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Fiction by Care Experienced authors Kim Rudyard Kipling 1901 Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of an Irish orphan living in British India in the late 1800's. He becomes the disciple of a Tibetan monk while learning espionage from the British secret service. Kipling's prose paints a vivid picture of the variations of India. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Charlie Chaplin and the story of care Coram (Charlie Chaplin) 2021 The story of Charlie Chaplim and his experience of being sent to London workhouses from the age of seven. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Died in the Wool Ngaio Marsh 1945 Died in the Wool is a detective novel by New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh (1895-1949). Died in the Wool was first published in 1945. It is the 13th of Ngaio Marsh’s novels to feature ‘gentleman detective’ Roderick Alleyn. In Died in the Wool, Alleyn travels to New Zealand and investigates the death of politician Florence Rubrick. Featured in the story is Ursula Harme, Florence Rubrick’s “ward”. Florence Rubrick was godmother to Ursula and became her guardian on the death of Ursula’s mother. The young woman is loyal to her ‘aunt’ and is not the killer. Died in the Wool is 1 of 4 of Marsh’s Alleyn novels adapted for NZ television in 1977 External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Evidence of V Sheila O'Connor 2019 A Novel in Fragments, Facts, and Fictions. American novelist Sheila O’Connor tells the story of V, a talented fifteen-year-old singer in 1930s Minneapolis who aspires to be a star. Drawing on the little-known American practice of incarcerating adolescent girls for “immorality” in the first half of the twentieth century, O’Connor follows young V from her early work as a nightclub entertainer to her subsequent six-year state school sentence for an unplanned pregnancy. As V struggles to survive within a system only nominally committed to rescue and reform, she endures injustices that will change the course of her life and the lives of her descendants. External Website

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Sunny Taiyō Matsumoto 2013 Sunny is the story about the foster children of the Star Kids home, a combination group home/orphanage facility. They struggle with both the everyday issues of growing up and those specific of being abandoned or orphaned children. Their only way out from their situation is the Sunny, a dilapidated old car in the front lawn of the home. The Sunny is used by the children to go magically wherever they want, travel the world, go into space, or just find a refuge from the troubles of reality. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Old Curiosity Shop Charles Dickens et al. 1840 13 year old Nell Trent, an orphan, is in kinship care with her grandfather; the two live together in the Old Cuiosity Shop in London. Little Nell quickly became one of Dickens' most celebrated characters, who so captured the imagination of his readers that while the novel was being serialised, many of them wrote to him about her fate. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Goodwood Holly Throsby 2016 Goodwood (2016) is the debut novel of Australian singer-songwriter Holly Throsby. The novel is a mystery set in a small, fictional NSW regional town. Two people go missing in 1992. First, it’s 18-year-old Rosie. Next, its past middle age Bart McDonald who doesn’t return from a fishing trip. The narrator of the story is 17-year-old Jean. Jean thinks she’s uncovered an important clue to the disappearances when she finds $500 in a hidey-hole. Then, confusingly, the money is taken and replaced by a small plastic horse. Jean is the daughter of single mother, Celia, who was adopted as a baby. Jean’s grandparents lovingly told Celia the story of them choosing her from rows and rows of babies, but at age 14, Celia discovers that adoption “was just a mountain of bureaucracy and it took ages and prospective adopters pretty much got what they were given” (26). Celia went to university in Sydney, then returned to Goodwood to raise Jean after Jean’s father left them. External Website

Children's Fiction Close Your Pretty Eyes (11-13 years) Sally Nicholls 2013 Eleven-year-old Olivia has been in care since she was five, and is just beginning her sixteenth placement. Her new home is a secluded farmhouse, centuries old, where she slowly bonds with her foster family. But the house holds dark secrets. Olivia discovers that it was once a notorious baby farm, where unwanted children were left to die. She becomes convinced that the place is haunted. She is desperate to save her new family from the ghosts. The danger is real - but does it come from the twisted mind of a very disturbed child? A powerful and thrilling story from one of today's most exciting young writers. External Website

