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Fiction featuring Care Experience To Die For David Baldacci 2024 To Die For (2024) by American writer David Baldacci revolves around the guardianship of an orphaned girl. As the story opens, 12-year-old Betsy Odom is in the care of the FBI. Her parents have recently died and her uncle, Danny Glass, wants to adopt the child. However, Danny Glass is the defendant in a federal prosecution and is out on bail. He’s wearing an ankle monitor and has had his passport removed. Travis Devine (this is the 3rd in the series of Travis Devine books), an ex-Army officer who now works undercover for Homeland Security, is tasked with supervising meetings between Betsy Odom and her uncle. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Year of the Orphan Daniel Findlay 2017 Daniel Findlay’s speculative fiction young adult novel, Year of the Orphan (2017), is set in the harsh Australian Outback hundreds of years into the future. A girl, called Orphan and who was sold as a child, is being pursued across the desert by a feared being called The Reckoner. She carries secrets about the collapse of civilisation given to her by Old Man, who remembers the past. The Orphan is driven to understand the past as she sees that as the key to survival now. Will the Orphan save the only home she knows—as corrupt and greedy as it is—or will she decide for its destruction? External Website

Films/Videos Bessie 2015 Bessie (2015) is an HBO film which tells the story of Bessie Smith's transformation of a young woman struggling to make a living from her singing to becoming a widely known and renowned blues singer. There are flashbacks to Bessie's difficult childhood in kinship care with an abusive older singer, and the film explores the mentoring role by External Website

Authors E Cultural, autobiographical and absent memories of orphanhood ➝ Back to Top

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Lemn Sissay: ‘All care stories should be successful ones’ Anastasia Koutsounia 2025 Lemn Sissay discusses the failures and stigma within the care system, emphasizing the need for accountability, better treatment of children in care, and recognition of social workers’ critical role. He highlights his own traumatic experiences in care, critiques the focus on isolated success stories, and calls for systemic reform, love-centered care, and greater public and political attention to the challenges faced by children and care professionals. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Hariet Martineau Literary Hub (Martineau) 2024 For health reasons, English writer Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was sent away as a children to stay with relatives on a number of occasions. In her 20s, Harriet Martineau took on the responsibility of providing for her family financially after their textile venture failed. She began selling articles to the Monthly Repository, a Unitarian magazine. Illustrations of Political Economy established Harriet Martineau financially and as a writer. In this recent LitHub article https://lithub.com/the-forgotten-female-novelist-who-foresaw-ecology-environmentalism-and-realist-fiction/, John MacNeil Miller argues that, although Martineau is today almost forgotten, she shouldn’t be. Her work, he says, “work wasn’t just social or sociological. It was ecological. She put far more thought into the entanglements that draw the fates of humans together with those of trees, water, grain, cattle, and fish than any English-speaking novelist I could find before her—or after her, for that matter… She reminds us that our individual and communal lives are not really so different from the lives of the animals and plants who share our planet. And in this age of extinction, that is a lesson we still desperately need to learn.” External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 James Bond, a fictional character is orphaned at the age of 11 when his parents are killed in a mountain climbing accident in the Aiguilles Rouges near Chamonix. After the death of his parents, Bond goes to live with his aunt, Miss Charmian Bond, in the village of Pett Bottom, where he completes his early education. Casino Royale is the first novel by the British author Ian Fleming. Published in 1953, it is the first James Bond book, and it paved the way for a further eleven novels and two short story collections by Fleming, followed by numerous continuation Bond novels by other authors. External Website

Television Shows Marriage 2022 Marriage (2022) is a British television series starring Nicola Walker as Emma, a solicitor, and Sean Bean as Ian, her unemployed husband of 27 years. Emma and Ian have a 22-year-old adoptive daughter, Jessica, played by Chantelle Alle. The adoption of Jessica is not talked about in the family because of the tragedy of Emma and Sean losing their son before. Jessica does, however, tell her new friend that her parents are white and that she has no interest in finding out about her biological family. External Website

Poets JRR Tolkien JRR Tolkien In September 2024, The Collected Poems of JRR Tolkien was published. The 3 volume collections gathers collects most of the poetry that Tolkien is known to have written. The book contains around 240 poems with already published in The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings included. From the publisher: “World first publication of the collected poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, spanning almost seven decades of the author’s life and presented in an elegant three-volume hardback boxed set. J.R.R. Tolkien aspired to be a poet in the first instance, and poetry was part of his creative life no less than his prose, his languages, and his art. Although Tolkien’s readers are aware that he wrote poetry, if only from verses in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, its extent is not well known, and its qualities are underappreciated…” External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Bridge Across My Sorrows Christina Noble 2013 After the early death of her mother, Christina's family was split apart, as her alcoholic father unable to care for his children. Christina was sexually abused and later escaped from an orphanage to live in poverty on the streets of Dublin. Whilst in an abusive marriage, in a dream she found the will to fight. Christina's hope lay in a determination to work among the bui doi, the street children of Vietnam, and this was the starting point for the most extraordinary part of her story. Within two years of arriving in Ho Chi Minh City she had opened a medical and social centre and achieved worldwide fame. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus 2023 Elizabeth Zott is a chemist in the 1960s. The problem is, she is the only one who views herself that way. Her male colleagues cannot get past the fact that she's a woman, and treat her more as a secretary and doormat, acknowledging her only long enough to steal her work. That is, until Calvin Evans, another brilliant chemist, comes along and really sees all that she is capable of. Calvin grew up in an orphanage but it is not until his daughter who has a project at school about family investigates Calvins past that the reader finds out more about this aspect of the novel. External Website

