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Television Shows Father Brown 2013 Father Brown is a TV series starring Mark Williams, Sorcha Cusack, and John Burton. Series inspired by the stories of GK Chesterton; a Catholic priest has a knack for solving mysteries in his English village. In Series 5, Episode 2, the adopted son of a murdered woman is arrested - it is assumed he committed the crime because he has the most to gain financially from his mother's death. The neighbor confesses to the crime at Father Brown prompting. External Website

Radio & Podcast Dickens vs Tolstoy Intelligence Squared 2023 This event by Intelligence Squared is an attempt to decide who is the greatest novelist—Charles Dickens (1812-1870) or Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)? Both Dickens and Tolstoy had experiences of displacement from family as children. Dickens was left in a foster care situation while his father was in debtors’ prison, and Tolstoy was orphaned at age 9. John Mullan argues for Dickens and Simon Schama for Tolstoy. The debate is augmented by a cast of actors who read from both authors’ works. External Website

Children's Fiction The Cherub Series Robert Muchamore 2005 The Cherub Series by English writer Robert Muchamore, is 17 books (15 million copies sold in 26 languages) about the fictional division of the British Security Service called CHERUB and employing mostly orphans. James Adams is the protagonist at the beginning of the series, and he's living in a children's home. He's recruited by CHERUB just as he's turning 12 and, after basic training, discovers his sister has been too. According to children's fiction specialist, Sarah Mokrzycki https://sarahjayne.net.au/, the Cherub Series is recommended reading for teenagers who have seen more of life than your average child. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Delinquent Angel Diana Georgeff 2007 The story of well known Melbourne poet, Shelton Lea. Shelton was adopted from a foundling home when he was 13 months old. He was rejected by his adoptive family and made a ward of the Victorian state when he was a teenager. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People The Altar Boys Suzanne Smith The Altar Boys explores the live and deaths of 3 victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the now notorious Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales. One of the victims became a priest who reported child sexual abuse to the NSW police; he was then banished from the diocese, ending up homeless and in poor health. External Website

Films/Videos Lloyd Kelly shares his foster story 2021 Lloyd Kelly shares his foster care story. Loyd Kelly (b. 1998) Lloyd Casius Kelly is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for and is captain of EFL Championship club AFC Bournemouth. Kelly went into Foster Care when he was 7 years old with his brother and sister. He has said they were lucky as they managed to stay together. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Ninth Orphan (The Orphan Trilogy Book 1) James and Lance Morcan 2011 Lance and James Morcan are a writing team who have co-authored numerous novels and non-fiction books. Lance is a former journalist with experience in all media. Married, he resides in Papamoa, New Zealand. James is also an actor and has acting credits in film, television and stage. He resides in Sydney, Australia. Book One: THE NINTH ORPHAN Book Two: THE ORPHAN FACTORY Book Three: THE ORPHAN UPRISING Meet Number Nine - an orphan, a spy, a lover...a master of disguise, an assassin, a shapeshifter...a freedom fighter, a human chameleon, a reformed contract killer. He's all of the above. He's none of the above. Nine is enslaved by the Omega Agency, a shadowy organization seeking to create a New World Order. When he tries to break free and live a normal life, Nine is hunted by his mentor and father figure, and by a female orphan he spent his childhood with. On the run, his life becomes entwined with his beautiful French-African hostage and a shocking past is revealed...A past that involves the mysterious Pedemont Orphanage in Chicago, Illinois. Standing in the way of Nine's freedom are his fellow orphans - all elite operatives like himself - who are under orders to terminate him. Nine finds himself in a seemingly infinite maze of cloak and dagger deception. Time and again, he must call on all his advanced training to survive. External Website

Children's Fiction My Forever Family: from fostering to adoption Nicky Brookes 2019 Suitable for children from 4 to 10 years old, this story follows Oliver as goes through the process of being in foster care and then being adopted. The book is written by a foster carer who thought this was a gap for the young foster children in her care. External Website

Television Shows The Good Witch's Garden 2020 The Good Witch's Garden is a 2009 American television film that aired on the Hallmark Channel on February 7, 2009 and is the second installment in the series of The Good Witch television movies. The film stars Catherine Bell as Cassandra "Cassie" Nightingale whose parents died when she was a child and who grows up in the US foster care system. Cassie became accustomed to travelling and moving as she was passed through foster homes. She ran away and continued travelling the world and learning about many different cultures, all the while honing her special gifts. Cassie is psychic and uses her intuition (and at times, a little magic) for good reasons. Cassie has settled into Middleton and is busy making a home of Grey House. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Jake Russell, and his kids are happy to have Cassie in the neighborhood, but she has yet to gain the trust of some people in town. Before long, a stranger rolls into town with papers entitling him to legal ownership of Grey House. Before she knows it, Cassie is left without a home and is convinced Middleton isn't where she belongs. Ultimately, everyone will learn holding on too tightly to something can make it more likely that things will slip through your fingers. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Because of You Dawn French 2020 The old millennium turns into the new. In the same hospital, two very different women give birth to two very similar daughters. Hope leaves with a beautiful baby girl. Anna leaves with empty arms. Seventeen years later, the gods who keep watch over broken-hearted mothers wreak mighty revenge, and the truth starts rolling, terrible and deep, toward them all. The power of mother-love will be tested to its limits. External Website

