Mariel Carlson, University of Minnesota MSW Student and Outreach Graduate Assistant at CASCW
Laura LeBrun, MSW, University of Minnesota Graduate and Outreach Graduate Assistant at CASCW
Welcome to the Expanding Knowledge blog series! The following is an eight-week series that will feature means to enhance your child welfare work through education by non-conventional means, exploring content beyond traditional academia. We recognize that everyone learns in unique ways and thus will suggest resources from social media, books, podcasts, and more to help broaden the child welfare knowledge base and increase access to a variety of voices.
Our seventh week in Expanding Knowledge will explore fiction books.
We love all types of resources, but this week was a special one for us – these are all fiction books that we have curated for your awareness. Fiction books allow us to imagine our lives as we want them to be and how they actually are for some folks. Some of these are novels for teens, some are for young adults, while others are picture and storybooks for young children to begin discussing emotions around foster care and adoption. We chose a poetry book by a Twin Cities poet that covers themes of grief and loss. We strove to choose books that feature a variety of voices from different races, nations, ages, and life experiences. Some of these books include additional resources if you would like more activities and thought-provoking questions to cover with children.
It is important to consider the identities that creators use when considering how these perspectives will influence your child welfare practice. Often, foster and adoptive parents are centered in conversations due to many factors, including age, power differentials, and perception of role. As former foster youth and adoptee voices are the center of our work, their voices should be elevated. Fiction books about a certain topic may feature foster and adoptive voices, but it is important to remember that their stories are written from the lens of the author. In addition, while some pieces are inspired by the voices directly affected by the systems, we need to remember that these pieces have been edited by individuals who are likely not impacted by the foster and adoption systems. We invite you to consider the positions, identities, and power dynamics inherent in any of the child welfare-related media you might view. Whose voice is centered? Are those with lived experience exploited or further marginalized?
With these notes in mind, we would like to give thanks to Lauren J. Sharkey for pointing us to a website to help amplify foster and adoptee voices. As a final comment, however, we would like to discuss the importance of word choices when referring to identities, and thank Lauren as well for bringing our attention to the discussion about #ownvoices. View one of the discussions about this term. We hear and agree with the fact that people should be able to define their own identities, and thus we have tried to use words within our descriptions to reflect the identities of the authors that they have chosen for themselves. If we have made a mistake in any of these word choices or identities, we would appreciate it if you would contact us so that we can correct these errors. Below are fiction books that we recommend you consider reading:
1. Inconvenient Daughter, Lauren J. Sharkey
Loosely based on Lauren J. Sharkey’s own experiences with adoption, Inconvenient Daughter follows the life of Rowan Kelly, a transracial and transnational adoptee from Korea who grew up on Long Island. As Rowan grows up, she struggles with the seemingly conflicting feelings of love and loss in her adoption, particularly when it comes to her identity. She recognizes that she will never know what characteristics about her came from her parents and feels that she may not exist in America at all if only her parents had been able to conceive. These desires to belong and be a priority in someone’s life leads Rowan to search for such feelings. Often, however, such longings without internal peace can only lead to difficulties in relationships, and Rowan has to look within herself to find what she truly needs.
Lauren creates a relatable character, likely because of how much her own life influences the story. This book would be a good recommendation for foster and adoptive parents, as well as child welfare professionals, so they can truly empathize with the strong feelings that come with adoption. In addition, this novel would be a suitable choice for a developmentally-mature teen who is able to process alone, or discuss with others, themes of abuse, violence, identity, and grief.
In the efforts to amplify a variety of voices, we sought to not repeat any content creators within this blog. It is highly recommended, however, that readers also look at and follow Lauren’s personal account on Instagram. She posts frequently about social topics, particularly about themes within adoption, offering well-rounded, informed, and highly convincing arguments with each discussion. Lauren has been a vital and much-needed voice within the child welfare community and is a must follow.
2. I Can Make This Promise, Christine Day
Edie, a young adult who lives in Washington, knows she has Native American ancestry (Suquamish/Duwamish). Her mom, she knows, was adopted as a baby, and she presumes that her parents do not know much more about the family ancestry as a result. One day, however, Edie finds a box with pictures of someone named “Edith” – a woman who she does not know, yet looks exactly like her. Throughout the story, readers learn about the Edith and simultaneously vital Native American history.
Christine Day, herself a Native American woman (Upper Skagit), wrote this book by referencing not only American history but also her own family history. In the author’s note at the end of the book, she writes that she references history from the 1950s, 2004, 1989, 2009, and, particularly relevant for those interested in child welfare, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978. Thus, this book is vital for those people looking to understand the true importance of ICWA, why it was enacted, and what it holds for future generations. It is also a pertinent book to introduce young readers to Native American history and the importance of preserving cultures and generations.
3. Slumberkins series, Kelly Oriard and Callie Christensen
While not directly tied to the child welfare system, Slumberkins contain vital themes and ways to present social emotional learning to children of all ages. The “traditional” Slumberkins package involves a stuffed animal, a book about that animal, and an affirmation card. Slumberkins, however, provides free resources, which includes the full text of the books and a downloadable affirmation card. The offerings also include activities and coloring pages, video storytimes, and resource guides for adults. All of the Slumberkins books hold valuable lessons for children who are just beginning to be exposed to social emotional learning. When considering child welfare, we particularly recommend the following characters: fox (family change), sprite (grief and loss), otter (family bonding), the feels (emotional well-being), alpaca (stress relief), ibex (emotional courage), and yeti (mindfulness). Finally, Slumberkins has an active Facebook community, caregiver blog, and YouTube channel that all may be helpful for parents who are currently navigating the child welfare system.
