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Films/Videos Chaplin 1992 Chaplin (1992) is a biopic of the English actor & filmmaker Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)/ Starring Robert Down Jr as Chalie Chaplin, the film was produced and directed by Richard Attenborough The premise of the film is an elderly Charlie Chaplin discussing his autobiography with a fictional editor, George Haydon (Anthony Hopkins). Chaplin’s difficult childhood, including that he was sent to various London workhouses from the age of 7, is glossed over in the film (as it was in Chaplin’s autobiography). More time in the film is spent on his mother being committed to a mental asylum which Charlie was about 14. External Website

Radio & Podcast Jennifer Down and Jonathan Franzen relive the 1970s The Book Show 2022 A fascinating conversation with Jennifer Down author of Bodies of Light, which was shortlisted for Australia's Stella Prize in 2022. Bodies of Light is the story of Maggie Sullivan who grows up in the Victoria's state care system in the 1970s and 1980s. As an adult she 'reinvents' herself and becomes Josephine, and ThHolly by the end of the story. Jennifer talks about how she knew more about the state care system than many people as both her parents were social workers, with her mother working in the child protection system. The second part of the conversation with Jonathan Franzen is worth listening to as well, particularly since it was his endorsement which gave life to US writer and Care Experience Person, Paula Fox's career https://drdee-drdeethinkingoutloud.blogspot.com/2021/08/paula-foxs-nomadic-childhood.html External Website

Films/Videos The Windermere Children 2020 The Windermere Children is a movie starring Thomas Kretschmann, Romola Garai, and Iain Glen. This is the story of children repatriated at the end of WWII from Poland and taken to live in a camp in the Lakes District in England. Here, the children are helped to rebuild their lives and integrate into British society. External Website

Writers Elizabeth Anionwu Dame Elzabeth Anionwu (b. 1947) is the daughter of an Irish woman and Nigerian father, Elizabeth had a disrupted childhood as she lived in a convent between periods of being with her single mother, which she talks about in her memoir, Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union (2016). Elizabeth Anionwu went on to become a specialist in treating the blood disorders, sickle-cell and thalessemia, created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at the University of West Lond, and earned a PhD. During her long career she publish many works related to sickle cell disease, as well as A short history of Mary Seacole (2005). Elzabeth Anionwu is the recipient of many awards, including being appointed a CBE in 2001, a Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing in 2004, and an Order of Merit in 2022. External Website

Films/Videos The Quilters 2024 The Quilters (2025) is a short documentary exploring the work of a group of incarnated American men. The men are incarcerated at the South Central Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison in Licking, Missouri. They are taking part in the prison’s Restorative Justice Organization, a program that means they spend 40 hours a week making patchwork quilts as birthday gifts for children in foster care and those with disabilities. “A lot of these foster kids were always told that they would never amount to anything” says one quilter in the documentary. “This is my chance to say we care.” The men talk about the sense of purpose the documentary gives them, that the designing and sewing serves as a useful distraction from unworthy thoughts, and that often they can take up themes that were important in their family lives. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Gabriel Garcia Marquez's last novel The Conversation (Marquez) 2024 In this article, Gabriel Garcia Ochoa of Monash University https://theconversation.com/gabriel-garcia-marquezs-last-novel-is-a-moving-testament-to-his-genius-225272 talks about Until August, a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014) that was posthumously published in March this year. According to Ochoa, Until August “… is a complete but unfinished work that Marquez was not able to fully revise to this satisfaction.” Apparently, Marquez revised his novels repeatedly, with one, Autumn of the Patriarch, taking him 17 years. This is why, says Ochoa, his sons were at first reluctant to publish Until August. External Website

Authors S Sunny ➝ Manga - The Promised Neverland ➝ Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are Rudy Owens 2018 Rudy Owens is an advocate for adoptee rights. He lives in Portland, Oregon in the US and in 2018 he published a memoir called You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are. Born in Detroit in the mid-1960s, 24 years later Rudy Owens finally met his birth family. It then took another 25 years and a legal stoush with the State of Michigan before he received his original birth certificate. Rudy Owens’ book details the lengths he had to go to get his original birth records and his campaign for other adoptees have the right to access their records. In You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are, Owen’s also uses a public health perspective to discuss the importance of connections to kin. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Don't Ever Tell: Kathy's Story Kathy O'Beirne 2006 Kathy O'Beirne's earliest memories are of being battered and sexually abused. Aged only eight, Kathy was removed from the family home and incarcerated in a series of institutions. External Website

