Adoptive and Foster Parent Screening: a Professional Guide for Evaluations. James Dickerson & Mardi Allen, $46.95

Adoptive and Foster Parent Screening meshes the best of psychology and social work experience into a definitive guide for screening adoption and foster home applicants.

Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope. Kevin Ryan & Tina Kelley, $19.95

ALMOST HOME tells the stories of six remarkable young people from across the United States and Canada as they confront life alone on the streets. Each eventually finds his or her way to Covenant House, the largest charity serving homeless and runaway youth in North America. Their stories veer between devastating and inspiring as they each struggle to find a place called home. Inviting us to get to know homeless teens as more than an accumulation of statistics and societal issues, this book gives a human face to a huge but largely invisible problem and offers practical insights into how to prevent homelessness and help homeless youth move to a hopeful future.

Ask Me Why I Hurt: the Kids Nobody Wants and the Doctor Who Heals Them. Randy Christensen, $18.00

ASK ME WHY I HURT is the touching and revealing first-person account of the remarkable work of Dr. Randy Christensen. Trained as a pediatrician, he works not in a typical hospital setting but, rather, in a 38-foot Winnebago that has been refitted as a doctor’s office on wheels. His patients are the city’s homeless adolescents and children. 

Dr. Christensen cares for society's throwaway kids — the often-abused, unloved children who live on the streets without access to proper health care, all the while fending off constant threats from thugs, gangs, pimps, and other predators. With the Winnebago as his moveable medical center, Christensen and his team travel around the outskirts of Phoenix, attending to the children and teens who need him most. With tenderness and humor, ASK ME WHY I HURT chronicles everything from the struggles of the van’s early beginnings, to the support system it became for the kids, and the ultimate recognition it has achieved over the years.

The Best Interests of Children: an Evidence-Based Approach. Paul Millar, $24.95

The best interest of the child is an overriding principle in all matters of family law, especially in child custody cases. The Best Interests of Children links social theory with survey data to establish much-needed parameters for determining a child's best interest. It provides important criteria for determining the best interest of the child and concludes that the role of law in the lives of children must be to preserve their connections with those that love them.

Building a Home Within: Meeting the Emotional Needs of Children and Youth in Foster Care. Toni Vaughn Heineman & Diane Whrensaft, $29.95

With a combined emphasis on biological, psychological, and social aspects that sets it apart from other books on the subject, this candid and compelling resource will help therapists fully address the emotional needs of children and adolescents in foster care.

Child Development for Child Care and Protection Workers, 2nd Edition. Brigid Daniel, Sally Wassell & Robbie Gilligan, $34.95

Child Development for Child Care and Protection Workers summarizes important current thinking on child development and applies it directly to practice. The book covers key issues such as resilience and vulnerability and the impact of protective or adverse environments. Different stages of development (infancy, school age and adolescence) are discussed, and attachment theory is used to offer insights into the impact of abuse and neglect on development. This book encourages practitioners to consider each child as an individual with unique circumstances, and links theory and practice in an imaginative and sympathetic way.

Child Poverty and the Canadian Welfare State: from Entitlement to Charity. Shereen Ismael, $34.95

Child Poverty and the Canadian Welfare State examines at the scope of child poverty in Canada and looks to understand the changes in social policy and culture that have normalized the existence of child poverty in a wealthy society like Canada.

Child Welfare: Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice. Kathleen Kufeldt, & Brad McKenzie, editors, $48.95

In 1994 a group of researchers and decision makers met to discuss the state of child welfare. Also present were a few practitioners and two youth in care. Six years later, when they met again, the number of practitioners and youth had grown considerably and were joined by a strong contingent of foster parents. Thus the findings and insights presented were affirmed or challenged by those most affected — those on the front line. It was an exciting event, worth capturing in book form. Kathleen Kufeldt and Brad McKenzie have gathered the papers presented at the 2000 Symposium … An analysis and synthesis of the work informs … while an eight-point research agenda developed in an earlier symposium is used to assess developments to date and provide guidance for the future. The richness of the information will interest all helping professionals, researchers, and students.

Child-Centred Foster Care: a Rights-Based Model for Practice. Annabel Goodyer, $33.95

This book sets out a child-centred approach to foster care which argues against thinking about children purely from a psychological perspective and instead places children's views, rights and needs at the centre of care. It sets out the theory behind working in partnership with children who are fostered, and discusses children's views about fostering systems and living with foster carers. The book then outlines how to put the theory into practice, offering models, processes and best practice examples. Practical advice is given on establishing effective communication and good working relationships between practitioners, carers and foster children.

This insightful book aims to promote better services and outcomes for fostered children, and will be essential reading for social work practitioners and students.

Child-Centered Practices for the Courtroom & Community:  a Guide to Working Effectively With Young Children and Their Families in the Child Welfare System. Lynne Katz, Cindy Lederman & Joy Osofsky, $38.50

How can early childhood professionals provide the best possible services and supports to families in the child welfare system? This guidebook has the practical, real-world answers professionals need as they navigate the complex system, work with the courts, and plan interventions and treatment for the most vulnerable young children and families.

A Child’s Journey Through Placement. Vera Fahlberg, $33.95

Children who are cared for in an out-of-home placement are in need of support and stability. This classic text offers information and advice for professionals and carers on how to help these children, who will often have attachment difficulties.

Vera Fahlberg shares her experience and expertise, outlining the significance of attachment and separation, the developmental stages specific to adoptive children and providing guidance on minimizing the trauma of moves. The book also features practical advice on case planning, managing behavior and direct work with children, and throughout are case studies and exercises which provide opportunities for further learning.

A readable, compassionate and practical text, A CHILD'S JOURNEY THROUGH PLACEMENT provides the foundation, the resources, and the tools to help students, professionals, parents and others who care to support children on their journey through placement to adulthood.

Children and Adolescents in Trauma: Creative Therapeutic Approaches. Chris Nicholson, Michael Irwin & Kedar Nath Dwivedi, $34.95

Children and Adolescents in Trauma presents a variety of creative approaches to working with young people in residential children's homes, secure or psychiatric units, and special schools.

The contributors describe a wide range of approaches, including art therapy and literature, and how creative methods are applied in cases of abuse, trauma, violence, self-harm and identity development. They discuss the impact of abuse and mistreatment upon the mental health of 'looked after' children, drawing links between psychoanalytic theory and practice and the study of literature and the arts.

Children Who Commit Acts of Serious Interpersonal Violence: Messages for Best Practice. Edited by Ann Hagell & Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent, $36.95

Children Who Commit Acts of Serious Interpersonal Violence explores risk management and successful intervention for children in public care who have committed, or are at risk of committing, acts of serious violence … The book proposes strategies for effectively managing these children, drawing evidence from international practice and research projects. It highlights the limitations of current structures and makes recommendations for future development.

Communication Skills for Working with Children and Young People: Introducing Social Pedagogy. Pat Petrie, $25.95

For those working with children, effective communication is a crucial part of building relationships and encouraging children's emotional and intellectual development. This practical guide covers non-verbal communication, attentive listening, empathy, the part played by questions, working constructively with conflict and criticism, and communicating in groups. It also draws on the innovative ideas found in social pedagogic theory and practice, such as communicating with your head, hands and heart and how to differentiate between the personal, the professional and the private in your interactions. The book contains exercises, topics for personal reflection or group discussion, and suggestions for observations.

This will be an excellent source of advice and ideas for all those in the children's workforce including ECE professionals, teachers, social workers, counsellors and practitioners working with children in care, including foster carers.

Comprehensive, Competence-Based Parenting Assessment for Parents with Learning Difficulties and Their Children. Maurice Feldman & Marjorie Aunos, $49.95

This book presents an innovative, empirically-supported approach to assessing parenting capacity of parents with learning difficulties that can lead to more humane, fair and accurate child custody decisions.  The authors are leading researchers and practitioners in this field having worked with hundred of these families.  Many professionals working with these families recognize that the current parenting capacity assessment approaches are based on outdated and invalid assumptions and methods.  This book addresses the unique assessment needs of these families and includes detailed background information, rationales and methods. Key topics include:

• Parenting Interactional Model
• Comprehensive Competence-based Assessment
• Designing Parenting Capacity Assessments Based on Parenting Interaction Model
• Court Testimony, Family Support Plans & Conclusions
• Appendices
• References

Most interventions for at-risk youth are group based. Yet, research indicates that young people often learn to become deviant by interacting with deviant peers. In this important volume, leading intervention and prevention experts from psychology, education, criminology, and related fields analyze how, and to what extent, programs that aggregate deviant youth actually promote problem behavior. A wealth of evidence is reviewed on deviant peer influences in such settings as therapy groups, alternative schools, boot camps, group homes, and juvenile justice facilities. Specific suggestions are offered for improving existing services, and promising alternative approaches are explored.