Children's Fiction The BFG (book) Roald Dahl 2020 The BFG (short for The Big Friendly Giant) is a 1982 children's book written by British novelist Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is an expansion of a short story from Dahl's 1975 book Danny, the Champion of the World. Sophie is first seen in an orphanage, having trouble sleeping when she saw a large, black-cloaked figure in the streets. It spots Sophie and Sophie tries to run, but the figure sticks a large hand in and takes Sophie. The figure strides across England and many other countries when they arrive in Giant Country. The BFG is tells the story of 8 year old orphan, Sophie, and the adventures she has with a giant man, or BFG. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Secrets of the Sea House Elisabeth Gifford 2013 Ruth has been raised in children's homes after losing her mother as a young child. Her mother always told her that she was a Selkie, one of the seal people and eventually her mother would return to the sea. Ruth prefers this version to the official death certificates: suicide by drowning. As an adult, Ruth returns with husband Michael to her mother's native Hebrides. This is a new start for them both in an old manse they're renovating. However during the works they make a gruesome discovery: the buried remains of a special child. This body has been there for over a century, since Rev Alexander Ferguson's time and, as the years roll back to reveal its origins Ruth realises this isn't the only surprise awaiting her. Scotland, 1860. Reverend Alexander Ferguson, naïve and newly-ordained, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the Hebridean island of Harris. His time on the island will irrevocably change the course of his life, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after Alexander departs. Based on a real nineteenth-century letter to The Times in which a Scottish clergyman claimed to have seen a mermaid, Secrets of the Sea House is an epic, sweeping tale of loss and love, hope and redemption, and how we heal ourselves with the stories we tell. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Tokyo Olympics: 'I just wanted a normal life' - Ireland's McFerran recalls childhood in foster care with BBC Sport NI's Nigel Ringland Ayeisha McFerran ​ Ayeisha McFerran has so often been a star performer for Ireland, with the 25-year-old goalkeeper making crucial saves to help the side reach the World Cup final in 2019 and a first Olympics Games. The Larne woman, who made her senior debut a day after turning 18, is set to add to her 105 appearances when Ireland face South Africa in their Tokyo opener on 24 July. It is a story of success but also one of childhood trauma, with McFerran placed in foster care after her mother passed away. For the first time she speaks publicly about her experiences in foster care - both positive and negative - in a bid to show other children in a similar position that they can fulfil their dreams just like anyone else. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Careless Kirsty Capes 2020 Sometimes it's easy to fall between the cracks... At 3.04pm on a hot, sticky day in June, Bess finds out that she's pregnant. She could tell her social worker Henry, but he's useless. She should tell her foster mother, Lisa, but she won't understand. She really ought to tell Boy, but she hasn't spoken to him in weeks. Bess knows more than anyone that love doesn't come without conditions. But this isn't a love story... External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Foundlings Anna Spargo-Ryan 2022 Foundlings is a work-in-progress. Following the lives of two women who hoped for more, it’s historical fiction set in the Adelaide Destitute Asylum on the cusp of women’s suffrage legislation in the late nineteenth century. Anna also has a short story called Foundling in The Saturday Paper (16 July 2022) which is behind a paywall. External Website

Children's Fiction The Wanderer Sharon Diaz Creech et al. 2011 Thirteen-year-old Sophie, who is adopted, sets sail for England from the US with her three uncles and two cousins. On the way, Sophie learns about how her parents died. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience As Swallows Fly LP McMahan 2021 When Malika, a young orphan in rural Pakistan, is savagely attacked, her face is left disfigured and her self-esteem destroyed. Haunted by the assault, she hides from the world, finding solace in her mathematical theories. A few years later, her intellectual brilliance is discovered and she leaves conflict-stricken Pakistan for a better education in Melbourne, where she finds herself placed with Kate—a successful plastic surgeon facing emotional insecurities of her own. Malika and Kate’s lives slowly intertwine as they find within each other what each has lacked alone. At first, Kate’s skills appear to offer a simple solution to Malika’s anguish, but when tragedy strikes, the price of beauty is found to be much higher than either of them could have known. As Swallows Fly is a poignant portrayal of survival, identity and empowerment in a culture dominated by the pursuit of perfection. In a captivating and unforgettable debut, McMahon asks what might be possible if we have the courage to be flawed. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors The history of Tom Jones Henry Fielding 2011 The history of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding; edited with explanatory notes by Thomas Keymer and Alice Wakely ; with an introduction by Thomas Keymer. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. It is a Bildungsroman and a picaresque novel. It was first published on 28 February 1749 in London and is among the earliest English works to be classified as a novel. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience All Our Shimmering Skies Trent Dalton 2020 Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain down, orphan Molly Hook is looking to the skies and running for her life. Inside a duffel bag she carries a stone heart, alongside a map to lead her to Longcoat Bob, the deep-country sorcerer who she believes put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress, and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. External Website

Children's Fiction What Mummies Are Made Of by Stephanie Hutton Storgy Kids 2018 STORGY Kids is an online magazine for children and young people. They publish the best short stories we can find for 8 to 12-year-old readers, whilst also providing a space for Young Adult fiction too, as well as book reviews and interviews with authors. Stephanie Hutton's short story explores 'What Mummies Are Made Of' by some children in care. External Website

Children's Fiction Homecoming: Volume 1 Cynthia Voight 2012 “It’s still true.” That’s the first thing James Tillerman says to his older sister, Dicey, every morning. It’s still true that their mother has abandoned the four Tillermans in a mall parking lot somewhere in the middle of Connecticut. It’s still true that they have to find their own way to Great-aunt Cilla’s house in Bridgeport. It’s still true that they need to spend as little as possible on food and seek shelter anywhere that is out of view of the authorities. It’s still true that the only way they can hope to all stay together is to just keep moving forward. Deep down, Dicey hopes they can find someone to trust, someone who will take them in and love them. But she’s afraid it’s just too much to hope for.... External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Fragile Sarah Hilary 2021 Fragile (2021) by Sarah Hilary features characters from a children's home. Nell Ballard is now homeless, running from her past and carrying a secret she longs to set down. In Starling Villas, she becomes servant to an eccentric recluse. Robin Wilder lives by an exacting set of rules, expecting the same from Nell, who fears his retribution should she let standards slip. Just as she begins to find her balance in the house, Robin’s former wife sweeps in. Carolyn Wilder has no intention of allowing Nell to become comfortable in her new home. But who is underestimating whom? And who truly holds the power in Starling Villas? As events overtake the household, old wounds reopen and the past rushes in to exact its own terrible price. Fragile is a modern Gothic psychological thriller with a contemporary twist on the classic novel Rebecca External Website