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Activists Social justice and recognition for children in care Lemn Sissay 1967- Lemn Sissay was one of the first people to link orphan literary heroes with young heroes in the care system. He is a British poet and activist whose work is deeply rooted in his own experiences growing up in the UK care system. Through poetry, public speaking, and writing, he sheds light on the mistreatment of children in care and advocates for systemic reform. His activism includes legal action, public awareness campaigns, and founding the Christmas Dinners, a nationwide initiative for young care leavers. Sissay uses his platform to promote justice, empathy, and support for marginalized youth, making him a powerful voice for change in social care and beyond. External Website

Authors N Crackers and Milk ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir Why Richard Kingsmill is is My God Davida Bache 2015 Davida Bache moved around in foster care as a child and as a consequence her schooling was disrupted. She entered university as a mature age student, doing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the University of Adelaide. External Website

Authors H The Mythmakers ➝ Back to Top

Children's Fiction Delly Duck (4-8 years) Holly Marlow 2021 When Delly Duck lays an egg, she is excited for it to hatch. But she doesn’t really know how to keep an egg safe, or how to look after her chick when he hatches. See how a concerned goose tries to help Delly to learn how to care for her chick, in this touching adoption story. External Website

Authors F Fugitive Pieces ➝ Foreign Correspondent: Saving the Children ➝ Four Brothers ➝ From Time to Time ➝ Foster ➝ Foster Care Films - Community Engagement Project ➝ First Christmas ➝ Farming ➝ Foster Boy ➝ Finding Neverland (film) ➝ Found ➝ Fathers and Daughters ➝ Foreign Correspondent: Saving the Children ➝ Back to Top

Authors H Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (poet) ➝ Robert Hayden ➝ Langston Hughes (poet) ➝ Back to Top

Artists Yusuf P McCormack Yusuf Paul McCormack (1963-2021) was an Artist, Poet, Writer/Author and Trainer, based in Rugby, Warwickshire. He took early retirement from the civil service in 2015 and wrote his first verse in November of that year. It was an epiphany moment and, consumed, Yusuf wrote solidly for the next 12 months about his childhood growing up in children's institutions. In December 2016 he began to translate his written work on to canvas, where he attempted to explore the emotions that he was unable to voice as a child. His work explores the world he experienced, felt and witnessed as a child who was illegitimate, mixed raced and rejected. Yusuf’s art was his intuitive way of working using memory and imagination as a way to develop his own style. He used his combined experiences as an artist, a child of the state, to inform those who genuinely want to improve and sustain better outcomes for those who never chose their start in life. External Website

Films/Videos The Thirteenth Year 1999 The Thirteenth Year (1999) is an American fantasy comedy, a Disney Channel Original Movie. Cody Griffin (Chez Starbuck) is an adopted teenager. He was left with Whit (Dave Coulier) and Sharon Griffin (Lisa Stahl Sullivan) as a baby and he grows up to be a great swimmer and a popular student. After his 13th birthday, Cody begins to feel strange. He gets scales and fins, and eventually his clever friend, Jess Wheatley (Justin Jon Ross) runs some tests and concludes that Cody is turning into a merman. It is Jess, too, who works out a way for Cody to meet his mermaid mother (Stephanie Chantel Durelli). External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Kingdom Jo Nesbo 2020 The gripping new standalone thriller from multi-million copy bestseller, Jo Nesbo. When Roy and Carl's parents die suddenly, sixteen-year-old Roy is left as protector to his impulsive younger brother. But when Carl decides to travel the world in search of his fortune, Roy stays behind in their sleepy village, satisfied with his peaceful life as a mechanic.Some years later, Carl returns with his charismatic new wife, Shannon - an architect. T External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Care Experienced student behind new John Lewis Partnership brand: Made with Care John Lewis 2023 The John Lewis Partnership unveils Made With Care. A new lifestyle brand that combines great design and desirable products while creating a platform for talented people who have grown up in the care system. First design from the new brand launched at event to mark one year of the Building Happier Futures programme. The first product is designed by Michael Archibald, an 18-year old aspiring artist from Glasgow who has experienced care. Michael has crafted an inspiring piece of art to feature on a fashionable tote bag. Michael applied to take part in Made with Care through Who Cares? Scotland, the Partnership’s charity partner. He has worked with the John Lewis in-house design team and creative partners Saatchi & Saatchi to create his unique design. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles The True Story Behind the Netflix Series 'Unbelievable' Mahita Gajanan 2019 An article on the true story which inspired the Netflix series, 'Unbelievable'. External Website

