Helpless

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.amazon.com

This is the 32nd book I've read by this author. In this story, Cathy has sort-of retired from fostering to be a family support worker, spending her time trying to help an at-risk family keep their children OUT of foster care. Cathy devotes herself to single mother Janie and her three children (aged 7, 5, and 3), but it's an uphill battle.

The story was well-told, but kind of depressing. People's problems are so much bigger than social work agencies can handle.

I also read by this author: Unsafe

Marilyn’s Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

Twelve-year-old Marilyn comes to foster carer Louise looking uncannily like the American film star she was named for. It's a little disturbing when a child so young looks like an adult woman in red lipstick, but it gets worse. Louise asks for help from the state but gets more trouble instead.

This was an interesting story but also kind of upsetting.

I also read recently by this author: Sparkle's Story

Sparkle's Story

 Non fiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

Sparkle is eleven years old and has been caring for her two younger siblings, and shielding them as best she can from their irresponsible parents, for years. When she is removed from her home, Sparkle is separated from the younger two kids and sent to foster carer Louise Allen. There Sparkle begins to try to confront her identity issues in some unhealthy ways and brings in a world of trouble for Louise and her family. It complicates things greatly when Sparkle begins identifying as pangender, and Louise is required to navigate a world she's never experienced.

This was an interesting story with some things to think about. It was complicated somewhat by a lot of interior monologue from Louise, which may have been important to understanding her reactions as a foster carer but also got a little boring.

I also read recently by this author: Max and Mia's Story

Family Family

Fiction by Laurie Frankel

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

India Allwood is a TV actress and mother of ten year old twins who finds herself in the middle of a controversy after she makes her first movie. This happens because she accidentally speaks to a reporter and gives her actual opinion instead of sticking to “No Comment.” Then the whole thing blows up crazily and only gets worse when her daughter tries to help. 

This was a great story with wonderful characters and several surprises. 

Any Other Family

 Fiction by Eleanor Brown

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the story of three different families who are joined by adoption; namely, they have each adopted one or more of a set of blood siblings and are determined to keep the kids involved in each other's lives.

It was a really interesting character story that gave me a lot to think about.

I also read by this author: The Weird Sisters

Just a Regular Boy

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Remy Blake is only five years old when his dad decides the world is going straight to heck and moves them both out to the woods to live "off the grid" while civilization disappears. How will the two of them survive out there alone? Is society really going to burn itself down? And what will Remy do if he and his dad need a doctor?

This was a great story with memorable and believable characters.

I also read by this author: A Different Kind of Gone

The Stillwater Girls

 Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Minka Kent

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Wren and Sage are sisters who live in a primitive cabin in Stillwater Forest. They have always felt safe and protected from the outside world that their mama told them is dangerous, although they’ve never seen it. But now Mama has gone— she took their little sister Evie to try to find a doctor because Evie was so sick— and the girls are running out of food.

In the town outside of the forest, Nicolette and her husband Brandt have just been approved to become foster parents. But Nicolette is worried; Brandt isn’t as excited as she about fostering a child, and she has a sneaking suspicion that he might be cheating on her. 

How will these two stories connect? Where are Mama and Evie? And what is Brandt hiding?

This was an exciting thriller with good characters. 

I also read recently by this author: Unmissing

I also read recently (for free!) by Amazon Prime Kindle: Thief River Falls

Unsafe

Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story has three separate storylines that I thought might intersect but really didn’t. Of course, I know that with nonfiction everything can’t line up neatly, but I was kind of disappointed.

The main story of this book was about three brothers aged seven and under, and about their mother who was having trouble coping with three small kids. At the beginning Cathy Glass was only fostering the oldest boy, but it seemed like all three would come into care eventually. 

This was a pretty good book but definitely not one of this author’s best. 

I also read recently by this author: Unwanted

Unwanted

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass. 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this book foster carer Cathy Glass takes in baby Arthur and his mum Lara. Arthur is only a year old and was seen by a pediatrician who suspected the child’s many bruises were not accidental. Lara insists that little Arthur is just accident-prone, but no one can be sure. Therefore a judge has ordered Lara be monitored in a foster home mother-and-baby placement at Cathy’s.

Lara is very young and has a tendency towards questionable boyfriends but she does seem to want to be a good mother. Will her good intentions be enough?

This was a pretty good story.

I also read recently by this author: A Family Torn Apart

A Child Called Hope

 Nonfiction by Mia Marconi

https://www.amazon.com

This was a short read about the author's first few experiences in foster care. She gives some interesting background about herself and why she began fostering, and then tells the story of her first two charges. The eponymous Hope is the second child.

I liked the story but I didn't love it. I'm not sure if I will read more by this author.

Fostered

 Nonfiction by Tori Hope Peterson

https://www.amazon.com

This is the story of a girl with a hard growing-up life, first in a difficult home and then in a series of foster homes. She tells the truth as she sees it and credits God with her childhood survival and ongoing transformation as an adult. Now she works to help other kids like herself and hopes to help fix the things that are broken in the foster-care system.

