Author: Elizabeth Sutherland
Publisher: Elizabeth Sutherland
ISBN: 9781736990421
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
One woman's incredible journey to survive foster care and discover her true identity. This is a complex, intriguing story filled with twists and turns as Liz unravels her complicated past. Part memoir, part guidebook, this book offers support and resources for agencies, foster youth and foster parents.
No Ordinary Liz: Surviving and Thriving After Foster Care
Author: Elizabeth Sutherland
Publisher: Elizabeth Sutherland
ISBN: 9781736990421
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
One woman's incredible journey to survive foster care and discover her true identity. This is a complex, intriguing story filled with twists and turns as Liz unravels her complicated past. Part memoir, part guidebook, this book offers support and resources for agencies, foster youth and foster parents.
Publisher: Elizabeth Sutherland
ISBN: 9781736990421
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
One woman's incredible journey to survive foster care and discover her true identity. This is a complex, intriguing story filled with twists and turns as Liz unravels her complicated past. Part memoir, part guidebook, this book offers support and resources for agencies, foster youth and foster parents.
Surviving and Thriving in Care and Beyond
Author: Sara Barratt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429919565
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
This is a book about children who have to grow up apart from their biological parents, the impact of this on their lives and on those who look after them, and how we can respond to the challenges this poses in order that they can grow and develop in healthy directions. It provides a systemic framework to describe working with children and adults who are or have been in care or adopted, as well as working with their adoptive parents and carers, highlighting their own narratives and those of professionals working with them. The authors have tried to make space for multiple voices to speak and describe aspects of the care system and life beyond. There are contributions from those who have been brought up away from their biological parents, their adoptive parents and foster or kinship carers. There are also contributions from researchers and professionals with expertise in working with children in substitute care, who describe their theoretical and clinical approaches, privileging the voices of those with whom they work.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429919565
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
This is a book about children who have to grow up apart from their biological parents, the impact of this on their lives and on those who look after them, and how we can respond to the challenges this poses in order that they can grow and develop in healthy directions. It provides a systemic framework to describe working with children and adults who are or have been in care or adopted, as well as working with their adoptive parents and carers, highlighting their own narratives and those of professionals working with them. The authors have tried to make space for multiple voices to speak and describe aspects of the care system and life beyond. There are contributions from those who have been brought up away from their biological parents, their adoptive parents and foster or kinship carers. There are also contributions from researchers and professionals with expertise in working with children in substitute care, who describe their theoretical and clinical approaches, privileging the voices of those with whom they work.
"I’m Still Here"
Author: Elizabeth Dutton-Scott
Publisher: BalboaPress
ISBN: 1452581401
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
I’m Still Here is the story of one woman who experienced the trauma and pain of child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and wife battering. She was seventeen when she married, and by the age of twenty-two, she had three children and was terrorized by her husband. She escapes the marriage after eleven tumultuous years but must leave two of her three children with their father, only to end up with a man who manipulates and dominates her. She leaves him, and years later lives with another abusive man. Elizabeth has to ask herself: why? What is it about her that draws her to abusive men? And why is her behaviour so troublesome to her? Through several forms of therapy by many therapists and reading self-help books, she begins to understand her thinking, her behaviour, and her physical ailments from the time she was a child. Finally, in one year, she took a monumental step in self-awareness by writing her memoir, I’m Still Here. During research and writing this book, she discovers, the process has become a yearlong therapy session, and she is the client and the therapist. I’m Still Here helps her understand how her life experiences molded who she has become based on science and her life. And hopefully, my story will provide insight for those struggling with trauma from family violence or sexual abuse, and, for Victim Assistants and first responders.
