Children's Non-fiction Eleanor, Quiet No More Doreen Rappaport 2009 Eleanor Roosevelt was raised in kinship care. She lived in a privileged but stern Victorian household, with an affectionate but mostly absent father and a critical mother who made fun of her daughter's looks. Alone and lonely for much of her childhood, Eleanor found solace in books and in the life of her lively and independent mind. Her intellec External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Little Boy Lost Marghanita 1949 Hilary Wainwright, an English soldier, returns to a blasted and impoverished France during World War Two in order to trace a child lost five years before. But is this small, quiet boy in a grim orphanage really his son? And what if he is not? In this exquisitely crafted novel, we follow Hilary's struggle to love in the midst of a devastating war. External Website

Academic Articles Incarnations of the Orphan Nina Auerbach 1975 For decades Nina Auerbach's article on representations of the orphan was one of the few on the topic. She writes: "For it is an easy sentimental mistake to think of the orphan as fragile. He seems composed of alternate layers of glass and steel, and sends out sting rays at those who try to adopt him. He first appears in the eighteen century as a slyly potent underground figure...But even the Romantic waif is brimming with a certain equivocal energy...His solitude eneregizes him as a visionary artist, and silent schemer, his appearance of winsome fragility feeding into his pwoer of survival." Auerbach's analysis includes Moll Flanders, Jane Eyre, Becky Sharp, Healthcliff and Pip of Great Expectations External Website

Sport Simone Biles - Artistic Gymnast Simone Biles Simone Arianne Biles (b. March 14, 1997) is an Olympic Gold Medallist. Born in Columbus, Ohio, the third of four siblings. Her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for Simone or her other children – Adria, Ashley, and Tevin. All four went in and out of foster care. 🌟Simone's silver medal in the floor exercise final in Paris 2024 Olympic Games tied her as the second-most decorated female gymnast in Olympic history, a total of 11 medals.🎉 She is also the youngest living person to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2000, Biles' maternal grandfather, Ron Biles and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began temporarily caring for Shanon's children in the north Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, after learning that his grandchildren had been in foster care. In 2003, the couple officially adopted the two youngest, Simone and Adria. Ron's sister, Shanon's aunt Harriet, adopted the two oldest children. With a combined total of 30 Olympic and World Championship medals, Biles is the most decorated American gymnast and the world's third most decorated gymnast, behind Belarus' Vitaly Scherbo (33 medals) and Russia's Larisa Latynina (32 medals). External Website

Cartoons Hey Arnold 1996-2004 “Hey Arnold!” was an American animated sitcom (1996-2004). Arnold lives with his eccentric grandparents. His parents were Miles and Stella—humanitarian adventurers—they disappeared in the jungles of San Lorenzo when he was a baby. The show explores Arnold’s daily life as he navigates city challenges, helps the people around him, and deals with the humorous misadventures he and his friends encounter. The series was created by Craig Bartlett for Nickelodeon. External Website

Actors Frances McDormand McDormand was born Cynthia Ann Smith in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted at one and a half years of age by Noreen (Nickelson) and Vernon McDormand and renamed Frances Louise McDormand. Her adoptive mother was a nurse and receptionist while her adoptive father was a pastor; both were originally from Canada. McDormand has said that her biological mother, to whom she proudly referred, along with herself, as "white trash," may have been one of the parishioners at Vernon's church. She has a sister, Dorothy A. "Dot" McDormand, who is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and chaplain,[4] as well as another sibling, both of whom were adopted by the McDormands, who had no biological children. McDormand is known for her portrayals of unique, quirky, and headstrong female characters, She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. She is one of the few performers to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting." McDormand was educated at Bethany College and Yale University. She has starred in a number of films by the Coen brothers, including Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Burn After Reading (2008), and Hail, Caesar! (2016). For her portrayal of Marge Gunderson in Fargo, McDormand won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other film roles include Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), and North Country (2005), all of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2011, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing a troubled single mother in Good People. On television, McDormand played the titular protagonist in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014), which won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2020, she starred in and produced the acclaimed independent western drama film Nomadland and recently won a BAFTA, best actress for her portrayal as Fern. External Website

Films/Videos Black or White 2014 Black or White (2014) is all about kinship care. 7 year old Eloise has been raised by her (white) maternal grandparents since her mother died in childbirth. Now her grandmother has died in a car accident and her other (black) grandmother wants custody. External Website

