Authors L Taking Hold of Our Heritage ➝ The Price of Children ➝ Back to Top

Authors U The wisdom of deep listening: Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann and Fleur Magick Dennis ➝ Back to Top

Children's Fiction Don't Ask The Dragon Lemn Sissay (Author) Greg Stobbs (Illustrator) 2022 This is the story of Alem, a curious little boy who realises today is his birthday. The only problem is that Alem does not know where to celebrate, and who to celebrate with. He goes on an adventure all on his own, meeting exciting animals along the way. He befriends a bear, a fox, a treefrog, a bulldog and more. Every new friend he makes, he asks the same question: where shall I go? And every time he’s met with the same warning: ‘don’t ask the dragon . . . OR HE WILL EAT YOU’. The only thing Alem never speaks to is the tiny worm who sits on each page, perhaps it’s because the worm is so small! All alone at the top of a hill, Alem grows frustrated and helpless as he doesn’t know where to go. But someone – or something – does and Alem comes face-to-face with the dangerous dragon he was warned about. But just how dangerous is it? External Website

Television Shows Carlo & Malik 2018 Carlo & Malik is an Italian television crime series featuring an adoptee character. 28 year old Malik Soprani arrived by boat as a boy from the Ivory Coast. His mother did not survive the journey and he was adopted by an Italian woman and becomes an Italian citizen and a detective. Malik is partnered with the more senior Carlo Guerrieri who has to overcome his racist attitudes for the partnership to work. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Orphans in fiction British Library 2014 "Dickens's interest in orphans is almost obsessive," writes Professor John Mullan in this 2014 overview of orphans in 19th-century fiction. For example, the orphan can have adventures not available to the child being protected by parents and they're often cast in the role of a governess and therefore with "no certain class identity". For example, the orphan can have adventures not available to the child being protected by parents and they're often cast in the role of a governess and therefore with "no certain class identity". External Website

Films/Videos Steve 2025 Steve (2025) is a drama written by Max Porter & based on his novella Shy (2023).The film stars Cillian Murphy as Steve who is headteacher in charge of Stanton Wood, a fictional reform school for boys. Set in 1996, Steve is battling to save his school which strives to stop the difficult teenagers they care for from heading into a life of crime. Steve is both a caring & dedicated teacher and a man who is struggling with his own pain & addictions. At the heart of the film is Shy (Jay Lycurgo) who has been rejected by his mother, she is no longer to have contact with him because of his bad behaviour. The film covers a chaotic 24 hours in which the local politician visits, Steve finds out the school is being sold soon, a documentary film is being made at the school, and Shy makes a fateful decision. External Website

Authors E Louis Esson (poet, journalist) ➝ Back to Top

Writers Gene Siskel 1946-1999 Eugene Kal Siskel (1946 – 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He was born in Chicago to Russian Jewish immigrants, but was orphaned by the age of nine and living with relatives. Gene graduated from Yale University in 1967 and began work at the Chicago Tribute two years later. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, Gene hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his death in 1999. External Website

Films/Videos The Mission The Mission (2023) is a documentary presented by award-winning Australian journalist, Marc Fennell. 2 episodes in the 3-part series tell the story of “one of the largest art heists in Australian history, the theft of 26 masterpieces from a Western Australian monastery”, New Norcia Mission. The 3rd episode tells the story of a different crime, the cruel treatment of Aboriginal Australian children at the ‘orphanages’ there. Not only were the children forcibly removed from their parents – thus are members of the Stolen Generation – but the Royal Commission into Institution Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013-2017) found that the Benedictine Community of New Norcia was one of the worst offenders when it came to catholic priests sexually abusing children. The Mission also hears from survivors who were physically, verbally, and emotionally abused there too. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game Michael Lewis 2006 The Blind Side has 2 storylines. One is a look at how football strategy has changed over 3 decades and the second is the story of Michael Oher. Michael Oher was a Ward of the State when he was taken in by Tuohy family and supported his schooling and football career. External Website

Television Shows The Trial 2020 Prosecutor Elena Guerra is asked to investigate a murder. It is not long before she realises the dead teen was the baby she gave up for adoption 17 years ago. Guerra continues with the case, not telling anyone other than the father of the child, although Guerra's father - a magistrate - guesses and advises Guerra that she should not continue. External Website

