The Bean Seed. Judith Bush & Robert Spottswood, $14.95 (ages 4-8)

A picture book for children in foster care or adoptive families, The Bean Seed tells the story of a little bean who is lonely, mistrustful and neglected. With the loving care of a gardener who takes the time to nurture him, the bean starts to grow and thrive and set down roots while reaching for the sun.

Connecting with Kids through Stories: Using Narratives to Facilitate Attachment in Adopted Children, 2nd Edition. Denise Lacher, Todd Nichols & Joanne May, $27.95

Children whose early development has been damaged by abuse or neglect are notoriously difficult to reach. CONNECTING WITH KIDS THROUGH STORIES is an accessible guide to Family Attachment Narrative Therapy for the parents of adopted or fostered children, and for the professionals who work with them. Providing a thorough theoretical grounding, and detailed information on therapeutic techniques and how to assess progress, the book shows parents how to create their own therapeutic stories to promote increased attachment and improved behavior in their child. The authors describe how different kinds of narratives can help with specific difficulties and illustrate their techniques with the story of a fictional family who develop their own narratives to help their adopted child heal.

Dancing Through the Snow. Jean Little, $19.99

Min has nothing. No mother. No birth certificate. No baby pictures. Not even a real birthday. The Children’s Aid people just gave her a fake birthday — the date she was found — not seeming to realize it was also the day she was lost. Now, after four different foster families, Min’s not surprised when she’s dumped back with Children’s Aid the week before Christmas. Still, a small part of her can’t help aching for a miracle … and now she’s found an injured dog that needs a miracle too.

The Defiant Child: a Parent’s Guide to Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Douglas Riley, $15.95

The Defiant Child guides readers through the difficulties of raising a child or teenager who is attempting to ignore or defeat them at every turn. While it explains how defiant children and teens think, delving deeply into the mistaken ideas that lead them to believe that it is safe to ignore parents and challenge their authority, its chief purpose is to provide parents with a step-by-step plan to regain peace and harmony in the family.

Families Change: a Book for Children Experiencing Termination of Parental Rights. Julie Nelson, illustrated by Mary Gallagher, $10.95

All families change over time. Sometimes a baby is born, or a grown-up gets married. And sometimes a child gets a new foster parent or a new adopted mom or dad. Children need to know that when this happens, it’s not their fault. They need to understand that they can remember and value their birth family and love their new family, too. Straightforward words and full-color illustrations offer hope and support for children facing or experiencing change. Includes resources and information for birth parents, foster parents, social workers, counselors, and teachers.

Finding the Right Spot: When Kids Can’t Live with Their Parents. Janice Levy, illustrated by Whitney Martin, $10.95 ages 6-12

Finding the Right Spot is a story for kids who can’t live with their parents, regardless of the circumstances. It’s a story about resilience and loyalty, hope and disappointment, love, sadness and anger too.

Foster Parents. Rebecca Rissman, $6.95

With beautiful photographs and simple text, this lovely picture book explains foster care and foster parents and how all families are different to young children.

Happy Families: a Parents’ Guide to the Non-Violent Resistance Approach. Carmelite Avraham-Krehwinkel & David Aldridge, $17.95

Parenting a severely disruptive child can be exhausting and demoralizing to the point where breaking the cycle of bad behaviour seems an impossible task. Happy Families offers a realistic, step-by-step, practical approach to tackling destructive behaviour that helps parents regain control and establish harmony within the family.

Using hands-on techniques based on the principles of non-violent resistance, each chapter deals with a different stage of the process - from communicating to the child an unwavering determination that the situation will change and enlisting the support of family and friends, to taking positive action in a way that avoids escalation. General advice such as how to respond constructively and consistently to provocation is included throughout, and morale-boosting tips encourage flagging parents to persevere with the approach.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, 30th Anniversary Edition. Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish, $18.99; Audiobook (CD format) $39.99

Updated with new insights from the next generation, this bestselling book gives you the know-how you need to be more effective with your children — and more supportive of yourself.

The down-to-earth, respectful approach of Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish makes relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding. Now, in this revised edition, Faber and Mazlish share their latest insights and suggestions based on feedback they've received over the years. Their methods of communication — illustrated with delightful cartoons showing the skills in action—offer innovative ways to solve common problems.