Radio & Podcast The agency accused of paying bribes for babies Background Briefing (4) 2024 In this episode of Australia’s ABC Background Briefing, we hear about Anna who was born in 1987 and who grew up believing she was an orphan. Anna lives in Melbourne, Australia. When she explored her adoption story she found out that her parents were married and she had been given up for adoption because she was a girl. As part of her investigation of what happened to Anna, reporter Gina McKeon spoke to a social worker whose job in the 80’s it was to assess referrals from the adoption agency in South Korean and allocate them to prospective parents in Melbourne. McKeon makes the point that by the 1980s in Australia, forced adoptions had ended and there were more opportunities for women to either have terminations or keep their children because of social changes. Therefore, she says, many prospective parents were looking overseas for children to adopt. External Website

Authors B From Us to Us: A collection of advice from care-experienced graduates to care-experienced graduates ➝ The Care-Experienced Graduates' Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations Project: Phase Two Report ➝ Review: Making Home: Orphanhood, kinship, and cultural memory in contemporary American novels. ➝ Oliver Twist, textbook of child abuse ➝ The Care-Experienced Graduates' Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations Project: Phase Three Report ➝ The Care-Experienced Graduates' Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations Project: Phase one report ➝ "One of Us": Orphaned Selves and Legitimacy in Australian Autobiography ➝ Facing the cliff-edge: care-experienced graduates’ access to and progression through taught postgraduate study in the United Kingdom ➝ Revealing the Profile of Foster Parents, Biological Parents, Foster Children and the Triadic Relationship amongst them ➝ Social Workers’ Involvement in Policy Practice in Portugal ➝ Back to Top

Authors T The forgotten children of the Empire ➝ The Sunday Read: 'The Blind Side' Made Him Famous. But He Has a Different Story to Tell ➝ The Lab Detective ➝ The Missing Magdalens ➝ Jennifer Down and Jonathan Franzen relive the 1970s ➝ The Unfinished Prince ➝ Tolstoy: War and the Russian Empire ➝ The Book Club: Patricia Highsmith ➝ The Kids of Rutherford County ➝ The many faces of James VI & I ➝ The 31: Ukraine's stolen children ➝ Adoption Beyond the Happy Ending: Trauma and the Stories that Shape Us ➝ The Magdalenes and I ➝ John Boyne on The Book Shelf with Ryan Tubridy ➝ The men who survived Kinchela Boys Home ➝ The 'Troubled Teen' Industry ➝ The Children's Homes Scandal ➝ Trans-national adoption and "blending in" ➝ Living in class limbo ➝ The Lady Imposter ➝ The sisters reuniting separated siblings at camp ➝ Episode 74 - The Care Experienced Conference ➝ An ode to the telephone ➝ JRR Tolkien ➝ Charlie Chaplin's Funny Walk and Other Music Hall Mysteries ➝ Episode 237. Marilyn Monroe ➝ Today in Focus: Bangladesh ➝ Adoption and moral obligation ➝ The UpEND Podcast ➝ The Strange Life of Ingrid Von Oelhafen ➝ May Wirth: bareback riding queen ➝ Kiri Te Kanawa (Podcast) ➝ The Tangled Branches of Lech Blaine’s Family Tree ➝ Life after Adoption from Foster Care ➝ When Robert met Maida ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Baby Driver 2017 Baby Driver (2017) is an American action film directed by Edgar Wright. It stars Ansel Angort as Baby (Miles), a getaway driver for criminals in Atlanta, Georgia. Baby was a child when he was orphaned; the only survivor in a car crash that killed his parents. We see Baby in the movie with his foster father, Joseph. We don’t know if Joseph was Baby’s only carer or not, but the two have a sound relationship, with Baby taking on the caring role for the deaf older man. Baby was coerced into becoming a getaway driver for criminal mastermind Doc (Kevin Spacey) and the film traces the story of how Baby extricates himself from this role. External Website