This was a really good story that was hard to read at times. It's crazy to me to realize that this girl is the age of my own oldest daughter, but their two lives have been so very different. I'm so thankful that Tori was rescued and overcame the odds, but my heart breaks for the many that did not.

Max and Mia’s Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen. 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Max and Mia are four-year-old twins who come to Louise Allen for foster care. But unlike most of the kids in the foster system, they come from parents with money. Is this an advantage or a disadvantage? The answer is surprising. 

I really enjoyed this story!

I also read recently by this author: Billy's Story

Wednesday's Children

 Nonfiction by Kathryn Anne Michaels

https://www.amazon.com

Kathryn Ann Michaels was a nurse and social worker in Appalachia in the seventies. This is an interesting book, although it's more of a series of separate anecdotes about things that happened, rather than one cohesive story. Therefore I'd say it's more of a set of recollections than a memoir.

But He Spit in My Coffee

Subtitled: A reads-like-fiction memoir of adopting a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder 

Amazon Prime Kindle Nonfiction by Keri Williams

https://www.amazon.com

Keri Williams is a mother who loves her five kids (both adopted and natural children) fiercely. But what can she do when one of the kids is a danger to the other four? This book begins with that dilemma and then takes us back to the beginning of her journey with the children.

This was a really interesting story but also tough to read. I felt so terribly for both Keri and troubled son; they really both seemed trapped into reacting against each other, even though they didn't really want to. A true story, this book offers no easy answers but helps you see what could possibly be done to help other kids in future.

I also read recently (for free!) by Amazon Prime Kindle: Do You Remember?

Billy's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen.

https://www.amazon.com

After the last book I read by this author (see below), I thought there couldn't be a more outrageous foster-child origin story than that one. But this one is at least as strange!

Billy's family of origin is a weird cult-like compound led by an autocratic patriarch, in which there are twenty-six (!!) siblings with various mothers (and possibly even various fathers). How will foster carer Louise Allen help this poor little five-year-old?

I have enjoyed all of Louise Allen's books, although she can tend to spend too much time "on the soapbox" when I'd rather focus on the story. However, I understand she is passionate about the issue of child protection so I'll forgive her.

I also read recently by this author: Sky's Story

Sky's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

Six-year-old Sky and her fourteen-year-old sister Avril have grown up with parents who believe in fighting authority at all costs. Their house and yard are full of rotting junk (just to annoy the housing authority, it seems) and they never go to school. Their mother actually films the social worker trying to help, calls her a trespasser, and post the video online.

As expected, the girls end up with foster carer Louise Allen. But what happens next is a surprise!

I also read recently by this author: Jacob's Story

Jacob's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

When the local government was alerted to a case of animal neglect on a remote farm in England, an investigator was sent out. Along with all the sick and half-starved horses and dogs found at and removed from the place, the investigator also found a little boy, tiny and frail, unable to walk or speak, curled under the table in a dog bed. 

Named "Dog Boy" by the press, this child was Jacob, five years old but the size of a toddler. This story is about the efforts of his social worker and foster carers to help him. It was a really interesting book.

I also read recently by this author: Eden's Story

Eden's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

Ashley became a mother before she was twenty, and soon was stuck alone with baby Eden all day. Soon she was looking for some excitement in her life, and she found it when she met Baz at a nightclub. But he wasn't a very nice man, and soon Ashley was in over her head and Eden was sent to foster care. Can Eden be reunited with her mummy? 

This story is from foster carer Louise Allen, and truthfully it's stretching the definition of nonfiction in the details offered about Eden's early life with Ashley. But it does make the story interesting to read.

I also read recently by this author: Abby's Story

Abby's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Abby is born, premature and underweight, to a thirteen-year old mother who has been hiding her pregnancy and self-medicating with alcohol. But the terrible start she gets in life isn't the end of poor Abby's trouble; she will be rejected by her adoptive parents as well as her birth mother. Can foster carer Louise Allen help this little girl?

This was a sad story but interesting to read. 

I also read recently by this author: Stella's Story

A Family Torn Apart

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book, just released in September, is the latest one written by Cathy Glass. I have read all of her books and compiled a list (click here to see it) of them in chronological order; this is not the order they were published in, but when they happened in real time, as far as I could tell. At the end of this book was inscribed the actual list written by Cathy herself. I was so excited to check it against my list! I only got it slightly wrong; I switched numbers six and seven. (That's a 92%, by the way, but I've officially corrected it now.)

In this story, two little girls called Angie and Polly are removed from their home because of an abuse allegation by their teenaged half-sister Ashleigh. Ashleigh has to go to a separate foster home because Cathy, as a single woman who wants to give a high standard of care, prefers to limit herself to no more than two children. Separating the kids turns out to be a great way to find out what's really been going on.

This was a good book, but not my favorite of hers.

I also read recently by this author: Neglected