Search Results

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Alone in the world | The Spectator Philip Hensher 2018 A review of Jeremy Seabrook's book, Orphans: A History External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The House in the Cerulean Sea TJ Klune 2021 The House in the Cerulean Sea, Klune's first stand-alone novel published with the Macmillan Tor imprint, was partially inspired by the Sixties Scoop, where the Canadian government removed Indigenous children from their homes and placed them with unrelated white, middle-class families. Seeing the similarities of this event take place in the current-day Southern United States, Klune felt a need to write a story celebrating children's differences and to show the positive effects of giving children a safe and supportive place to be themselves. Linus Baker is a 40-year-old man who lives with his devious cat Calliope, and who works as a case-worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). He spends his work days overseeing the care of magical children in orphanages, and his nights listening to his old records. When Extremely Upper Management calls him, he is given a Classified Level 4 (he had only been given a Classified Level 3 once, which was an unfortunate incident), in what will probably be his most challenging task ever; taking a trip to the Marsyas Orphanage, where six extraordinary children are kept by an equally extraordinary caretaker, Arthur Parnassus. External Website

Children's Fiction Dennis and the Big Decisions (2-5 years) Paul Sambrooks 2011 This brightly illustrated picture book explains to young children who are living in foster care about why they have moved from their family, why they may have future moves, and who will make these decisions. It is the sequel to the ever-popular Dennis Duckling (BAAF 2009). The story follows Dennis, living in foster care, as important decisions are made about where he should live and who with. It looks at the range of adults who are involved in decision making, including social workers, foster carers, judges and birth parents, and emphasises how they all want to make the right choice for Dennis. The story can help children who have to be separated from their birth parents to understand what is happening to them and why, what the future may hold, and how they can be involved in making big decisions no matter how old or young they are. It clearly explains that children are not responsible for making decisions, or resolving the difficulties that surround them, but that their wishes and feelings are vitally important and will be listened to. Dennis Duckling and the Big Decisions does not have a set ending. It is left to the child and reader to imagine what happens next, hopefully reflecting the plan for the individual child. The story can be revisited and expanded many times as plans progress and decisions about the child s future become clearer. External Website

Television Shows Fearless 2017 Fearless is a six-part British crime thriller television drama series created by screenwriter Patrick Harbinson and broadcast on ITV in 2017. The series follows human-rights lawyer Emma Banville (Helen McCrory) as she tries to prove convicted murderer Kevin Russell innocent of the murder of schoolgirl Linda Simms 14 years earlier. Russell asserts that he is innocent of the crime, and Emma believes that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice. She goes to extreme lengths to discover the truth. Meanwhile Emma while taking care of a Syrian refugee and her baby, Emma prepares to adopt a child with her boyfriend, Steve, all while dealing with negative headlines and comforting her terminally ill father, Arthur. External Website

Writers Nadia Wheatley Nadia Wheatley was born in Sydney in NSW. At the age of 9 she went into informal foster after the death of her mother. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Sydney (1970) and a Masters from Macquarie University (1976). She was also award an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sydney in 2014. Nadia Wheatley has written children's books (many of which have received awards), biography and memoir. Her biography of another Australian writer, Charmian Clift, was awarded a NSW History Award in 2002. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People J. S. Bach: A Life in Music Peter Williams 2007 Renowned German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), was in kinship care for 5 years as a child. Sebastian was born in Thuringia into a large family with a long lineage of musical talent. He was the last of 8 children to Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645-1695) and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt(1644-1694). On the death of Maria Elisabeth, Ambrosius still had 3 children to care for, including Sebastian. He therefore remarried quickly, but died only 3 months later. 10 year old Sebastian, and his older brother, 13 year old Jacob, were sent to live with their older brother Johann Christoph Bach. A distinguished scholar and performer, Williams re-examines Bach's life as an orphan and family man, as an extraordinarily gifted composer and player and as an ambitious artist who never suffered fools gladly. External Website

Authors G Accessing Social Services Child Care Files: The Life and Importance of Graham Gaskin (1959 – 2002) ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows The Golden Hour 2022 There are 2 men who were orphaned as children in the Dutch series, The Golden Hour (2022, Netflix). Both are from Afghanistan. One is a detective based in Amsterdam, the other is a terrorist. External Website

Writers William Makepeace Thackeray 1811-1863 William Makepeace Thackera was an English novelist, author and illustrator, who was born in India. British writer, William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), was in kinship care as a child. Thackeray was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal) to Richmond and Anne Thackeray and named after his paternal grandfather. Richmond Thackeray was doing well in his career at the time of William’s birth, but died just 4 years later. At the end of 1816, Anne Thackeray sent William to England. For 12 months, William’s maternal great-grandmother and maternal great-aunt cared for the child at Fareham, a small town between Portsmouth and Southampton in England. He went to school in Southampton. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Continuing Education of the Artist as a Mature Woman Rachael Romero 2015 As a teenager, Rachael spent 9 months living in one of the infamous Magdalene Laundries. In this chapter she tells of going to Art School, but also of needing to escape Australia. Living in America, Rachael practiced her art and became an activist. She later did a Masters Degree at Antioch University and became an art teacher. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Puppet Show M.W. Craven 2018 The Puppet Show (2018) by MW Craven has a detective called Washington Poe, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (who was in foster care as a child). Washington Poe is a disgraced detective, brought back to work at the National Crime Agency to locate a serial killer known as the Immolation Man. There are several Care Experienced Characters in the novel, including Tilly Bradshaw who works as an analyst for National Crime Agency. . External Website

