Mummy Told Me Not to Tell

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this story, foster carer Cathy Glass takes care of a seven-year-old boy called Reece who has run through four other carers and been permanently excluded from two schools. He's badly behaved, and he bites. Unfortunately, his mother (a woman with five kids who have all been removed from her care by the state, and for good reason) thinks this is quite funny, and calls him "Sharky" with detached affection.

Cathy has her work cut out for her with this kid! It seems like there is no solution for a child that is this much trouble, but she doesn't give up. I like how Cathy really works hard to find the right place for Reece, and wants the best for him. There is a shocking surprise at the end of this book as well.

I also read recently  by this author: I Miss Mummy

I Miss Mummy

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

When her drug-addicted mother learned that four year old Alice was being taken into foster care, she disappeared with her for several days after snatching her from her grandmother's house. Finally poor Alice was recovered by the police and delivered to Cathy Glass. The social worker says Alice is to be transitioned into a permanent home with her father and his new wife, but Alice doesn't know her father at all. The little girl only wants to go back to her grandparents' house and see her mother.

Is going to her father really the best course for Alice? Can Cathy help? This was a good story.

I also read recently by this author: A Baby's Cry

A Baby's Cry

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Harrison is only a day or so old when foster mum Cathy Glass picks him up from the hospital. Cathy has no idea why the baby has to be in foster care, and little Harrison is a healthy, normal child with no sign of neglect or drug addiction. Still, adoption proceedings are in place and the social worker is keeping everything about the natural parents a closely guarded secret.

But if Harrison's mum wanted to give him up, why has she packed a suitcase full of clothes and toys for him? And why has Cathy noticed a woman lurking outside, trying to catch a glimpse of the baby?

This was an interesting story!

I also read recently by this author: The Night the Angels Came

The Night the Angels Came

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

When foster carer Cathy Glass first hears about eight-year-old Michael, she's not sure she can take him. She and her two young children are just getting over her recent divorce from their father, and she wonders if a kid with too many sad problems will overburden her fragile little family. 

Poor Michael, who has lived with only his dad since his mother died years ago, has already had so much sorrow in his young life. Now his father is dying as well. Can Cathy find it in her heart to help Michael?

You will not be surprised to learn the answer is yes. What follows is a truly heart warming story, although it is a sad one.

I also read recently by this author: A Terrible Secret

A Terrible Secret

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this story, foster mum Cathy Glass takes care of a fourteen-year-old girl called Tilly, who has placed herself in foster care because she says she no longer feels safe at home with her stepfather Dave there. Tilly arrives with a bruise on her cheek and a lot of worry for the mother she left behind. Dave, on the other hand, is still working hard to control Tilly's life from afar. Can Cathy help?

This was an interesting story with several surprises.

I also read recently by this author: Daddy's Little Princess

Someone Has Led This Child to Believe

 Nonfiction by Regina Louise

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I read Somebody's Someone , a memoir by this author a few months ago. This is the second part of her story. 

I really was interested in finding out what happened to Regina later in her life after the abrupt ending of the last book, but this one was less well written than first story. It gave a recap of the other memoir (which had been very detailed) but then it seemed to tell the rest of the story in a more summarized form as well. Therefore I felt it was less interesting.

Still, this was a good story. I’d like to see both books reworked somehow to keep the detail but also get the continuity. The author does say she is working in another book, so maybe she will. 

Too Young to be a Mum

 Nonfiction by Maggie Hartley.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is by another British foster mother who writes similarly to Cathy Glass (see Saving Danny) and Casey Watson (see Mummy's Little Helper).

At the beginning of this story Jess, a sixteen-year-old girl with a newborn baby, is brought into Maggie's home for foster care. The rest of the book is all about how Jess and her boyfriend Darren (the baby's seventeen-year-old father) have to prove to social services that they can take care of their own baby before it gets taken from them. 

This book was difficult for me, because honestly it seemed like poor Jess and Darren were presumed to be bad parents by social services simply because they were young. The pair of them could have been left alone and they probably would have figured things out just fine.

To be fair, Maggie herself was a huge help and worked very hard to keep the three of them together. The problem to me was that that she shouldn't have had to. 

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

 Fiction by Hiro Arikawa

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a different sort of story: it was written in Japanese and from the point of view of a cat. (Obviously I read the version that had been translated into English.)

The cat is called Nana. He was a stray but got adopted by a man called Satoru. After several years together, Nana and Satoru go on a journey around Japan together to visit old friends. Satoru says he is looking for a new home for the cat, but it appears to the reader that he may have another goal.

This was a sweet story and a quick read.

Mummy's Little Helper

 Nonfiction by Casey Watson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Since I've been reading so many Cathy Glass books recently (see Daddy's Little Princess), my computer has started suggesting similar stories by other authors. Apparently this "British Foster Carer Stories" thing is a whole genre. So I decided to give some other authors a try.

This story reads very similarly to Cathy Glass; foster mother Casey takes in a nine-year-old called Abby who has been taking care of her mother Sarah, who suffers from MS. When Sarah is hospitalized because her disease has worsened, Abby has to go into foster care. Casey's goal is to help Abby become a child again rather than the carer she's been forced to be.

I liked this book a bit less than the ones I've read by Cathy Glass; this author seemed to be imposing too much of her own ideas of how a child "should" be raised. Casey seemed very down on Sarah and thought that Abby had been done a disservice in having to help so much. 

I felt like it was okay for Abby to be responsible and try to care for her mother, because she loved her mum and wanted to do it. Still, I realize that the situation had become untenable and Sarah needed more help that a child would give, and the story does end well.

Oona Out Of Order

 Fiction by Margarita Montimore

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

When Oona Lockhart turns 19 on January 1, 1982, she discovers that she is a time traveler. How or why it happens is never explained, but from that time on she must live her life one year at a time, but not consecutively. So, she jumps from 1982 to 2015 to 1991 to 2004 and so forth. Each time she is still herself, but at a different age and with no memories except what she has carried from the last jump.

Yeah, it's weird, but if you can just go with the premise it's a fun story!

Phantom Limb

 Fiction by Lucinda Berry

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story centers on Emily and Elizabeth, identical twins who suffered horrible abuse as children and are still troubled as young adults. They are strongly linked to each other and find it very difficult to bond with anyone else. When Elizabeth finally gets a boyfriend, she is afraid to tell her sister, but things will get really bad when the truth comes out. 

This was an interesting thriller with several surprises. 

I also read by this author: The Perfect Child

Seconds Away

 Fiction by Harlan Coben

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is the sequel to Shelter, which I read recently. 

In this story, young Mickey Bolitar must help save his friend Rachel from danger. Also he wants to make the varsity basketball team.

This description sounds lame, but it's a really good book! I'm looking forward to the next story in the series.

Daddy's Little Princess

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this book, foster mother Cathy Glass takes care of a seven-year-old girl called Beth who is being raised by a single father; he's just been hospitalized. From the suggestive title I expected her to uncover incestual abuse; however, the reality was a little different...

This was another absorbing read from this author!

I also read recently by this author: Saving Danny

In Another Time

 Fiction by Jillian Cantor

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Hannah is a passionate, beautiful violinist and Max is a bookshop owner who falls for her the first time he hears her play. But this is happening in 1931 in Germany, and Hannah is Jewish; the reader knows from the beginning that there will be trouble for these young lovers.

But there is another complication in the story: Max's bookshop holds a secret that somehow involves time travel... Wait, is this historical fiction or science fiction? 

This was a good story with a few surprises.