Empathic Care for Children with Disorganized Attachments: a Model for Mentalizing, Attachment and Trauma-Informed Care. Chris Taylor, $33.95

Disorganized attachment is the most extreme form of insecure attachment. Synthesizing attachment, trauma and mentalization theory into a useful practice model, EMPATHIC CARE FOR CHILDREN WITH DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENTS proposes ways of meeting the needs arising in children and young people with disorganized attachments. Focusing on the importance of interpersonal bonds to facilitate the child's capacity to mentalize, it aims to equip the reader with the appropriate skills to provide effective, sustained and, most importantly, empathic care to the most vulnerable and troubled children. This useful guide will be invaluable to health and social care professionals including residential carers, therapists, counsellors, and those working with vulnerable and troubled children and young people including those supporting foster and adoptive families.

Healing Parents: Helping Wounded Children Learn to Trust & Love. Michael Orlans & Terry Levy, $37.95

Attachment is the deep connection that children and parents/caregivers establish early in life. This connection is basic to every aspect of a child’s emotional, social and cognitive development. Healing Parents is a toolbox filled with practical strategies and research that help parents and caregivers understand their child, learn to respond in a constructive way, and create a healthy environment. Readers will learn to develop their child’s positive beliefs and establish trust by emphasizing respect, providing appropriate limits, consistent structure, and being a positive role model.

Michael Orlans and Terry Levy, authors of the best-selling Attachment, Trauma and Healing (1998), have created a guide designed to provide the information, tools, support, self-awareness and hope needed to help a wounded child heal emotional wounds and improve behaviorally, socially, and morally.

The Hope-Filled Parent: Meditations for Foster and Adoptive Parents of Children Who Have Been Harmed. Michael Trout, $20.95 CD format

This series of meditations is designed to help foster and adoptive parents maintain calm, focus and strength during the most challenging moments of life with a challenging child.

Looking After Children. Raymond Lemay & Hayat Ghazal, $25.00

Looking After Children is an assessment and planning approach for children and youth in out of home care, first developed in the UK, and since 1997 adapted and used increasingly in Canada, particularly in Ontario. The approach is developmental and strengths based. The Assessment and Action Record (AAR), the core clinical tool, provides the basis for an in-depth assessment interview which then leads to a comprehensive care plan. The AAR is computerized and provides the possibility of data aggregation, and the recent revision allows for comparability among Canadian children as assessed by the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. This practitioner's guide includes training material that will help practitioners understand and put the LAC approach and tools to effective use.

Magic Weapons: Aboriginal Writers Remaking Community after Residential School. Sam McKegney, $28.95

The legacy of the residential school system ripples throughout Native Canada, its fingerprints on the domestic violence, poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide rates that continue in many Native communities. Magic Weapons is the first major survey of Indigenous writings in response to the residential school system, and … examines the ways in which Indigenous survivors of residential school mobilize narrative in their struggles for personal and communal empowerment in the shadow of attempted cultural genocide. Editor Sam McKegney argues that Indigenous life writings are culturally generative in ways that go beyond disclosure and recompense, re-envisioning what it means to live and write as Indigenous individuals in post-residential-school Canada.

Moving Toward Positive Systems of Child and Family Welfare: Current Issues and Future Directions. Gary Cameron, Nick Coady and Gerald Adams, editors. $38.95

Faced with rapidly changing social and economic conditions, service professionals, policy developers, and researchers have raised significant concerns about the Canadian child welfare system. This book draws inspiration from experiences with three broad, international child welfare paradigms—child protection, family service, and community healing/caring (First Nations)—to look at how specific practices in other countries, as well as alternative experiments in Canada, might foster positive innovations in the Canadian child welfare approach.

Most adopted children and their families will, sooner or later, encounter the challenges of dealing with unresolved attachment issues or early traumatic experiences. New Families, Old Scripts is an accessible introduction to understanding these challenges and helping children and their families to develop a shared language and understanding of one another … The accessible combination of theoretical approaches and practical advice makes New Families, Old Scripts an ideal resource for social workers and adoptive or foster parents.

