Need suggestions for children's books about foster care

We made a trip to the library today. I got a few books on foster care. Mainly autobiographies. I will read them before I give my thoughts on them. After all, books are much like movies that way, aren't they? The summary makes it sound like an excellent story, but then you get inside and the style of writing ruins it.

Doodle Bear wants to read "A Child Called 'It'" by Dave Pelzer. I've decided to let her. She is a mature 10 year old and I believe she can handle the reality that is child abuse.

We are a pretty open family. We talk about everything and make it as realistic as possible. If there is a question that we feel we cannot answer in an age appropriate way then we will tell them that. I feel that by doing this it opens the floor to them so that they do not feel like there are some off-limits subjects. As a teenager, Honey Bear would bring his friends to us for advice and pep talks. He still does. There was one friend who was being promiscuous and he was concerned. So, I talked to her to figure out why she felt she needed to do that. It wasn't a lecture, but a genuine "it doesn't have to be this way if you don't want it to be" kind of discussion. I am so proud of that girl! She stopped the destructive behavior and is now a Junior in college. :)

We have discussed some of the issues that "the kids" will have dealt with and what kinds of behavior we can expect. I want to prepare them for the fact that they will be dealing with things that we have not had to deal with in our family and they will react differently to things we take for granted.

Anyway.... I am rambling. The point of this post is this:

I looked for some kids' books for foster children. They had a total of 2.

"Mama One, Mama Two" by Patricia MacLachlan

"For Your Own Good: A Child's Book about Living in a Foster Home" by Doris Sanford.

 

 

Now, don't get me wrong. They look like great books. I don't have anything against them. But, they didn't seem to be very young kid friendly. Well, "Mama One, Mama Two" was nice and had a happy-ish ending, but what if the child comes from a more abusive type situation? Or what if there is not much hope for reunification? That just seems to set the child up for disappointment, in my opinion.

 

So, I came home and looked online. Amazon.com has some really cute books. More of a selection than I originally thought.

 

My question is this:

 

What early childhood books regarding foster care do you recommend? I could really use your opinions since our local bookstores don't carry these in the store. I donated the majority of our "little kid" books to each of our kids' Kindergarten classes so I need to get some new ones anyway.