Authors M The magic of Harry Potter for children in care ➝ The Scars Remain: A Long History of Forgotten Australians and Children's Institutions ➝ Imagined Orphans: Poor Families, Child Welfare, And Contested Citizenship in London ➝ The Slow Evolution of Foster Care in Australia Just Like a Family? ➝ After the orphanage: life beyond the children's home ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos A Chance in the World 2019 A Chance in the World is based on the true story of Steve Pemberton.Taken from his mother at age three, Steve Klakowicz lives in the clutches of a cruel foster family. He finds his only refuge in a box of books given to him by a kind stranger, books that take him to new worlds he can only imagine. He begins to hope that one day he might have a different life. As he grows, Steve is determined to unravel the mystery of his origins. A light-skinned boy with blue eyes, a curly Afro, and a Polish last name, he embarks on an extraordinary quest for his identity, armed with only one clue. Yet nothing is as it appears. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Anne of Green Gables L M Montgomery 1987 Anne of Green Gables, children’s novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, published in 1908. The work, a sentimental but charming coming-of-age story about a spirited and unconventional orphan girl who finds a home with elderly siblings, became a classic of children’s literature and led to several sequels. The story begins with her arrival at the Prince Edward Island farm of Miss Marilla Cuthbert and Mr. Matthew Cuthbert, siblings in their fifties and sixties, who had decided to adopt a young boy to help out on the farm. However, through a misunderstanding, the orphanage sends Anne Shirley instead. While the Cuthbert’s are at first determined to return Anne to the orphanage, after a few days they decide instead to keep her. External Website

Films/Videos Christmas Oranges 2012 A girl is suddenly forced to leave her happy orphanage home and move to a harsh institution, where the headmaster takes an instant dislike to her. She keeps her spirits up looking forward to a traditional Christmas treat, & when the holiday arrives, something unexpected happens. External Website

Fiction Featuring Care Experience Snow John Banville 2020 Snow (2020) is a literary crime novel by noted Irish writer, John Banville. Snow is set in 1957 in County Wexford, Ireland. A priest has been murdered & castrated at a Protestant estate, Ballyglass House. Father Tom Lawless was a regular visitor to Ballyglass House, even though the residents are protestants. A key suspect for his murder is a young man who was abused by Father Tom. 19-year-old Fonsey tends to the horses at Ballyglass. As a baby he had been abandoned to an orphanage by his mother. Later he was sent to Carricklea, a ‘reform’ school where violence is the order of the day. Father Tom was working at Carricklea when Ginger (as Fonsey was known then) was there & sexually abused him. *Spoiler Alert* it wasn’t Fonsey who killed Father Tom. External Website

Authors G The Graveyard Book ➝ A Walz Through the Hills ➝ The Small miracle ➝ Pictures of Hollis Wood ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir Tell Me Why: The Story of My Life and My Music Archie Roach 2019 Archie Roach: b. 8 January 1956-d. 30 July 2022. A powerful memoir of a true Australian legend: stolen child, musical and lyrical genius, and leader. Roach was only two years old when he was forcibly removed from his family. Brought up by a series of foster parents until his early teens, his world imploded when he received a letter that spoke of a life he had no memory of. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Real Life Super Heroes Dee Michell 2018 Inspired by the work of Ethiopian-British poet, writer and performer, Lemn Sissay this blog is a collection of short-form biographies of people who have experienced disruption in their childhoods. Each person spent some time away from their birth families, whether that was organised formally by state intervention, or informally by friends and family. Each biography also includes reference to each person's adult life. External Website

Writers Mary Douglas 1921-2007 Dame Mary Douglas, (25 March 1921 – 16 May 2007) was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism, whose area of speciality was social anthropology. Mary Douglas was the first child of Phyllis Twomey and Gilbert Tew, who worked for the Indian Civil Service. Her parents were on leave and travelling home from Gilbert’s posting in Burma when Mary was born in San Remo, Italy. When their parents returned to India, Mary and her sister were sent to live with their maternal grandparents in Totnes, an historical market town in Devon, in the south west of England, until they were old enough to attend boarding school. They then went to Sacred Heart Convent in London. Mary went on to Oxford University after school, followed by working in the Colonial Office during World War II. It was while she was serving in the Colonial Office that Mary Douglas became intrigued by anthropology, and she went back to Oxford in 1946 to take up the subject. She commenced her PhD in 1949, doing her fieldwork in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). In 1966, Douglas published Purity and Danger, the best known of her work. She argued that humans divide the world into binary categories, eg, clean and dirty, things that should be on the floor and things that shouldn’t. Things/people out of place are considered dangerous. External Website