Authors L A free lunch ➝ Life of the Week: Frederick Douglass ➝ Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley ➝ Lemn Sissay Is the One and Only ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Kirkland Revels Victoria Holt 1962 Kirkland Revels is a Gothic novel by Victoria Holt. Set in a 16th-century former abbey in Yorkshire, this melodrama deals with the life of a young unexpected bride. The novel follows its first-person narrator, Catherine Corder (later Rockwell) as she goes to live in her husband’s manor house, Kirkland Revels, where he apparently commits suicide by jumping from a balcony. Catherine is not convinced that his death is suicide and sets out to prove that he was murdered. Her investigations uncover a range of family secrets. She discovers that her mother is not dead, as she supposed, but confined in a private asylum and is not her biological mother but rather her adoptive mother and also her aunt. The local doctor, Deveril Smith, believes himself to be the unacknowledged, illegitimate son of Catherine’s wealthy father-in-law. Deveril feels that he should be the heir of Kirkland Revels, but is prevented from inheriting by his illegitimacy. External Website

Authors D Leonardo da Vinci ➝ Ivan Durrant ➝ Angel De Cora ➝ Henry Darger ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir It's about Healing: Our Story Margot O'Byrne 2011 Recipes for Survival: Stories of Hope and Healing by Survivors of the State ‘Care’ System in Australia is a collection of stories by those who have grown up in care in Australia during the 20th century and is therefore contribution to a growing body of literature on the experiences of the Forgotten Australians. External Website

Artists Frank Auerbach - artist Frank Auerbach (1931-2024) was only 7 years of age when he was sent from Germany to safety in England in 1939. His parents were killed in Auschwitz in 1942. In England Frank became a student at the Bunce Court School in Kent and then moved to London in 1947. He took art classes at the Borough Polytechnic, St Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art. From 1955, Auerbach began teaching in secondary schools and art schools. His first solo exhibition was held in 1956 at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London. London's Tate Britain organised a major retrospective of Auerbach's work during 2015 and 2016. External Website

Plays & Musicals featuring Care Exp Melody loses her Mojo Keith Saha 2013 Melody is in the care system and has been separated from her little sister Harmony – she’s got to keep hold of her toy monster Mojo to keep her on the straight and narrow. But when new girl Blessing arrives from Nigeria and tries to steal her best mate Rizla, Melody’s demons begin to take over her Mojo, with devastating consequences… External Website

