Books are a brilliant way to help children to explore, process and understand issues around fostering. They also provide foster parents with a different way to start conversations and talk about issues.
No matter what age the child is, they can respond to books. Even babies! Letting babies play with board or cloth books, and looking at pictures in a book together with a baby, and talking about what you see, helps create a lifetime love of reading.
As children begin to understand stories, they will come across numerous representations of the traditional family. From the Three Bears to Peppa Pig, they’ll see a family with mother, father, and kids as the norm. That’s fine, but it is also good for them to see that different types of family exist.
All families are different… 
But all of them love each other
Families, Families, Families is a highly-recommended picture book which highlights the diversity of what makes a family. Good Morning America have also put together this useful list of some other books which feature adoptive, LGBTQ+, mixed-race and single-parent families.
For older children who are able to read independently, there are more examples of foster children in literature. But sometimes it can seem as though they are all negative! The Beaudelaire siblings in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, for example, end up in the care of their nefarious Uncle, Count Olaf. And poor Harry Potter, who ends up with the Dursleys!
But these stories can provide a good starting point for conversation. How do you think Harry feels about living with the Durselys? What should they do to be nicer to him? How do his friends at Hogwarts help him to feel less lonely?
Perhaps the most famous foster child in fiction is Ann Shirley, also known as Anne of Green Gables. This classic tale provides a positive example of fostering, with headstrong Ann finding a loving home with the Cuthbert family. We’ve written more about this series of books, and the TV show which is based upon it, here.
Do you have any favorite books about fostering or non-traditional families? Are there any books which have helped you, or the kids you care for, to talk about issues? Let us know in the comments!