I’d Rather Be with a Real Mom Who Loves Me: a Story for Foster Children. Michael Gordon, $12.00

Reading this book to children placed in foster care will make it clear that many of the thoughts or feelings they experience are normal, rather than odd or shameful.

Jakeman. Deborah Ellis, $11.95 (novel, pre-teen)

Jake and his sister Shoshona have been in foster care since their single mother was arrested three years before. Both have found their own ways to cope: Shoshona has become a bossy mother figure; Jake, who is a budding comic book artist, has created an alter ego named Jakeman. Four times a year Jake and his sister take the long overnight journey through New York State to visit their mother in jail - along with an assortment of nervous, angry, and damaged kids on the way to visit their own mothers.

But this trip will be like no other trip they've ever taken.

Jason’s Why. Beth Goobie, $8.95

Jason’s mom says he is a problem, and puts him in a group home. Now Jason has to live with boys and grown-ups he doesn’t know. There’s a bug bubble of mad inside Jason. It makes him yell and throw things. Jason wants to be good and move home again, but the mad bubble just won’t go away.

The Kids are All Right: a Memoir. Diana Welch, Liz Welch, Dan Welch & Amanda Welch, $29.99

Perfect is boring.” Well, 1983 certainly wasn't boring for the Welch family. Somehow, between their handsome father’s mysterious death, their glamorous soap opera star mother’s cancer diagnosis, and a phalanx of lawyers intent on bankruptcy proceedings, the four Welch siblings managed to handle each new heartbreaking misfortune together. But all that changed with the death of their mother. While nineteen year-old Amanda was legally on her own, the three younger siblings—Liz, 16; Dan, 14 and Diana, 8—were each dispersed to a different set of family friends.

Told in the alternating voices of the four siblings, this memoir tells their poignant, harrowing story of growing up as lost souls, taking disastrous turns along the way, but eventually coming out right side up.

Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses, a Memoir. Paula McLain, $22.95

Like Family tells the story of three young sisters who are abandoned by their mother and father and raised as wards of the Fresno County, California, court. McLain's unflinching recollection of being shuttled from foster home to foster home strikes a universal chord, capturing the loneliness, uncertainty, and odd pleasures that are the very nature of adolescence.

Living Alongside a Child's Recovery: Therapeutic Parenting with Traumatized Children. Billy Pughe & Terry Philpot, $33.95

Living Alongside a Child's Recovery asserts that a good understanding of child development and attachment theory is essential to effective therapeutic parenting of a traumatized child, and the book details the roots of trauma as well as the impact this has on a child's ability to maintain normal family bonds, whether with birth parents, foster parents or with staff in a residential setting. It also explains the practicalities of carrying out effective therapeutic parenting, including how to design a therapeutic physical environment, the importance of routine and security, how to approach issues of hygiene and organizing mealtimes. The authors examine individual and group work settings, and also explore transitions; how to manage a child's move to a permanent placement while at the same time ensuring that their needs are prioritized.

The Moccasins. Earl Einarson, illustrated by Julie Flett, $10.95 ages 4-9

This is the endearing story of a young Aboriginal foster child who is given a special gift by his foster mother. Her warm and thoughtful gift encourages her young foster child and brings him acceptance and love.

Murphy’s Three Homes: a Story for Children in Foster Care. Jan Levinson Gilman, illustrated by Kathy O’Malley, $10.95 ages 4-8

Being a pup in foster care is confusing. What’s Murphy to do when he’s taken away from his family and placed in a new home, with new people, new pets and new … EVERYTHING??!!

My Feeling Better Workbook: Activities that Help Kids Beat the Blues. Sarah Hamil, $19.95

There are many ways to help children who are sad and depressed, and you might not even realize how much you can do to make your child feel better. By working through this book, guiding your child through just one activity a day, you can empower him or her with the skills necessary to overcome sadness and low self-esteem and live an active, joyful life.

My Lifebook Journal: a Workbook That Helps Kids Adjust to Foster Care. Therese Accinelli, $18.95; Professional Version with CD-ROM, $27.95

Children placed in foster homes face many difficult changes over which they have no control. They must learn to quickly adjust to a different family, a new set of rules, and possibly a new school and community. These changes can be overwhelming for kids, and the sadness, fear, and anger they may feel can prevent them from making a successful transition into foster care.