Films/Videos Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter 2024 Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (2024) is an American documentary (in two parts). In 1974, 16-year-old Cathy Terkanian gives up her baby daughter for adoption. The child was 9 months old. 35 years later, Cathy finds out that her daughter – then named Aundria Bowman - had gone missing in 1989. Cathy becomes involved in the search for her missing daughter, beginning with setting up a Facebook page. She found out who the adoptive parents were and became convinced the adoptive father, Dennis Bowman, had killed her daughter. On May 15, 2020, Dennis Bowman pleads guilty to the murder of dismemberment of Aundria Bown. External Website

Authors I Ice-T ➝ Back to Top

Radio & Podcast Prince Alamayu Great Lives (Sissay) 2012 There’s been concern in 2023 because Buckingham Palace has reportedly refused Ethiopian requests to return the remains of Prince Alemayehu, an Ethiopian prince who was trafficked to the UK in 1868. Ethiopian-British poet and presenter, Lemn Sissay, is one high profile figure who has joined a campaign to repatriate the prince’s remains to Ethiopia. In this 2012 episode of Great Lives, Lemn Sissay joins host Matthew Parris to discuss the short life of Prince Alamayu and the parallels with his own. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience My Name Is Leon Kit de Waal 2017 It's 1981, a year of riots and royal weddings. The Dukes of Hazzard is on TV. Curly Wurlys are in the shops. And trying to find a place in it all is nine-year-old Leon. After his mother's breakdown, he and his little brother Jake are taken into care and live with foster carer Maureen. They've lost one home, but have they found another? Maureen feeds and looks after them. She has wild red hair and mutters swearwords under her breath when she thinks they can't hear. She claims everything will be okay. But will they ever see their mother again? Who are the couple who secretly visit Jake? Between the street violence and the street parties, Leon must find a way to reunite his family... External Website

Authors Jaiswal International Cricketer ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Unforgotten 2021 Unforgotten is an English crime drama series which first aired in 2015 and which starred Nicola Walker for the first 4 series. Series 4 of the British crime drama series, Unforgotten, has a former foster kid put in a brief appearance. Jerome Walsh is the son of the murdered man in the series, Matthew Walsh, and he was in and out of foster care, but in employment at the time of his father's murder being investigated. One of the suspects in the show, Fiona, has a criminal past and she has been posing as a former foster kid so she doesn't have to talk about her family of origin with her own family. In Series 5, there is a complicated story involving intergenerational trauma for 4 generations of a family at one end of the social spectrum, while at the other end there is immense privilege, including non-accountability for committing crimes. Included in the causes of intergenerational trauma are rape, racism, kinship care, abuse at the hands of a cult leader, foster care and homelessness. Several members of the family have criminal records. External Website

Television Shows All the Light We Cannot See 2023 All the Light We Cannot See (2023) is an American drama series based on Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. The series tells the story of 2 teenagers whose paths cross in August 1944: a blind French girl, Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti) and a German boy, Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann) who grew up in an orphanage and who was forced to join and fight for the Nazis. The 2 youngsters long had in common listening to the radio, particularly scientific lectures by a reclusive WW1 veteran, Etienne Le Blanc (Hugh Laurie), the great-uncle of Marie-Laure It was his skill with radio that brought Werner to the attention of the Nazis. Marie-Laure is now using radio to pass on information to the Allied forces. External Website

