The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess (ages 12+) – Victoria’s father hasn’t been kind to her, and Victoria has accepted that abuse as normal until he locks her out of the house. Suddenly she’s plunged into foster care, trying to navigate life in a foster home while dealing with the usual stressors of senior year. However, Victoria can’t leave her past behind. Unwanted memories make Victoria freeze up at random moments and nightmares disrupt her sleep. Even worse, she can’t stop worrying about her stepsister Sarah, left behind with her father. All she wants is to move forward, but how do you focus on the future when the past won’t leave you alone? The Quiet You Carry isn’t an easy read, and deals with serious topics like physical and sexual abuse and self harm, and it won’t be for everyone, but it’s leaves readers with hope that honesty and kindness will prevail.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (ages 9-12) – Crippled by an untreated clubfoot and imprisoned at home by Mam, Ada has survived, but she hasn’t thrived. The evacuation of London’s children during the German Blitz provide Ada and her younger brother Jamie the chance to escape. Malnourished and filthy, the siblings are housed with Susan, a reluctant guardian grieving the death of her friend Becky, who claims she isn’t “nice.” Nonetheless, she offers Ada and Jamie food, clothing and their first glimpse of security. The children begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. Ada and Jamie aren’t in foster care in the modern sense–they’re removed from home due to the Blitz, not the intervention of the social welfare system, and it takes Susan a long time to realize the extent of their abuse–but their story parallels the foster care experience. Bradley doesn’t sugarcoat the effects of trauma on the children, especially Ada, and her anger and mistrust will be familiar to any child in the foster care system. However, proving that her courage and compassion carry far more power than her disability and her past trauma, Ada earns self-respect, emerges a hero, and learns the meaning of home in this poignant story set during WWII. We also recommend the sequel The War I Finally Won.

The Black Foster Youth Handbook: 50+ Lessons I Learned to Successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal by Ángela Quijada-Banks (ages 8+) – This is a practical series of 50+ mini lessons written to help tweens and teens navigate the foster care system and heal beyond it. Foster youth have a wide variety of potentially supportive adults (foster/resource parents, case managers, GALs, therapists and social workers), and knowing where to look and garner care and support is key for the adolescent years. These professional support persons will also find this handbook helpful to support the young persons they serve.

Far From the Tree by Robin Benway (ages 13+) – A captivating young adult fiction novel about the story of three teen siblings who were separated from each other in the foster system and, through a series of events, find each other. It’s obvious that the author has some depth of experience in the field of foster care, evidenced by her poignant portrayals of the teens’ sense of loss, abandonment, identity questions and even ambivalence about their individual stories. In addition to building relationships with each other once reunited, the teens have to navigate pretty difficult home-life situations. The conversations between the siblings have a ring of authenticity that is often very moving for the reader. Far From the Tree is a quick easy read and a great peek into an adolescent perspective on the twists and turns of foster care, foster to adopt, and the added layer of family dynamics that many teens are facing both in and out of the system.

Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter (age 13+) – The inspiring true story of the tumultuous nine years Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent in the foster care system, and how she triumphed over painful memories and real-life horrors to ultimately find her own voice. Ashley was removed from her mother at the age of four and spent the next nine years bouncing between fourteen different foster homes before finally finding her forever family. Three Little Words chronicles the trauma of being removed from her mother through the difficulties of foster care and the horror of an abusive foster family while also showing the need for compassion from everyone involved in foster care.

A List of Cages by Robin Roe (ages 14+) – Adam’s senior year of high school is going pretty well, helping the school psychologist in one of the chillest electives ever. But then the psychologist instructs him to escort a reluctant freshman who turns out to be his foster brother, Julian. Adam’s family took Julian in after his parents were killed in a car crash, but then his uncle stepped forward as his legal guardian, and Julian was taken away. After five years apart, everything seems to fall back into place for the two, but Adam soon begins to suspect that things are not right at Julian’s new home. Many scenes of abuse will challenge readers with authentic detail; Julian suffers regular beatings and is, at one point, locked in a chest without food. Roe, a social worker, has written a stunning novel about loss, friendship, and the power of family.

Succeeding as a Foster Child: A Roadmap to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Success by Jamie Schwandt, Ed.D. (ages 13+) – Author Jamie Schwandt grew up in and out of foster care, and witnessed firsthand the dangerous and destructive challenges foster children must contend with. In Succeeding as a Foster Child, he uses those first-hand experiences, as well as in-depth research, to outline the steps foster children must take to overcome the stigma of foster care and achieve success. The book provides practical tools for overcoming common challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities of being in foster care. Highly recommended for foster youth and youth who have recently aged out of the system.

Forever, or a Long, Long Time by Caela Carter (ages 8-12) – Flora and Julian are a team. They have to be: after moving from foster home to foster home, the only permanence is in each other. Now living with their new mom and dad, Flora struggles to accept that forever can happen to them. When Julian sneaks food or Flora forgets her words, she wonders if they will be sent to another home. Struggling to pass fourth grade and accepting changes in her family, Flora must learn to believe in forever and herself. The book highlights the cracks in the foster-care system without dictating a solution. Instead it focuses on the complex effects of an unstable environment on young children. Ultimately, it’s a hopeful and endearing look at the bond between siblings and what it truly means to be part of a family.