The simple activities in My Lifebook Journal offer children the tools they need to adjust to their new situation in a healthy way. Using the worksheets in this book, kids can journal about their positive experiences and memories, learn to develop a strong sense of self, identify the people they can rely on, and learn coping skills for dealing with feelings of anger and sadness. Writing down and exploring their thoughts and feelings in just a few minutes each day can help children better understand themselves and their biological and foster families. The resiliency and self-confidence that these activities develop will help children handle not only the transition into foster care, but also the many positive changes in their lives still to come.

No Biking In the House Without a Helmet. Melissa Fay Greene, $28.95

National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene and her husband so loved raising their four children by birth, they didn’t want to stop. When the clock started to run down on the home team, they brought in ringers. When the number of children hit nine, Greene took a break from reporting. She trained her journalist’s eye upon events at home. Fisseha was riding a bike down the basement stairs; out on the porch, a squirrel was sitting on Jesse’s head; vulgar posters had erupted on bedroom walls; the insult niftam (the Amharic word for “snot”) had led to fistfights; and four non-native-English-speaking teenage boys were researching, on Mom’s computer, the subject of “saxing.”

“At first I thought one of our trombone players was considering a change of instrument,” writes Greene. “Then I remembered: they can’t spell.”

A celebration of parenthood; an ingathering of children, through birth and out of loss and bereavement; a relishing of moments hilarious and enlightening — No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is a loving portrait of a unique twenty-first-century family as it wobbles between disaster and joy.

One for the Murphys. Lynda Mullaly Hunt, $18.00 (novel, ages 11-16)

A moving debut novel about a foster child learning to open her heart to a family's love. 

Carley uses humour and street smarts to keep her emotional walls high and thick. But the day she becomes a foster child, she's blindsided. This loving, bustling family shows Carley the stable family life she never thought existed, and she feels like an alien in their cookie-cutter-perfect household. Despite her resistance, the Murphys eventually show her what it feels like to belong — until her mother wants her back and Carley has to decide where and how to live. She's not really a Murphy, but the gifts they've given her have opened up a new future.

One Small Boat: the Story of a Little Girl, Lost then Found. Kathy Harrison, $33.00

In One Small Boat, foster parent Kathy Harrison tells the story of one little girl who arrived on her doorstep, and describes how caring for this child was an experience that challenged everything she thought she knew about foster-care parenting and the needs of the children she shelters.

1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2 – 12, 4th Edition. Thomas Phelan, $14.95; DVD $45.95

Using behavior modification techniques, Thomas Phelan has created an easy-to-follow program for disciplining children without yelling, arguing or spanking. The revised 4th Edition has been expanded to include dozens of suggestions from readers; new chapters on ‘tweens’, technology and emotional intelligence; research and an updated list of resources.

1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 Workbook. Thomas Phelan & Tracy Lewis, $17.95

This user-friendly manual includes chapter reviews, case studies, self-evaluation questions and planning exercises to help parents get the most out of the 1-2-3 Magic program.

Our Gracie Aunt. Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Jon Muth, $6.50 ages 5-9

Johnson and his sister Beebee seem to be all alone in the world. Their Mama has gone away and left them on their own. Then a social worker comes and takes them to stay with their Aunt Gracie. This child’s-eye view of a brother and sister entering foster care is an exploration of change, trust, forgiveness and the true meaning of family.

Reparenting the Child Who Hurts: a Guide to Healing Developmental Trauma and Attachments. Caroline Archer & Christine Gordon, $27.95

Finally, a parenting book which demystifies the latest thinking on neurobiology, physiology and trauma and explains what the research means for the everyday life of parents of children who hurt. As experts on adoption and fostering who are adoptive parents themselves, Caroline Archer and Christine Gordon explain how this knowledge can help parents to better understand and care for their child. They explain why conventional parenting techniques are often not helpful for the child who has experienced early trauma and explore why therapeutic reparenting is the only way to help repair the unhealthy neurobiological and behavioural patterns which affect the child's development. They do not shy away from how difficult reparenting is, acknowledging how hard it can be to recognize our own fallibility as parents and to change our own parenting patterns. The authors also offer hard-won advice on a range of common parenting flashpoints — from defusing arguments and aggression to negotiating bedtimes and breaks in routine, and making sure that special occasions are remembered for all the right reasons.

REPARENTING THE CHILD WHO HURTS is a humane, no-nonsense survival guide for any parent caring for a child with developmental trauma or attachment difficulties, and will also provide information and insights for social workers, teachers, counsellors and other professionals involved in supporting adoptive and foster families.

Resilient Grandparent Caregivers: a Strengths-Based Perspective. Bert Hayslip Jr. & Gregory Smith, Editors, $53.50

The study of grandparents raising grandchildren has tended to have a negative bias, emphasizing the difficulties such people face and the negative impact that grandparent caregiving has on them physically, socially, and emotionally. This book seeks to reverse this trend by taking a positive approach to understanding grandparent caregivers, focusing on their resilience and resourcefulness. This method reflects a strengths-based approach and the importance of benefit-finding and positive coping. Chapters feature information from both qualitative and quantitative studies and are written by a diverse range of professionals, such as counselors, psychologists, geriatric social workers, and nurse practitioners, to provide multidisciplinary perspectives for practitioners working with grandparent caregivers.

Returnable Girl. Pamela Lowell, $8.99

Thirteen years old, Ronnie has been "returned" from multiple foster homes because of her impulsive lying and stealing. Her latest foster mom, Alison, is Ronnie’s very last chance—if she doesn’t want to end up in some awful residential treatment center … As Ronnie struggles to define herself, an important letter will present her with the most heart-wrenching decision of her life: to accept the woman who wants to adopt her, or to return to the mother who once abandoned her.

A Short Introduction to Promoting Resilience in Children. Colby Pearce, $22.95

A child's capacity to cope with adversity and 'stand on their own two feet' is seen as critical to their development, well-being, and future independence and success in adulthood. Psychological strength, or resilience, directly affects a child's capacity to cope with adversity.

This book provides a succinct, accessible and clear guide on how to promote resilience in children and achieve positive developmental outcomes for them. The author covers three key factors that affect resiliency: vulnerability to stress and anxiety, attachment relationships, and access to basic needs. For each, the author presents practical advice and strategies, such as how to regulate children's stress and anxiety, how to encourage and maintain secure attachments, and how to assure children that their needs are understood and will be met. The model presented will help parents and carers ensure their children grow up happy, healthy and resilient.

The Silent Summer of Kyle McGinley. Jan Andrews, $14.95 (novel, ages 13+)

Kyle McGinley doesn’t say a word. Fed up with being shuttled from one foster care home to another, he has stopped speaking. But at the home of Jill and Scott Wardman, with the help of a crow, and a swamp, and an excess of black paint, he begins to think maybe — just maybe — life could get better.

Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas Not Mommies and Daddies. Gayle Byrne, illustrated by Mary Haverfield, $19.95

Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas is a delightful and uplifting story of a young girl being raised by her grandparents.

A Star for Rae: a Book about Foster Children. Dylan, Cheryl and Michael Rieder, $7.99

Ten-year-old Dylan and his family have decided to share their home with a foster child. Soon after, a baby girl named Rae Anne joins their lives.

A touching look at foster care, A Star for Rae is designed to help young children understand what it means to offer a space in your home and your heart to another child.

Three Little Words: a Memoir. Ashley Rhodes-Courter, $12.99

Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes. 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.

What Angry Kids Need: Parenting Your Angry Child without Going Mad. Jennifer Brown & Pam Provonsha Hopkins, $16.95

In language every parent, caregiver and teacher can understand (even when exhausted and frustrated), this practical and compassionate book explains why kids get angry, what anger management skills they (and the entire family) can be taught, how adults can model anger management techniques—and how adults can cope when nothing seems to work. The authors, who emphasize the importance of patience and practice in developing the ability to handle anger, also explain the options available when more help is needed.

This is a terrific resource for parents, as well as anyone working with a child whose intense emotions leave you feeling depleted and looking for answers.

Where's Home? Gabrielle Israelievitch, $17.50 (ages 6-10)

This powerful, yet gentle story tells the story of an endearing little kitten who moves from a sometimes frightening and unpredictable home and finds himself wondering where he belongs and who he can trust.