Authors L Russell Lewis ➝ Back to Top

Authors M Goodnight Mister Tom ➝ Saffy's Angel ➝ Alone On A Wide Wide Sea ➝ The Cherub Series ➝ Back Home ➝ Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles (4-8 years) ➝ Lucky Button ➝ Delly Duck (4-8 years) ➝ Anne of Green Gables (adapted) ➝ Henderson's Boys ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012-2015) is an Australian television series starring Essie Davies as the wealthy feminist private detective, Phryne Fisher. The show has been adapted from the 15 detective novels written by Australian writer Kerry Greenwood and is set in and around Melbourne. There are some episodes which feature care experienced characters. For example, in Series 1, Episode 2, Miss Fisher takes in a girl who has been an exploitative foster care placement. Unfortunately, in Series 1, too, is a stereotypical serial killer character - Murdoch Foyle -who was raised in foster care. Apart from Murdoch Foyle, most of the conversation is on the side of girls and women oppressed by men, and in some cases, by other women. https://drdee-drdeethinkingoutloud.blogspot.com/2022/06/phryne-fisher-foster-care-in-1920s.html External Website

Authors N Children Without Childhood: The Emotionality of Orphaned Children and Images of Their Rescuers in Selected Works of English and Canadian Literature ➝ The politics of good intentions and what I’ve learned from Romania’s ‘orphans’ ➝ Back to Top

Children's Fiction Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles (4-8 years) Michelle Meadows 2021 Before she was a record-breaking gymnast competing on the world stage, Simone Biles spent time in foster care as a young child. Nimble and boundlessly energetic, she cherished every playground and each new backyard. When she was six years old, Simone's family took shape in a different way. Her grandparents Ron and Nellie Biles adopted Simone and her sister Adria. Ron and Nellie became their parents. Simone was also introduced to gymnastics that same year, launching a lifelong passion fueled by remarkable talent, sacrifice, and the undying support of her family. From her athletic early childhood to the height of her success as an Olympic champion, Flying High is the story of the world's greatest gymnast from author Michelle Meadows and illustrator Ebony Glenn. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles How Black and White America Reacted to Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Literary Hub (Maya Angelou) 2025 American writer Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was sent to live with her paternal grandmother after her parents separated. She and her brother lived with their grandmother – the first time – for 4 years - https://www.careexperienceandculture.com/master/maya-angelou-(writer) Angelou writes of this experience and of later living back with her mother, being raped by her mother’s partner and returned to her grandmother in her first memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this LitHub article https://lithub.com/how-black-and-white-america-reacted-to-maya-angelous-i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings/ Scott Stern discusses the impact of Angelou’s memoir when it was published early 1970. He writes: “Caged Bird remained on the bestseller list for the better part of four months (and it has never gone out of print). Its initial paperback print run was an astounding 350,000 copies. Soon Caged Bird was nominated for the 1970 National Book Award…” External Website

Children's Fiction Hetty Feather (novel) Jacqueline Wilson 2010 London, 1876. Hetty Feather is just a tiny baby when her mother leaves her at the Foundling Hospital. The Hospital cares for abandoned children - but Hetty must first live with a foster family until she is big enough to go to school. Hetty's happiness is threatened when she must return to the Foundling Hospital to begin her education. The new life of awful uniforms and terrible food is a struggle for her, and she desperately misses her beloved Jem. But now she has the chance to find her real mother. Could she really be the wonderful Madame Adeline? Or will Hetty find the truth is even more surprising? Featuring a brand-new feisty Victorian heroine in this historical novel, Hetty Feather, is compelling, moving and funny. External Website

Authors P Niki de Saint Phalle ➝ Back to Top

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles A Conversation with Daniel Ingram-Brown Daniel Ingram-Brown Daniel Ingram-Brown is the author of The Firebird Chronicles series for children aged 9-12, published by Our Street Books. He is the recipient of the Taner Baybars award for original fiction in the field of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Magical Realism, awarded by the Society of Authors Authors’ Foundation. Daniel is currently undertaking a PhD at Leeds Beckett University exploring adoption through creative writing and is also part of the university’s Storymakers Company, who seek to develop creative, artistic, child centred learning opportunities for young people through story making in educational and community settings. Aimed at a young adult readership, Bea’s Witch is adoption fiction crossed with magical realism and historical fiction. On the eve of her twelfth birthday, Beatrice Crosse runs away from her adoptive home only to encounter the ghost of England’s most famous prophetess. The witchoffers her treasure, but can she be trusted? Bea must wrestle her past to discover the witch’s secret and find her way home. External Website

Authors D James and the Giant Peach ➝ Oliver Twist (adapted) ➝ The BFG (book) ➝ Great Expectations (adapted) ➝ Back to Top

Authors G Milan Galic ➝ Back to Top