Publisher: BalboaPress
ISBN: 1452581401
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
I’m Still Here is the story of one woman who experienced the trauma and pain of child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and wife battering. She was seventeen when she married, and by the age of twenty-two, she had three children and was terrorized by her husband. She escapes the marriage after eleven tumultuous years but must leave two of her three children with their father, only to end up with a man who manipulates and dominates her. She leaves him, and years later lives with another abusive man. Elizabeth has to ask herself: why? What is it about her that draws her to abusive men? And why is her behaviour so troublesome to her? Through several forms of therapy by many therapists and reading self-help books, she begins to understand her thinking, her behaviour, and her physical ailments from the time she was a child. Finally, in one year, she took a monumental step in self-awareness by writing her memoir, I’m Still Here. During research and writing this book, she discovers, the process has become a yearlong therapy session, and she is the client and the therapist. I’m Still Here helps her understand how her life experiences molded who she has become based on science and her life. And hopefully, my story will provide insight for those struggling with trauma from family violence or sexual abuse, and, for Victim Assistants and first responders.
The Women Who Raised Me
Author: Victoria Rowell
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006124659X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
The actress and dancer describes her origins as a mixed-race child from the Maine foster care system, her efforts to build her career, and the remarkable women who supported and inspired her.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006124659X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
The actress and dancer describes her origins as a mixed-race child from the Maine foster care system, her efforts to build her career, and the remarkable women who supported and inspired her.
Fully Connected
Author: Julia Hobsbawm
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472926854
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
Shortlisted for the CMI's Management Book of the Year Award 2018 and the Business Book Awards 2018 Twenty-five years after the arrival of the Internet, we are drowning in data and deadlines. Humans and machines are in fully connected overdrive - and starting to become entwined as never before. Truly, it is an Age of Overload. We can never have imagined that absorbing so much information while trying to maintain a healthy balance in our personal and professional lives could feel so complex, dissatisfying and unproductive. Something is missing. That something, Julia Hobsbawm argues in this ground-breaking book, is Social Health, a new blueprint for modern connectedness. She begins with the premise that much of what we think about healthy ways to live have not been updated any more than have most post-war modern institutions, which are themselves also struggling in the twenty-first century. In 1946, the World Health Organization defined 'health' as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.' What we understood by 'social' in the middle of the last century now desperately needs an update. In Fully Connected Julia Hobsbawm takes us on a journey – often a personal one, 'from Telex to Twitter' – to illustrate how the answer to the Age of Overload can come from devising management-based systems which are both highly practical and yet intuitive, and which draw inspiration from the huge advances the world has made in tackling other kinds of health, specifically nutrition, exercise, and mental well-being. Drawing on the latest thinking in health and behavioural economics, social psychology, neuroscience, management and social network analysis, this book provides a cornucopia of case studies and ideas, to educate and inspire a new generation of managers, policymakers and anyone wanting to navigate through the rough seas of overload.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472926854
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
Shortlisted for the CMI's Management Book of the Year Award 2018 and the Business Book Awards 2018 Twenty-five years after the arrival of the Internet, we are drowning in data and deadlines. Humans and machines are in fully connected overdrive - and starting to become entwined as never before. Truly, it is an Age of Overload. We can never have imagined that absorbing so much information while trying to maintain a healthy balance in our personal and professional lives could feel so complex, dissatisfying and unproductive. Something is missing. That something, Julia Hobsbawm argues in this ground-breaking book, is Social Health, a new blueprint for modern connectedness. She begins with the premise that much of what we think about healthy ways to live have not been updated any more than have most post-war modern institutions, which are themselves also struggling in the twenty-first century. In 1946, the World Health Organization defined 'health' as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.' What we understood by 'social' in the middle of the last century now desperately needs an update. In Fully Connected Julia Hobsbawm takes us on a journey – often a personal one, 'from Telex to Twitter' – to illustrate how the answer to the Age of Overload can come from devising management-based systems which are both highly practical and yet intuitive, and which draw inspiration from the huge advances the world has made in tackling other kinds of health, specifically nutrition, exercise, and mental well-being. Drawing on the latest thinking in health and behavioural economics, social psychology, neuroscience, management and social network analysis, this book provides a cornucopia of case studies and ideas, to educate and inspire a new generation of managers, policymakers and anyone wanting to navigate through the rough seas of overload.