4. Unstoppable, Tim Green
Another excellent book for older children and teens, this book is from the perspective of a boy in foster care who has just moved to a loving foster home and has a dream to play in the NFL. We find that many books for children in foster care or adopted are written from a girl’s perspective, and would like to offer an alternative for any boys who are looking for an experience that represents them. The author, Tim Green, wrote this book after interviews with real-life cancer survivors and athletes. If you are seeking a book about girls in foster care who love sports, we recommend See No Color by Minnesota author, Shannon Gibney. This book is about transracial adoptee Alex Kitridge, who is also biracial. She loves baseball but is also made fun of by classmates for “acting too white” while “looking Black.” With the addition of letters from her birth family, Alex is experiencing a turmoil of emotions and changes as an adolescent coming to terms with her identity and adoption. Shannon Gibney was also a transracial adoptee – we love that this is another book written from the real-life perspective of someone who has lived through this experience and youth can find their own experiences reflected in literature.
5. Autopsy, Donte Collins
Donte Collins is a queer, Black poet who lives in the Twin Cities area. They began writing poetry at the age of seven, documenting their feelings of being trapped and unheard. Now, their poems often center around themes and intersections of class, race, adoption, sexuality, and social justice. Their book of poems, Autopsy, is primarily focused on grief and loss, but possesses feelings that are vital for those considering foster care and/or adoption to understand. Collins’ writes with a poetic, evocative voice that deserves to be heard and appreciated by many. An excerpt from THE ORPHAN PERFORMS AN AUTOPSY ON ADOPTION: “…adoption: the most beautiful erasure, the most successful punchline, a lineage snapped at the neck then nursed back to fight. look at the boy with water for blood. look at the boy twice removed from his identity. do not ask me if i know whose body i belong to. do not ask me which are my real siblings. if blood is thicker than water then love must be thicker than both. must be some new soft country, some damp fertile dirt. perhaps i was born & then born again. perhaps i am here without a language, without a lantern to lead me home…”
6. For Black Girls Like Me, Mariama J. Lockington
This middle grade novel is about adoption, coming-of-age, and more. It is written from the perspective of an adopted 11-year-old Black girl, Makeda, whose adoptive family – parents and older sisters – is white. Although Makeda is loved, she feels confused and lost, especially after her family moves from Maryland to New Mexico. Makeda had had a friend, the only other adopted girl she knew, in Maryland – but now she has no friends in this new place. We recommend this book for transracial foster families or adoptive families who adopted transracially. Given what we have discussed in previous blog posts about the difficulties of transracial adoption, even for adult adoptees, we think this book is an excellent way for children to read about experiences through their lens. The author herself, Mariama Lockington, was also adopted by a multiracial family and wants adoptees to be able to read an honest experience and know they are not alone.
7. Forever, or a Long, Long Time, Caela Carter
While Caela Carter does not have personal experience with the child welfare system, she interviewed many people who were in order to create her story. Forever, or a Long, Long, Time follows Flora and her brother Julian, who have been adopted by their mother but have an extensive history of living in various foster homes. When Flora and Julian express that they do not feel that they were born, as they do not know their first families, the family (with desire from both children) decides to work backwards to uncover more about their family’s history. The book follows Flora’s thoughts and experiences as they once again meet their former caregivers, giving an intimate look into how varied foster homes can be. Caela also does a good job of expressing some of the emotional difficulties that come with foster care and how trauma can affect people differently, even if you are biological siblings. This book would be particularly good for foster siblings who are welcoming new family members into their home, as it gives an easy-to-read, empathetic look at how the foster care system can help children, but it can also create struggles and difficult situations as well.
8. The Invisible String, Patrice Karst
This children’s book is written from the perspective of two young children who are nervous about going to school and being apart from their mom. However, the concept of the “invisible string” is used to comfort the children and let them know that they are always connected – to their mother, their friends, and anyone who is at a physical distance with whom they cannot be in person. It is useful to explain many concepts and provide reassurance for children experiencing grief, loss, or separation anxiety. We recommend this book to be read to children in foster care or adoptive families as a way to explain connections to birth families and parents. This book has even been used in social-emotional curriculum by school social workers. There is also an optional workbook that was created with input from an art therapist if you would like more activities to process with children or students.
9. Maybe Days, Jennifer Wilgocki and Marcia Kahn Wright
This book was written explicitly for children in foster care – it explains why children end up in foster care, the range of feelings toward a new home or foster family, and the changes that come with this new environment. We recommend this for all foster families to read with kids of any age: to normalize their emotions and experiences, to open up discussion with foster parents and social workers, and to allow them to understand that their time in foster care is not their fault. We also like that this book explains other aspects of the foster care system, including court hearings, visits with birth parents, and the frustratingly open-ended answer of “maybe” to the multitude of questions a child in foster care wants to ask.
10. The Story of My Open Adoption: A Storybook for Children Adopted at Birth, Leah Campbell
This book is perfect to read to children ages 3-5 years old. Told through the eyes of Sammy the squirrel, along with Mom and Dad, The Rabbits, this book joins Sammy as he meets his “first family” for the first time since his open adoption at birth. It allows children to discuss their emotions and anxieties surrounding an open adoption, and the book also includes resources for parents and an explanation of the term “first family.” We like that this book portrays both Sammy’s birth family and adoptive family as loving families who want what is best for Sammy. We recommend this book for any adoptive families looking to discuss an open adoption with their young child.
Do you have any fiction books or other resources that have been helpful to you as a child welfare professional? Please send us an email at [email protected].
The reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are expressly that of the author and are not that of the University of Minnesota, School of Social Work, or Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare.