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Television Shows The Good Doctor 2017 The Good Doctor is an American medical drama series which stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a young man with autism working as a surgical resident in a fictional hospital. Shaun and his brother ran away from home as teenagers because of their father's violence. When Steve dies, 14 year old Shaun refuses to return to his parents and goes into foster care. Eventually he lives with Dr Aaron Glassman who is an important friend and mentor for the young doctor. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Tearsmith (Novel) Erin Doom 2024 The Tearsmith (2024) is a novel by Italian writer Erin Doom. Two teenagers grow up in the same abusive orphanage, Sunnycreek Orphanage. Rigel (Simone Baldasseroni) has been there for as long as he can remember; Nica (Caterina Ferioli) since she was orphaned at the age of 8. Rigel and Nica are adopted by the same couple but Rigel later rejects that adoption and returns to Sunnycreek and to the custody of Margaret Stoker (Sabrina Paravicini). The Tearsmith (2024) is now hit movie on Netfflix. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Better Off in a Home Bill Smith 1982 In this book, Bill Smith tells about his early life in Melbourne and then in Kildonan, a children's home also in Melbourne. Bill's father took him to the home when he was 6. External Website

Cartoons Hey Arnold 1996-2004 Hey Arnold! is an American animated tv series that aired on Nickelodeon from 1996-2004. The show centers on fourth grader Arnold Shortman, who lives with his grandparents in an inner-city tenement in the fictional city of Hillwood, Washington. Episodes center on his experiences navigating urban life while dealing with the zany hijinks he and his friends encounter. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Care leaver Kerry Littleford: 'I want to give opportunities to people who haven’t had them' The Guardian 2017 Kerry Littleford was the eldest of nine siblings, and the last to be taken into care. She recalls how social services failed her mother and explains how she’s helping others avoid a similar fate External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Unbelievable review – grimly credible story of trauma, power and injustice Hannah Daviies 2019 A review about the Netflix drama, Unbelievable about a retracted rape allegation. The author argues this is a fiercely feminist look at the nature of truth and whose stories get heard. External Website

Films/Videos Motherless Brooklyn 2019 Jonatham Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn (1999) was adapted for film in 2019 by Edward Norton. Norton also starred as Lionel Essrog, the PI with Tourette’s who is determined to find out who killed his mentor and boss, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Edward Norton has changed the setting of the film to 1957 NYC and changed the reason for Frank Minna being killed. In the film there is a conspiracy around the gentrification of New York and the shifting out of the city of the Black and working-class communities. The other 3 “Minna Men” are included in the film – Tony (Bobby Cannavale), Danny (Dallas Roberts), Gilbert (Ethan Suplee) – but little is said about the boys’ home from which they – and Lionel Essrog – were plucked by Frank Minna. External Website

Radio & Podcast The Sunday Read: 'The Blind Side' Made Him Famous. But He Has a Different Story to Tell The Daily 2024 Michael Oher was born in 1986 into a very large and poor African American family in Memphis, Tennessee and became a Ward of the State at some point in his young life. Michael Oher is the subject of a 2009 book by Michael Lewis and the 2009 movie, The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock. He published his own book in 2011. In this The Daily podcast, American journalist Michael Sokolove discusses the fact that Michael Oher is currently suing the Tuohy family, the family who took him in and encouraged him to play professional football. According to Michael Oher, the Tuohys claimed they had adopted him. They never did. Instead, they had a conservatorship agreement, taken out in 2004 when Michael was 18. The conservatorship was ended in 2023. Michael Oher is also alleging the Tuohys exploited the football star, using him to promote their speaking engagements over the years which have earned them around $8 million. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Inheritance Louisa May Alcott 1997 A wealthy English family, the Hamilton's, adopt an orphan who was born in Italy. A long lost letter reveals that she is related to the Hamilton's and has inherited the estate on which she has been living and working as a companion to the Hamilton's daughter. External Website

