Children's Fiction

In finding books with foster care themes, I realized quickly how many award-winning books have main characters who have experienced parent death or abandonment. While the foster care system in these fiction books may not look exactly like modern foster care in California, the overall pictures of hardship and resilience can be helpful for all children (or adults) to read. I’ve chosen books I have read and feel could be enjoyable as well as informative. The books reviewed below are appropriate for upper elementary or middle school classrooms unless otherwise noted. Karina Glaser gives more options of fiction books with foster care themes via Book Riot.

Bud, Not Buddy

by Christopher Curtis

Set in the Depression, this book deals honestly with emotions of finding a parent and the death of a parent. The book addresses cruel treatment by foster parents. Because of it’s Depression-era setting, some of the things that Bud does, like run away successfully from his foster parents, are not realistic of foster care in a modern day setting. However, the feelings Bud experiences are indicative of a child searching for a permanent home.

Finding the Right Spot

by Janice Levy

This book is an illustrated children’s fiction book that can be read with a child in a short amount of time (approximately 20 minutes). It tells the story of a girl who can no longer live with her mom and must live with a foster parent. The story touches on hard topics like when the girl’s mom forgets her birthday or she is struggling with alcohol addiction, yet it is appropriate for children to read on their own or with an adult. It would be an appropriate title to add to a lower or upper elementary classroom library.

Homecoming and Dicey’s Song

by Cynthia Voigt

Homecoming is a novel that begins with a mother’s abandonment of her four children. The oldest, Dicey, tries to get all of her siblings to her aunt’s house and then a grandmother’s house. The is a longer read (400 pages) for some children and is slow in parts, but it does work through ideas of loss and grieving while trying to find permanency.

Dicey’s Song is the sequel to Homecoming and may be more accessible for children than Homecoming. It is not necessary to have read Homecoming to understand Dicey’s Song. Dicey and her siblings are now living with their grandmother and settling into a new normal. This novel shows Dicey’s worries about her mother, who is unable to take care of them because of mental illness, and her frustrations with her grandmother who withholds information about her mother.

Locomotion

by Jacqueline Woodson

This book is a children’s fiction book written in free-verse poems. It follows the life of a boy who is in foster care because of the death of his parents. The book broaches heavy emotions, mentions questioning God, and gives insight into how a foster child might feel when separated from his sibling. Woodson’s writing is not trite, nor does she create a story with an unrealistic ending to spare kids pain.

Maniac Magee

by Jerry Spinelli

The main character of the novel, Jeffrey Lionel Magee, becomes an orphan at age three and lives with his aunt and uncle before running away. Magee remains homeless but stays with various people and even sleeps in a zoo. While the books may not portray a realistic picture of foster care today (it is unlikely a child could escape a family member or stay with strangers as easily as Magee did), it does give a good picture of racial divides present in our society (which can be heightened in foster care) and the desire for permanence and acceptance.

Missing May

by Cynthia Rylant

This novel starts with the death of a girl’s guardian, Aunt May. The books follows ways each character (Summer and Uncle Ob) grieve the death of Aunt May. It is not a long book (98 pages) and can be helpful to have honest conversations about depression brought on by death or loss.

Pictures of Hollis Woods

by Patricia Reilly Giff

This book is a good example of a foster child learning coping skills and finding independence long before she may be developmentally ready for them. Hollis is trying to “play the system” because she has finally found a good foster home but realizes her new foster parent is getting dementia. She tries to play a caretaker role at age 12 but cannot sustain this. Eventually, she becomes adopted by a foster family who had taken care of her previously.