Promoting Resilience in Child Welfare. Robert Flynn, Peter Dudding & James Barber, editors, $40.00

Since the beginnings of its development in Britain in 1987, the Looking After Children (LAC) initiative has had a profound influence in Canada — as well as in Australia and across Europe — in sharpening the developmental focus and improving the quality of services for children and adolescents who, because of abuse, neglect, extreme poverty, or other circumstances, live in out-of-home care. With its emphasis on high expectations, positive substitute parenting, and good short-term and long-term outcomes, LAC has been an important vehicle for promoting resilience (i.e., positive outcomes in spite of serious threats to development) in child welfare, one that will remain a beneficial influence in Canada and internationally for many years to come. Promoting Resilience in Child Welfare presents reviews of research, new empirical findings, and useful practice and policy suggestions derived from the perspectives of LAC and resilience theory by an array of international voices.

A Question of Commitment: Children’s Rights in Canada. R. Brian Howe & Katherine Covell, editors, $42.95

In 1991, the Government of Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, requiring governments at all levels to ensure that Canadian laws and practices safeguard the rights of children. A Question of Commitment: Children’s Rights in Canada (2007) is the first book to assess the extent to which Canada has fulfilled this commitment. Contributors explore child poverty, child care, corporal punishment, sexual exploitation, youth justice and the participation rights of children. They also examine the situation of special populations – Aboriginal children, children and youth in care, the homeless, refugee children and children with disabilities.

Residential Care of Children: Comparative Perspectives. Editors, Mark Courtney & Dorota Iwaniec, $49.95

Residential Care of Children provides a rich description of the development, current status, and future of residential care internationally. Chapters describe how residential care is defined in the country in question, how it has evolved over time, including its history, trends over time, and any "landmark" events in the history of residential care. Authors examine factors that have contributed to the observed pattern of development of residential care and provide a description of the current state of residential care.

Lastly, each case study describes expected future directions for residential care and potential concerns. Two integrative chapters provide a critical cross-national perspective, identifying common themes, analyzing underlying factors, and speculating about the future of residential child care across the globe.

Residential Treatment: a Cooperative Competency-Based Approach to Therapy and Program Design. Michael Durrant, $38.00

A clinically relevant guidebook to enable residential treatment staff to create a context that helps residents help themselves to change. Durrant's work creates a distinctive break from previous medical metaphors of dysfunction, deficit, hierarchy and reparation, with clear theoretical thinking and practical examples.

Reversing the Odds: Improving Outcomes for Babies in the Child Welfare System. Sheryl Dicker, $32.95

Demystifying the complex world of child welfare, this book shows early childhood practitioners how to collaborate with other professionals to ensure comprehensive development of the most vulnerable children from birth to age three.

Safeguarding Babies and Very Young Children from Abuse and Neglect. Harriet Ward, Rebecca Brown & David Westlake, $40.95

Safeguarding babies and very young children is a highly complex process, involving difficult decisions surrounding their needs, care, and whether they need to be separated from their families. This book, based on a research study which followed babies who were identified as likely to suffer significant harm before they were three years old, explores key issues surrounding the safeguarding process. These include how the decision whether to remove children from their families are made, whether social work interventions work and the impact they have on children's life pathways. It also examines the role various participants, including parents, have in decision-making. The findings of the study show a close link between decisions, maltreatment and children's developmental problems, and provide key implications and recommendations for policy and practice.

Safeguarding Children: a Shared Responsibility. Hedy Cleaver, Pat Cawson, Sarah Gorin & Steve Walker, Editors, $54.99

Safeguarding Children represents a multi-professional approach to safeguarding children. Written for social workers and related professionals, it is also a valuable addition to training programs. The book focuses on the methods of identifying children at risk and details what happens at each stage of the social work process.

Shattered Lives: Children Who Live with Courage and Dignity. Camila Batmanghelidjh, $20.95

Shattered Lives bears witness to the lives of children who have experienced abuse and neglect, and highlights the effects of early traumatic episodes. Chapters take the form of letters to a child capturing their life experiences, hugely impacted by sexual abuse, parental substance misuse and loss, leading to feelings of shame, rejection and worthlessness. Batmanghelidjh offers understanding for those baffled by these hard-to-reach children and warns against stigmatizing them for their problem behaviour. In her critique of existing structures, she exposes the plight of children who are overlooked by the authorities and denounces those who value bureaucracy over the welfare of the individual child. Society’s failure to acknowledge the truth of their experiences and act to change the environment in which such mistreatment can flourish is, she strongly argues, leading to the death of childhood. The book is a clarion call for change.