Films/Videos Continuous Voices 2020 In this video, Australian artist Robert House discusses how the trauma of being sexually abused as a boy in an orphanage during the 1960s has become integrated into his practice of art. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Three Little Words Ashley Rhodes-Courter 2009 "Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother. You must mind the one taking care of you, but she's not your mama." Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words. As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster care system. Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative, humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family. In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed - and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Orphan X (novel series) Gregg Hurwitz 2016 Orphan X (2016) is a thriller written by American novelist Gregg Hurwitz. It is the first in a series of books centred around Evan Smoak. At the age of 12, Evan was enrolled in a secret operation to train orphans as assassins for government agencies. Evan or Orphan X maintains access to the program’s funding and weapons after the secret operation is closed and he becomes a vigilante assassin. Other books in the series are Buy a Bullet (2016), The Nowhere Man (2017), Hellbent (2018), Out in the Dark (2019), Into The Fire (2020) and The Prodigal Son (2021). External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters The Orphan in Eighteenth-Century Law and Literature: Estate, Blood, and Body Cheryl L Nixon 2016 Cheryl Nixon's book is the first to connect the eighteenth-century fictional orphan and factual orphan, emphasizing the legal concepts of estate, blood, and body. Examining novels by authors such as Eliza Haywood, Tobias Smollett, and Elizabeth Inchbald, and referencing never-before analyzed case records, Nixon reconstructs the narratives of real orphans in the British parliamentary, equity, and common law courts and compares them to the narratives of fictional orphans. The orphan's uncertain economic, familial, and bodily status creates opportunities to "plot" his or her future according to new ideologies of the social individual. Nixon demonstrates that the orphan encourages both fact and fiction to re-imagine structures of estate (property and inheritance), blood (familial origins and marriage), and body (gender and class mobility). Whereas studies of the orphan typically emphasize the poor urban foundling, Nixon focuses on the orphaned heir or heiress and his or her need to be situated in a domestic space. Arguing that the eighteenth century constructs the "valued" orphan, Nixon shows how the wealthy orphan became associated with new understandings of the individual. New archival research encompassing print and manuscript records from Parliament, Chancery, Exchequer, and King's Bench demonstrate the law's interest in the propertied orphan. The novel uses this figure to question the formulaic structures of narrative sub-genres such as the picaresque and romance and ultimately encourage the hybridization of such plots. As Nixon traces the orphan's contribution to the developing novel and developing ideology of the individual, she shows how the orphan creates factual and fictional understandings of class, family, and gender. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Her name was Jean: International Women's Day 2021 Jamie Crabb 2021 This is a reflective piece by Jamie Crabb to honor his birth mother Jean, and all care experienced women and birth parents who were harmed by failures in our society to support those who have experienced complex trauma. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Enuring Stuggle: St Mary's Tardun Farm School David Plowman 2003 Between 2002 and 2009, Professor David Plowman was Chair of the Child Migrants of Malta (C-MOM) organisation which raised awareness of this demographic and was involved in successfully lobbying for memorials in Malta and Fremantle, Western Australia. In 2003, he published a history of the Tardun Farm School, an agricultural school run by the Christian Brothers from 1928. The school took in child migrants from Britian and Malta as well as boys who were wards of the Western Australian state. David Plowman's history includes discussion of child migrants at the school as well as the Christian Brothers' attitude to education. External Website

Television Shows Silo 2024 Silo (2023) is an American science fiction television series based on the Silo novels by Hugh Howey. In Series 2, Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) discovers another silo, Silo 17, in which “Solo” (Steve Zahn) is hidden away in the fault. *Spoiler Alert* Towards the end of the series we find out that Solo is Jimmy Conroy and the only survivor of a rebellion. Jimmy was 12 when he was orphaned. External Website

Television Shows Kaleidoscope 2023 Kaleidoscope is an American drama series (2023, Netflix) telling the story of a US$7billion robbery. There are 2 characters who were in informal foster care arrangements as children. Ava Mercer (Paz Vega) was a minor when she travelled to America from Argentina with her nanny. The nanny has cared for Ava ever since. Ava is both a lawyer and involved in planning the heist. Ava cares for Ray Vernon’s daughter, Hannah Kim (Tati Gabrielle), when he was imprisoned for burglary 24 years previously. A prison escapee, Ray Vernon (Giancarlo Esposito) is head of heist operations. External Website

Children's Fiction The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) Lemony Snicket 2018 The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans following a fire and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. External Website

Radio & Podcast Season 3, Episode 6 Dee Michell and Rosie Canning on Care Experience & Culture - Trauma Resonance Resilience Lisa Cherry Dee Michell and Rosie Canning join Lisa Cherry to talk about a new Digital Archive called Care Experience and Culture. External Website

Radio & Podcast John Boyne on The Book Shelf with Ryan Tubridy The Bookshelf 2024 We have 3 of John Boyne’s novels listed on the archive because they feature Care Experienced characters, viz, The Thief of Time (2000), This House is Haunted (2013) and The Heart’s Invisible Furies (2017). In this podcast, John Boyne talks about his enthusiasm for orphans in literature, for those children who are – who have to be – in charge of their own destinies. External Website