Films/Videos Grace and Frankie 2015 Grace and Frankie (2015-2022) is an American comedy television series (Netflix) stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as the eponymous Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein, two aging women who for as long as they can recall, have been rivals. Their one-upmanship comes crashing to a halt, however, when they learn that their husbands have fallen in love with each other and want to get married. Nwabudike "Bud" Douglas Bergstein is one of the main characters in Grace and Frankie. He is the adopted son of Frankie and Sol Bergstein and the adopted brother of Coyote Bergstein. He is currently a lawyer at Robert and Sol's firm, Hanson & Bergstein. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Silent System: Forgotten Australians the Institutionalisation of Women and Children Paul Ashton & Jacqueline Z Wilson (Editors ➝ The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance John Boswell ➝ Goodna Girls Adele Chenowyth ➝ Contesting Childhood: Autobiography, Trauma, and Memory Kate Douglas ➝ Representing Aboriginal Childhood The Politics of Memory and Forgetting in Australia Joanne Faulkner ➝ The Orphan in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century Gymnich, Marion; Puschmann-Nalenz, Barbara; Sedlmayr, Gerold. ➝ Children's Homes. A History of Institutional Care for Britain's Young Peter Higginbotham ➝ The magic of Harry Potter for children in care Sarah Mokrzycki ➝ The Scars Remain: A Long History of Forgotten Australians and Children's Institutions Nell Musgrove ➝ Little Strangers: Portrayals of Adoption and Foster Care in America, 1850-1929 Claudia Nelson ➝ Visibly Invisible - The tale of a Black Female Social Worker Rebecca Olayinka ➝ Orphans of the Living: Growing Up in Care in Twentieth-Century Australia Joanna Penglase ➝ The Orphan: A Journey to Wholeness Audrey Punnett ➝ Raising Government Children Catherine Rymph ➝ Relinquished Gretchen Sisson ➝ What Works for Young People Leaving Care? Mike Stein ➝ Making home: Orphanhood, kinship and cultural memory in contemporary American novels Maria Holmgren Troy ➝ Transmedia Harry Potter: Essays on Storytelling Across Platforms Christopher E Bell ➝ In the best interest of the child': Foster care in Ireland 1862-1991 Jamie Canavan ➝ Weaving a Web of Belonging: Developing a Trauma-Informed Culture for All Children Lisa Cherry ➝ Cultural, autobiographical and absent memories of orphanhood Delyth Edwards ➝ Street urchins, sociopaths and degenerates: orphans of late-Victorian and Edwardian fiction William David Floyd ➝ Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women Jenny Hartley ➝ Dickens The Orphan Condition Baruch Hochman; Ilja Wachs ➝ Imagined Orphans: Poor Families, Child Welfare, And Contested Citizenship in London Lydia Murdoch ➝ The Slow Evolution of Foster Care in Australia Just Like a Family? Musgrove, Nell; Michell Deidre (Dee) ➝ The Orphan in Eighteenth-Century Law and Literature: Estate, Blood, and Body Cheryl L Nixon ➝ Who Cares?: Young People in Care Speak Out Raissa Page, G A Clark (editors ➝ Orphan texts: Victorian orphans, culture and empire Laura Peters ➝ The Stolen Generations. The removal of Aboriginal children in New South Wales 1883 to 1969 Peter Read ➝ Orphans: A History Jeremy Seabrook ➝ Behind Closed Doors: Hidden Histories of Children Committed to Care in the Late Nineteenth Century (1882-1899) Annie Skinner ➝ Care Less Lives - The story of the rights movement of young people in care Stein et al ➝ Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece: Kid pro quo? Gonda Van Steen ➝ Orphans of Empire. The fate of London's foundlings Helen Berry ➝ Voices of the Lost Children of Greece: Oral Histories of Cold War International Adoption Mary Cardaras (Editor) ➝ Parragirls: Reimagining Parramatta Girls Home through art and memory Bonney Djuric ➝ The Story of the Pink Cat: An Exploration of the Ways Care-Experienced People Navigate Inheritance by Delyth Edwards & Rosie Canning Delyth Edwards & Rosie Canning ➝ Convict Orphans Lucy Frost ➝ Collective Revenge: Challenging the Individualist Victim-Avenger in Death Proof, Sleepers, and Mystic River Claire Henry ➝ UK Child Migration to Australia, 1945-1970: A Study in Policy Failure Gordon Lynch ➝ After the orphanage: life beyond the children's home Murray et al ➝ Voices from the Silent Cradles - Life Histories of Romania’s Looked-After Children Mariela Neagu ➝ Imagining Adoption. Marianne Novy (Editor) ➝ Jacqueline Wilson (New Casebooks) Lucy Pearson ➝ Enduring Stuggle: St Mary's Tardun Farm School David Plowman ➝ The Children of Looked After Children: Outcomes, Experiences and Ensuring Meaningful Support to Young Parents In and Leaving Care Louise Roberts ➝ Orphans Real and Imaginary Eileen Simpson ➝ A Home from Home? Children and Social Care in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, 1870-1920 Claudia Soares ➝ Leaving care (out of print) Mike Stein et al ➝ Re-reading Orphanhood Diane Warren and Laura Peters (Editors) ➝ Back to Top

Writers Maree Giles Maree Giles was born in Penrith, New South Wales. After her mother separated from her father, the family moved in with Maree’s grandmother, Daisy Entwistle, in Cronulla. The family of three moved again when Maree was six to North Narrabeen, close to both the beach and the Garigal National Park. Because of her grandmother’s ill health, Maree’s mother sent the little girl to boarding school, St Catherine’s Girls’ School in Waverley, Sydney. In 1970, when Maree was 16, she attended a pop festival and was arrested 3 months later. She was committed by the Children’s Court in Sydney to Parramatta Girls’ Home for 9 months “for being ‘uncontrollable and exposed to moral danger.’ After her term finished, 17-year-old Maree left Australia for Wellington, New Zealand, determined to never return to the Girls’ Home. In Wellington she got a clerical job and studied journalism, staying in New Zealand for 10 years. Maree Giles then moved to the United Kingdom where she lived for more than 30 years. She taught journalism in London colleges and creative writing at Esher College, Surrey. During the 1990s she began her own career as a fiction writer after winning a short story competition. Giles’ first book, Invisible Thread (2001), is a fictional account of her time in Parramatta. External Website