The Social Worker: a Novel. Michael Ungar, $22.95

Joey is not your typical social worker. He knows all too well what it feels like to be a client.

In and out of foster homes, his father dead, his mother an abusive emotional wreck, Joey sets out to get revenge on the system that he believes failed him and his family. Joey's plan for revenge may have worked, except buried in old agency files he learns that his family has many secrets yet untold and that the lives of social workers are more complicated than they seem to the children in their care.

The Social Worker is a controversial and provocative story of what it means to reach out to the most vulnerable, set amid the hidden world of those whose motivations to help can be as difficult to understand as the systems for which they work.

Steps to Stability. The Kinship Centre, $79.95

This DVD presents practical information on helping children in the child welfare system transition from one setting to another. Youth and families speak about their personal experiences in achieving permanence and stability, and experts in the field add tools and techniques for parents, social workers, child advocates and mental health professionals. The video is appropriate for a wide audience and is useful as a training tool for professionals. 

Taking Responsibility for Children. Samantha Brennan & Robert Noggle, editors, $34.95

What do we as a society and as parents in particular, owe to our children? Each chapter in Taking Responsibility for Children offers part of an answer to that question. Although they vary in the approaches they take and the conclusions they draw, each contributor explores some aspect of the moral obligations owed to children by their caregivers. Some focus primarily on the responsibilities of parents, while others focus on the responsibilities of society and government.

Thinking Psychologically about Children Who Are Looked After and Adopted: Space for Reflection. Kim Golding, Helen Dent, Ruth Nissim & Liz Stott, editors, $60.99

Assessment, intervention and living with children who are looked after or adopted all require an understanding of psychology and its application. Informed by research, practice and psychological theory, this volume provides an overview of the area and considers the context for helping children change and develop. It goes on to describe in detail the techniques and approaches used by clinicians, and explains how interventions can be developed and adapted for children and young people living in residential, foster and adoptive care. With its multi-disciplinary approach, Thinking Psychologically About Children Who Are Looked After and Adopted will appeal to all professionals involved in the care and education of placed children. It will also be of interest to policy makers and lecturers and students of social work.

Towards Positive Systems of Child and Family Welfare: International Comparisons of Child Protection, Family Service and Community Caring Systems. Nancy Freymond & Gary Cameron, editors, $35.00

The need for services that respond to the maltreatment of children and to the struggles of families is at the core of social service systems in all developed nations. While these child and family welfare systems confront similar problems and incorporate common elements, there are substantial differences in philosophy, organization, and operation across international settings and models … The comparisons made by the essays in this volume allow for a consideration of constructive and feasible innovations in child and family welfare and contribute to an enriched debate around each system. This book will be of great benefit to the field for many years to come.

Understanding and Working with Parents of Children in Long-Term Foster Care. Gillian Schofield & Emma Ward, $40.95

For children growing up in foster care, the role of their birth parents is an important factor in the success of their long-term placements. Understanding the experiences of parents is essential in developing effective practice with parents that can also ensure the best possible outcomes for children.

Drawing on detailed interviews with parents, the book takes a chronological approach, starting with their accounts of family life before their children were taken into care. It goes on to explore their experiences of court and then how they seek to come to terms with their loss, sustain an identity as a parent and manage a relationship with their children. Parents' views on what they find valuable and helpful in relationships with foster carers and social workers are also discussed. The book then draws on the views of social workers on the opportunities and challenges of supporting parents, while also remaining child-focused. The authors set out a model of good practice, based on the lessons learned from the experiences of these parents and social workers.

Working with Traumatized Youth in Child Welfare. Nancy Boyd Webb, editor, $48.50

Until recently, there has not been a great deal of overlap in the child welfare and trauma literatures. This text bridges that divide by integrating perspectives from both fields to help practitioners understand and address the special needs of maltreated children and adolescents and their families … Featuring extensive case illustrations, the book gives particular attention to diversity issues and the importance of supporting child and family strengths.