Foster the Family
Author: Jamie C. Finn
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 149343442X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
There are great rewards that come along with being a foster parent, yet there are also great challenges that can leave you feeling depleted, alone, and discouraged. The many burdens of a foster parent's day--hurting children, struggling biological parents, and a broken system--are only compounded by the many burdens of a foster parent's heart--confusion, anxiety, heartache, anger, and fear. With the compassion and insight of a fellow foster parent, Jamie C. Finn helps you see your struggles through the lens of the gospel, bringing biblical truths to bear on your unique everyday realities. In these short, easy-to-read chapters, you'll find honest, personal stories and practical lessons that provide encouragement and direction from God's Word as you walk the journey of foster parenting.
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 149343442X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
There are great rewards that come along with being a foster parent, yet there are also great challenges that can leave you feeling depleted, alone, and discouraged. The many burdens of a foster parent's day--hurting children, struggling biological parents, and a broken system--are only compounded by the many burdens of a foster parent's heart--confusion, anxiety, heartache, anger, and fear. With the compassion and insight of a fellow foster parent, Jamie C. Finn helps you see your struggles through the lens of the gospel, bringing biblical truths to bear on your unique everyday realities. In these short, easy-to-read chapters, you'll find honest, personal stories and practical lessons that provide encouragement and direction from God's Word as you walk the journey of foster parenting.
I Know This Much Is True
Author: Wally Lamb
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780060391621
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 884
Book Description
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780060391621
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 884
Book Description
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
No Ordinary Liz
Author: Elizabeth Sutherland
Publisher: Now SC Press
ISBN: 9780999584583
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 126
Book Description
Liz Sutherland grew up with literally no identity. She has no memory of the first few years of her life, other than the jarring experience of being dropped off at a stranger's house when she was a child. She and her siblings lived with their 'grandmother' who abused and mistreated the children every single day. When she finally escaped that life, Liz was thrust into the foster care system. The day she turned eighteen, she was put out on her own. Her book, No Ordinary Liz, chronicles her journey through foster care and beyond as she struggled to find her way in the world and discover her true identity. Along the way, this far-from-ordinary woman found out her birth story was more complex than she had ever imagined, filled with twists and turns that brought her through an incredible journey towards unraveling her past. This book, both memoir and guidebook, is designed to offer hope for those in and out of the foster care system, as well as support and resources for agencies, youth aging out of foster can and foster parents.
Publisher: Now SC Press
ISBN: 9780999584583
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 126
Book Description
Liz Sutherland grew up with literally no identity. She has no memory of the first few years of her life, other than the jarring experience of being dropped off at a stranger's house when she was a child. She and her siblings lived with their 'grandmother' who abused and mistreated the children every single day. When she finally escaped that life, Liz was thrust into the foster care system. The day she turned eighteen, she was put out on her own. Her book, No Ordinary Liz, chronicles her journey through foster care and beyond as she struggled to find her way in the world and discover her true identity. Along the way, this far-from-ordinary woman found out her birth story was more complex than she had ever imagined, filled with twists and turns that brought her through an incredible journey towards unraveling her past. This book, both memoir and guidebook, is designed to offer hope for those in and out of the foster care system, as well as support and resources for agencies, youth aging out of foster can and foster parents.
The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (And Their Parents)
Author: Elizabeth Verdick
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
ISBN: 1575425262
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
This positive, straightforward book offers kids with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) their own comprehensive resource for both understanding their condition and finding tools to cope with the challenges they face every day. Some children with ASDs are gifted; others struggle academically. Some are more introverted, while others try to be social. Some get "stuck" on things, have limited interests, or experience repeated motor movements like flapping or pacing ("stims"). The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders covers all of these areas, with an emphasis on helping children gain new self-understanding and self-acceptance. Meant to be read with a parent, the book addresses questions ("What’s an ASD?" "Why me?") and provides strategies for communicating, making and keeping friends, and succeeding in school. Body and brain basics highlight symptom management, exercise, diet, hygiene, relaxation, sleep, and toileting. Emphasis is placed on helping kids handle intense emotions and behaviors and get support from family and their team of helpers when needed. The book includes stories from real kids, fact boxes, helpful checklists, resources, and a glossary. Sections for parents offer more detailed information.
