after her parents are lost at sea.
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Everything You Need to Know about Living in a Foster Home
Joe Falke
Gives examples of teenagers who have been sent to live with foster families, detailing some of the reasons for needing foster care, what to expect, and how to make the necessary adjustments.
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Families
Ann Morris
A simple explanation of families, how they function, how they are different, and how they are alike.
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Families Change: A Book for Children Experiencing Termination of Parental Rights
Julie Nelson
Written to help children understand why some kids get new foster parents or new adopted moms and dads, with resources for adults.
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Fans of the Impossible Life
Kate Kate Scelsa
At Saint Francis Prep school in Mountain View, New Jersey, Mira, Jeremy, and Sebby come together as they struggle with romance, bullying, foster home and family problems, and mental health issues.
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Far Apart, Close in Heart
Becky Birtha
Children from all walks of life experience various emotions when their parent is in jail or prison, but they learn there are ways to communicate their feelings that will help improve their situation and remind them they are not alone.