Non Fiction The State of It Chris 2021 Government cuts, unregulated care homes, inadequate staff training - campaigner and care home consultant Chris Wild has seen it all. The low standards and frequent abuse of children in care has long been a focal point of his loud message: we are failing our young people and something needs to change. Chris delves deep into the lives of care home kids, from experiences with county lines, drugs, trafficking, knife crime, gang violence to child exploitation and sexual abuse. He tells the stories of the voiceless, the children who have been left behind, compounded by his own experiences of growing up in care. How is the care system failing our young people and controlling just who and what they can become? What help do we really give children after their time in care is over, left to fend for themselves? Is it too late to fix the state of it? External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Orphans & Care Experience in Literature Rosie Canning Rosie Canning is an author, campaigner, project coordinator and PhD Candidate. The website features her PhD journey, her recent work with University of Oxford as well as featuring orphans and care experience in literature. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Along the Way Maureen Flanagan 2002 Maureen O’Shea was removed from her mother as a baby on the grounds the child was neglected. Cliona O’Shea was struggling at the time with poverty and ill health. Although she got the older 4 children back, Cliona eventually relinquished Maureen for adoption External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Schindler's Ark Thomas Keneally 1982 Schindler’s Artk (1982) by esteemed Australian writer Thomas Keneally tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party who saves the lives of 1200 Jews during the Holocaust and who therefore becomes an unlikely hero. Along the way, Keneally includes accounts of many of the Jews forced to live in the Krakow (Cracow in Keneally, a common spelling until the 1990s) Ghetto and in the Plaszow concentration camp. Among them are 3 orphans: There is the 3-year child being cared for by the Dresner family after a Polish couple decided they couldn’t “keep a Jewish child in the countryside any more” This child loved to wear red: “red cap, red coat, small red boots (Keneally, Schindler, 100). There’s also Rebecca Tannenbaum who at least “had not been bereft of kindly aunts and uncles” (Keneally, Schindler, 232). At nineteen she is a manicurist for the brutal commandant and marries Joseph Bau. Then there’s a 13-year-old orphan who was able to save himself “with that infallible instinct which had once characterised the movement of the red-capped child…And as with Redcap, no one had seen him (Keneally, Schindler, 259). Schindler’s Ark won the Booker Prize in 1982 and was adapted for the multi-award film Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg in 1993. External Website

Radio & Podcast Alan Warner: Movern Callar Bookclub (Warner) 2024 In this episode of Bookclub, Alan Warner talks about his debut novel, Morvern Callar (1995), which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1996. Morvern Callar was in foster care as a child. As a young adult she is working at a supermarket in a small town. She wakes up on Xmas morning to find her boyfriend has killed himself. She takes the manuscript of his unpublished novel and sends it to the publisher recommended in the young man’s suicide note. However, Morvern passes the novel off as her own. External Website

Television Shows Van der Valk 2023 Van der Valk (2020-2023) is a British crime series set in Amsterdam with Marc Warren starring as Commissaris Piet van der Valk. In the 1st episode of the 2023 series, assertions are early made by Inspecteur Lucienne Hassell (Maimie McMoy) that imply the orphan status of a young man who raised his brother was sufficient reason to suspect him of murder. The 2nd episode of the same series also has a displaced child at the centre, but –spoiler alert – it turns out the 16 year who was imprisoned for murder wasn’t the culprit. Nor was she an orphan. External Website

Academic Articles Healthy Depictions? Depicting Adoption and Adoption News Events on Broadcast News Kline, Susan L.; Chatterjee, Karishma; Karel, Amanda I. 2009 Given that the public uses the media to learn about adoption as a family form, this study analyzes U.S. television news coverage of adoption between 2001 and 2005 (N = 309 stories), to identify the types of news events covered about adoption. A majority of news stories covered fraud, crime, legal disputes, and negative international adoption cases. Adoptees as defective or unhealthy were depicted more in negative news event stories, birth parents appeared less overall, and adoptive parents were most likely to have healthy depictions in positively oriented adoption experience, big family, and reunion stories. Although three quarters of the stories used primary adoption participants as news sources, one-third of the negative event stories did not contain healthy depictions of adoption participants. The authors discuss ways journalists and researchers might improve adoption news coverage. External Website

Actors Samantha Morton Samantha Jane Morton (born 13 May 1977) is an English actress and director. She was in residential and foster care as a child and was a member of the Central Junior Television Workshop in her native Nottingham, and later began her career in British television in 1991. She guest-starred in Soldier Soldier and Cracker and had a bigger role in the ITV series Band of Gold. Samantha Morton has received numerous accolades for her work, including a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a British Academy Film Award. She made the transition to film with lead roles in the dramas Emma (1996), Jane Eyre (1997). For her role in Longford, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Morton made her directorial debut with the television film The Unloved (2009), which won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Single Drama. External Website

Radio & Podcast The Poet: Dr. Maya Angelou American Masters The venerable poet, writer, activist, dancer and singer Dr. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) teaches that above all else, we are more alike than we are unalike. In this episode, she share insights into her life as a teacher, and what it takes to be courageous. External Website