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
ISBN: 1575425262
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
This positive, straightforward book offers kids with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) their own comprehensive resource for both understanding their condition and finding tools to cope with the challenges they face every day. Some children with ASDs are gifted; others struggle academically. Some are more introverted, while others try to be social. Some get "stuck" on things, have limited interests, or experience repeated motor movements like flapping or pacing ("stims"). The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders covers all of these areas, with an emphasis on helping children gain new self-understanding and self-acceptance. Meant to be read with a parent, the book addresses questions ("What’s an ASD?" "Why me?") and provides strategies for communicating, making and keeping friends, and succeeding in school. Body and brain basics highlight symptom management, exercise, diet, hygiene, relaxation, sleep, and toileting. Emphasis is placed on helping kids handle intense emotions and behaviors and get support from family and their team of helpers when needed. The book includes stories from real kids, fact boxes, helpful checklists, resources, and a glossary. Sections for parents offer more detailed information.
Stranger Care
Author: Sarah Sentilles
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593230051
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • “A powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.”—Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild The moving story of what one woman learned from fostering a newborn—about injustice, about making mistakes, about how to better love and protect people beyond our immediate kin May you always feel at home. After their decision not to have a biological child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, decide to adopt via the foster care system. Despite knowing that the system’s goal is the child’s reunification with the birth family, Sarah opens their home to a flurry of social workers who question them, evaluate them, and ultimately prepare them to welcome a child into their lives—even if it means most likely having to give the child back. After years of starts and stops, and endless navigation of the complexities and injustices of the foster care system, a phone call finally comes: a three-day-old baby girl named Coco, in immediate need of a foster family. Sarah and Eric bring this newborn stranger home. “You were never ours,” Sarah tells Coco, “yet we belong to each other.” A love letter to Coco and to the countless children like her, Stranger Care chronicles Sarah’s discovery of what it means to mother—in this case, not just a vulnerable infant but the birth mother who loves her, too. Ultimately, Coco’s story reminds us that we depend on family, and that family can take different forms. With prose that Nick Flynn has called “fearless, stirring, rhythmic,” Sentilles lays bare an intimate, powerful story with universal concerns: How can we care for and protect one another? How do we ensure a more hopeful future for life on this planet? And if we’re all related—tree, bird, star, person—how might we better live?
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593230051
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • “A powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.”—Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild The moving story of what one woman learned from fostering a newborn—about injustice, about making mistakes, about how to better love and protect people beyond our immediate kin May you always feel at home. After their decision not to have a biological child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, decide to adopt via the foster care system. Despite knowing that the system’s goal is the child’s reunification with the birth family, Sarah opens their home to a flurry of social workers who question them, evaluate them, and ultimately prepare them to welcome a child into their lives—even if it means most likely having to give the child back. After years of starts and stops, and endless navigation of the complexities and injustices of the foster care system, a phone call finally comes: a three-day-old baby girl named Coco, in immediate need of a foster family. Sarah and Eric bring this newborn stranger home. “You were never ours,” Sarah tells Coco, “yet we belong to each other.” A love letter to Coco and to the countless children like her, Stranger Care chronicles Sarah’s discovery of what it means to mother—in this case, not just a vulnerable infant but the birth mother who loves her, too. Ultimately, Coco’s story reminds us that we depend on family, and that family can take different forms. With prose that Nick Flynn has called “fearless, stirring, rhythmic,” Sentilles lays bare an intimate, powerful story with universal concerns: How can we care for and protect one another? How do we ensure a more hopeful future for life on this planet? And if we’re all related—tree, bird, star, person—how might we better live?