Television Shows The Coroner (S2.E2) 2016 (S2.E2) The remains of a newborn baby wrapped in 1970s newspaper is found in a cottage condemned by coastal erosion. A nearby closed children's home, Greyvale, and interviewing the uncooperative former residents and staff leads Jane and Davey to three sisters; one of whom, Lisa Millar is missing. Lee Millar, the brother, another resident of the home, visiting from America, who knows more than he is admitting and has tried to protect his sisters lead Jane to mistakenly suspect incest. (S2.E4) Beth, the coroner's daughter is camping with friends, overnight on the moors is frightened by animal noises and discovers a savaged sheep. Posting a picture on social media arouses the interest of local journalist Ben Fairhead of the Lighthaven Star. Fairhead believes the picture will convince the locals and police of his belief that a big cat is loose on the moors. When he turns up mauled to death on the moors Jane and Davey delve into his past and the murder of his mother 15 years previously by his father who was known as the Beast of Lighthaven. Ben was in foster care as a child. External Website

Authors B Baptiste ➝ Blood ➝ Blindspot ➝ Bad Sisters ➝ Boy Swallows Universe (television series) ➝ Bodies ➝ BBC Two - Neil Morrissey: Care Home Kid, Episode 1 ➝ Breaking the Silence: Britain's Adoption Scandal ➝ Ballard ➝ Bosch: Legacy ➝ Bones ➝ Based on a True Story ➝ Bosch ➝ Belgravia ➝ Back ➝ Black Earth Rising ➝ Borgen ➝ Bridgerton ➝ Bergerac ➝ Black Butterflies ➝ Bodkin ➝ Bordertown ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos The Life Ahead 2020 Based on a 1975 novel, The Life Before Us by Romain Gary, The Life Ahead is a 2020 Italian drama film with a boy in foster care at its heart. 12 year old Momo is a Sengalese migrant to Italy who was orphaned at the age of 6. He's been in foster care with Dr Coen but is struggling to care for the boy and run his practice from home. Dr Coen asks one of his patients, Holocaust survivor Madam Rosa, to take care of Momo. Rosa and Momo develop a deep bond and Momo cares for Rosa as her health declines. External Website

Writers Barack Obama Barack Obama (b. 1961), 44th President of the US from 2009 to 2017 was in kinship care as a child and teenager. Barack's parents divorced when Barack was 2. His mother later married an Indonesian man and Barack lived with them for several years. When Barack was 10, his mother sent him to live with his grandparents in Hawaii so he could go to Punahou, a prestigious school. At some point, Barack's mother moved to Hawaii to get her Masters and Barack lived with her and his sister Maya for 3 years. Barack returned to live with his grandparents when his mum went back to Indonesia for a year to do the fieldwork for her Masters. Barack Obama has published 4 books (including Dreams from My Father in 1995) and numerous research and other articles. External Website

Films/Videos The Department 2021 This documentary aired in Australia on Sunday 10 October. It was billed as "a look inside the never-before-seen New South Wales child protection system, following careworkers across the state." The documentary explores the experiences of parents who have lost their children to the state as well as Dept workers charged with protecting children. The Department acknowledges Australia's history of removing First Nations children on racist grounds, but does not acknowledge other problems resulting in state and federal inquiries since the 1990s. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Brixton Rock Alex Wheatle 2004 Brenton Brown is a 16-year old mixed race youth who has lived in a children's home all his life. He has never met his mother and is haunted by her loss. The best thing happens: Brenton is reunited with his mother, Cynthia. And then the worst: he falls in love with his beautiful half-sister, Juliet. At the same time, Brenton meets his Nemesis in the shape of Terry Flynn, a South London gangster who scars him for life. Brenton vows to seek revenge leads to an explosive climax, set against the music, humour and Caribbean rhythms of life that survive within the troubled South London landscape of 198's Brixton. External Website

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Zenobia Morten Durr; Lars Horneman 2018 Zenobia, Morten Dürr / Lars Horneman Gilgamesh Publishing 2016 Amina is an orphan fleeing a war-torn country on an overcrowded refugee boat. Alone and afraid, Amina recalls the inspiring adventures her mother told her about the Syrian warrior queen Zenobia, whose fearless determination transformed her into the ruler of an empire. Amina strives to be like Zenobia, but this is only possible in her imagination. Amina's story reflects the reality of so many child refugees around the world. 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

Authors D Kevin De Bruyne ➝ Back to Top