Children's Fiction The Coral Island RM Ballantyne ➝ Madeline Ludwig Bemelmans ➝ My Forever Family: from fostering to adoption Nicky Brookes ➝ The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett ➝ Walk Two Moons Sharon Creech ➝ The BFG (book) Roald Dahl ➝ Great Expectations (adapted) Charles Dickens ➝ Coram Boy Jamila Gavin ➝ Who Am I? The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 Anita Heiss ➝ Home For a While (4-8 years) Lauren Kerstein ➝ Pippi Longstocking Astrid Ross Lindgren et al. ➝ Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian ➝ Saffy's Angel Hilary McKay ➝ Lucky Button Sir Michael Foreman Morpurgo et al. ➝ Henderson's Boys Robert Muchamore ➝ Close Your Pretty Eyes (11-13 years) Sally Nicholls ➝ Fablehouse E.L. Norry ➝ The Ruby In The Smoke: 1 (A Sally Lockhart Mystery) Philip Pullman ➝ The Star Outside My Window (8-11 years) Onjali Q. Rauf ➝ Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone J K Rowling ➝ The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) Lemony Snicket ➝ Heidi Johanna Spyri ➝ Fosterboy Rhian Taylor ➝ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain ➝ Home Girl Alex Wheatle ➝ The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries J.T. Williams ➝ Dustbin Baby Jacqueline Sharratt Wilson et al. ➝ Hetty Feather (novel) Jacqueline Wilson ➝ Peter Pan in Kensington Garden J M Barrie ➝ The Ghosts and Jamal Bridget Blankley ➝ An Angel for May Melvin Burgess ➝ Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs ➝ The Wanderer Sharon Diaz Creech et al. ➝ James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl ➝ Understood Betsy Dorothy Canfield Fisher ➝ Pictures of Hollis Wood Patricia Reilly ➝ Strong and Tough Rico Hinson-King and Nick Sharratt ➝ What Mummies Are Made Of by Stephanie Hutton Storgy Kids ➝ The Willoughbys Lois Lowry ➝ Delly Duck (4-8 years) Holly Marlow ➝ Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles (4-8 years) Michelle Meadows ➝ Alone On A Wide Wide Sea Michael Morpurgo ➝ We Are Wolves Katrina Nannestad ➝ The Sound of Everything Rebecca Normal ➝ Pollyanna Eleanor H Porter ➝ I was a Rat! Or, The Scarlet Slippers Philip Pullman ➝ The Boy Who Built a Wall Around Himself (4-9 years) Ali Redford ➝ Dennis and the Big Decisions (2-5 years) Paul Sambrooks ➝ The Leftovers Eleanor Spence ➝ Extraordinary Birds (8-12 years) Sandy Stark-McGinnis ➝ The Unadoptables: Five fantastic children on the adventure of a lifetime Hana Tooke (Author), Ayesha L. Rubio (Illustrator) ➝ Homecoming: Volume 1 Cynthia Voight ➝ My Bright Shining Star Fatima Whitbread (Author), Rhian Wright (Illustrator) ➝ Midnight Jacqueline Sharratt Wilson et al. ➝ The Illustrated Mum Jacqueline Lawrence Wilson et al. ➝ Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things Matilda Woods ➝ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L Frank Baum ➝ Paddington Michael. Bond ➝ A Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett ➝ The Boxcar Children Mysteries Gertrude Chandler Warner ➝ Tell me again about the night i was born Jamie Lee Curtis ➝ Oliver Twist (adapted) Charles Dickens ➝ The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman ➝ A Walz Through the Hills G.M. Glaskin ➝ The Invisible String (3-6 years) Patrice Karst ➝ The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling ➝ Back Home Michelle Magorian ➝ Little Women Louisa May Alcott ➝ Anne of Green Gables (adapted) Lucy Maud Montgomery ➝ The Cherub Series Robert Muchamore ➝ The Cat Who Saved Books Sosuke Natsukawa (Author), Louise Heal Kawai (Translator) ➝ Runaways E.L. Norry ➝ Escape from Cockatoo Island Yvette Poshoglian ➝ Mostly Mary Gwynedd Vulliamy Rae et al. ➝ When Marnie was There Joan G Robinson ➝ Don't Ask The Dragon Lemn Sissay (Author) Greg Stobbs (Illustrator) ➝ Jamberoo Road Eleanor Roberts Spence et al. ➝ Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild ➝ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain ➝ Uprising Alex Wheatle ➝ Tales of the Weird, the Wild and the Wonderful Sophie Willan ➝ My Mum Tracy Beaker Jacqueline Sharratt Wilson et al. ➝ We Are The Beaker Girls Jacqueline Wilson ➝ Refugee Boy Benjamin Zephaniah ➝ Back to Top