Free Verse by Sarah Dooley (10-14) – When her brother dies in a fire, Sasha Harless has no one left, and nowhere to turn. After her father died in the mines and her mother ran off, he was her last caretaker. They’d always dreamed of leaving Caboose, West Virginia together someday, but instead she’s in foster care, feeling more stuck and broken than ever. Her foster mother attempts to provide stability, but Sasha suffers from anxiety and violent outbursts when overcome by disturbing emotions, especially when grief “blows through me like a cold wind, thundering for me to go, to get out, to move.” Sasha remains intent on leaving town until she’s exposed to poetry in English class and begins to find “something about the shortness of haiku feels good.” In this sensitive and poignant portrayal, Dooley shows us that life, like poetry, doesn’t always take the form you intend.

Under His Wings: Truths to Heal Adopted, Orphaned, and Waiting Children’s Hearts by Sherrie Eldridge & Beth Willis Miller (ages 10+) – This religious curriculum is meant for children 9 and older. Written by adult adoptees, it uses the story of Moses to help adoptees work through issues surrounding their relinquishment and adoption. The comparisons to the best known biblical adoptee are designed to give kids hope and helps them to realize that there is a way to get through seemingly impossible sadness, depression, and anger.

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (ages 10-14) – At just 12 years old, Carley has gone through a lot of turmoil. Headstrong, angry and deeply hurt, Carley is torn between her love for her mother and her memory of the fight that sent her to the hospital, when her mother caught and held her down while her stepfather beat her. At first her foster-care family, the Murphys, seems equally terrifying. The Murphy’s eldest son doesn’t want her there, and Carley doesn’t know how to deal with the new family dynamics after growing up with a mother who often dismantled her confidence. One for the Murphys is a heartwarming story of Carley’s struggle against the ingrained belief that she is undeserving of kindness and generosity.

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (ages 8-12) – Eleven-year-old Gilly has been stuck in more foster families than she can remember, and she’s disliked them all. She has a county-wide reputation for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanageable. So when she’s sent to live with the Trotters — by far the strangest family yet — Gilly decides to put her sharp mind to work. Before long she’s devised an elaborate scheme to get her real mother to come rescue her. But the rescue doesn’t work out, and Gilly finds her life changed forever. A classic book about the foster care system.

Extraordinary Birds by Sandy Stark-McGinnis (ages 9-13) – December Lee Morgan is almost 12, solitary and a survivor, when she arrives at her latest foster home. The scars on her back—the result of an injury inflicted years ago by her mother, never fully detailed—become the place where December believes her wings will emerge when they are ready. Her current foster mom, Eleanor, works with birds as an animal rehabilitator and a taxidermist, which fascinates and disquiets December in equal measure. As December helps Eleanor rehabilitate a red-tailed hawk and finds a new friend in her classmate Cheryllynn (whose gender fluidity is mocked and rejected by their classmates), she cautiously begins to honestly acknowledge her past while contemplating what “belonging to a place” might mean. December begins to see that her story could end a different way – but could she ever be happy down on the ground?

Waiting to Forget by Sheila Kelly Welch (ages 10+) – T.J. has always looked out for his little sister, Angela. At their foster homes, T.J. was the only one who knew how to coax his little sister out of her bad moods. The only one who understood why she made origami paper cranes and threw them out the window. But now T.J. is sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, wondering if Angela, unconscious after a fall, will ever wake up. Wondering, too, if he will ever feel at home with his and Angela’s new parents—Marlene, who insists on calling him Timothy, and Dan, who seems to want a different son. The story is told from eleven-year old T.J.’s point of view, shifting between his memories of neglect and abuse and the uncertainty and struggles of the present day. A poignant story about two siblings who have been adopted from foster care but have not let go of their difficult past.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (ages 10+) – When Lonnie was seven years old, his parents died in a fire. Now he’s eleven, and he still misses them terribly. And he misses his little sister, Lili, who was put into a different foster home because “not a lot of people want boys-not foster boys that ain’t babies.” But Lonnie hasn’t given up. His foster mother, Miss Edna, is growing on him. She’s already raised two sons and she seems to know what makes them tick. And his teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper. Told entirely through Lonnie’s poetry, we see his heartbreak over his lost family, his thoughtful perspective on the world around him, and most of all his love for Lili and his determination to one day put at least half of their family back together.

My Flight Training Manual: Flying Above the Clouds in Sibling Relationships by Gail Heaton (ages 10-14) – This workbook offers tweens and teens an opportunity to learn scientific research about how sibling relationships impact them. It reviews the common challenges siblings of kids from trauma histories will experience and offers tools for preventing the overwhelm they may feel from their siblings’ challenges. Parents can use this as a tool for also strengthening trust and communication between them when working on the book together. Practical information on how to reduce sibling conflict, how to work together on relationships, and how to ask for help when relationships struggle.

ReMoved (ages 12+) – This is an independent film that features the story of a young girl removed from her parents and separated from her baby brother, due to domestic violence. Even thought her foster home is safe and loving, there are painful moments where her hurt and anger cause challenging behaviors. It’s a hard but realistic look at the foster system and the experiences of many foster youth. This movie might be useful for families of older resident children to help discuss the realities of adoption and foster care. There is a part 2 and part 3, continuations of Zoey’s story, available on the internet.

Emily’s Dragon (ages 10+) – This is a short film, originally produced by Texas CASA, — https://texascasa.org/ — about a young girl removed from her family and placed in foster care. She’s supported by a CASA worker through the experience. This film can be useful for helping families of older elementary-aged children understand the complexities of foster care, and foster adoption.