Films/Videos An Angel for May 2002 Young Tom, who is unhappy at home because of his parents' separation, travels fifty years to the past after discovering a time machine. He meets May, a little orphan who has been traumatised. Now that he knows his friends' fate and his own, he will try to reorder the events and change their history. External Website

Authors B Why Richard Kingsmill is is My God ➝ In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography ➝ No Boys Play Here: A story of Shakespear & My Family's Missing Men ➝ Not Forgotten ➝ Your Honour Can I Tell You My Story? ➝ Choice or Constraint in Everyday Life ➝ Little Big Man ➝ Foster Kid ➝ Girl with dove: a life built by books ➝ Daffodils - Audiobook ➝ Sunday's Child? - a Memoir ➝ Racial Folly ➝ Through the Eyes of a Foster Child: My Childhood in Over 30 New Zealand Homes ➝ Childhood: A Memoir ➝ Only: A singular memoir ➝ The Green Lady: A Spirit, A Story, A Place ➝ Aboriginal women by degrees : their stories of the journey towards academic achievement ➝ Lion: A Long Way Home ➝ Not without You ➝ The Child She Bare ➝ Better Off in a Home ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Frankie Graham Norton 2024 Frankie (2024) by Irish comedian and television host, Graham Norton, tells the story of Frankie Powell. Frankie is being cared for by Damian in her small London flat. Damian listens as Frankie tells the story of her life which includes being orphaned at the age 11 and running off to London as soon as she can. The narrative travels from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York & reveals Frankie’s resilience & endurance. External Website

Authors N Bandmaster and academic ➝ Musician, actor, activist ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Clickbait 2021 This American-Australian is a thriller revolving around the mystery of who first kidnapped physiotherapist, Nick Brewer, and who then killed him. Episode 6 'The Brother' is the story of a grieving man whose sister, feeling rejected by an online lover, has killed herself. Viewers are told that the pair grew up in the foster care system, but that detail is irrevelant to the story. External Website

Writers Regina Calcaterra 1966- Regina M. Calcaterra (born 1966) was in and out of foster care as a child and she went on to write about her experiences in Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island (2013). Regina is also an American attorney and a founding partner of Calcaterra Pollack LLP law firm. She served as Executive Director to two of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s investigatory commissions, Chief Deputy to Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone, and Deputy General Counsel to both the New York State Insurance Fund and New York City Employees’ Retirement System. External Website

Authors S What Mummies Are Made Of by Stephanie Hutton ➝ The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) ➝ Heidi ➝ Dennis and the Big Decisions (2-5 years) ➝ The Leftovers ➝ Extraordinary Birds (8-12 years) ➝ Don't Ask The Dragon ➝ Jamberoo Road ➝ Ballet Shoes ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 The Butcher Boy is a 1992 novel by Irish writer, Patrick McCabe. It tells the story of Francis "Francie" Brady who ends up in an 'industrial school' where he is sexually abused by one of the priests. He is also befriended by a gardener. The title comes from Francie's work as a butcher and his dismembering of the body of a woman he murders. The Butcher Boy was adapted into an award winning film in 2007. External Website

Films/Videos Lucky 2011 How could a recently orphaned, 10-year old homeless South African boy ever be called Lucky? Over the grave of his dead mother, Lucky makes a promise to make something of himself. Leaving the security of his remote Zulu village for the big city with the hope of going to school, he arrives on the doorstep of an uncle who has no use for him. Lucky then falls in with Padma, an elderly Indian woman with an inherent fear of Africans, who takes him in as she would a stray dog. Together, unable to speak each other's language, they develop an unlikely bond. Through an odyssey marked by greed, violence, and, ultimately, belonging, Lucky shows how a child's spirit can bring out decency, humility and even love in adults struggling to survive in the new South Africa. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Storm Child Michael Robotham 2024 Storm Child (2024) is the 4th in Australian writer Michael Robotham’s Cyrus Haven & Evie Cormac series. Cyrus Haven – who was raised by his grandparents from age 13 – is a forensic psychologist. Evie Cormac is a young woman Cyrus Haven met in a youth detention centre. He fostered the girl until she turned 18 and he continues to provide a home for her. In Storm Child we learn more about Evie’s background, from the time she arrived in the UK as a 9 year old and when she was later found living in a house with a dead body. External Website