International Book Giving Day: Book recommendations by our carers

Books are a great way of relaxing and escaping into a world of fiction (or even non-fiction), so to celebrate International Book Giving Day, we have put together a variety of books recommended by our fabulous foster carers!

Check out the book recommendations below:

Book recommendation by Adele, Foster Carer & Adoptive Carer – ‘William Wobbly and the mysterious holey jumper’ by Sarah Naish and Rosie Jefferies:

Our foster carer Adele really enjoyed reading this book and couldn’t recommend it enough! She said: “This book is an absolute must read for any foster carers, adoptive parents, social workers and teaching staff. As I started to read the book this could have quite easily have been my adopted son who was fostered prior to adoption.

"Any change no matter how small causes anxiety and worry, but for children who have suffered trauma this is compounded. Hiding under desks, chewing jumpers and hiding are all traits that my son displayed in his primary school. My 11-year-old son read the book and said, ‘this could be me mum’. He recognised immediately that the wobbly feelings in his tummy were very real. Every primary school teacher should have a copy of the book as I am sure they can relate it to pupils they have and are teaching. Well done to the authors, it is a brilliant user-friendly book!”

Book recommendation by Nina, Foster Carer – ‘Who feels scared?’ by Sue Graves:

If you are looking for a book that is easy to share with young children to enable them to learn more about the feeling of being scared, then ‘Who feels scared?’ by Sue Graves might be the book for you. Our foster carer, Nina found this book a great way to explore these feelings with young children, she said: “The book has great short stories, and it is fun and easy to share with young children. It is also very well illustrated which gives lots of things to chat about. It shows that it’s only natural to be scared at times, at some point we all feel a little afraid of the unknown, but with the help of carers and friends to reassure and explain things everything will be alright. The book, hopefully, also makes children more aware of the fears and feelings of others. The book includes great strategies to use to help children talk about their experiences as well as many others”.

Book recommendation by Michelle, Foster Carer – ‘Sophie Spikey’ by Sarah Naish and Rosie Jefferies:

This book is a fabulous tool for both children and adults to work together with. It shows the anxiety that a child with attachment disorder following trauma suffered in early years displays.

Our Foster Carer, Michelle, shares why she would recommend this book, she said: “In the book, Sophie cannot ask for help and tries to be totally independent from her mother (care giver) and is scared of being shamed if she admits to losing her new shoes. In my experience caring for a young man who has severe attachment disorder, and this total lack of trust in adults and the need to control every aspect of his life, making decisions without knowledge of the consequences and refusing help with everything is a copy of how Sophie is and how she tries to cope.

“Children with any form of trauma related attachment issues will often develop behaviours that can, and do, interfere with their ability to attach appropriately to their caregiver, they will often be independent and angry when faced with a problem that they try to solve without help. They can be withdrawn or in some cases will be overly clingy and very needy in their demands. I would recommend this book not only for younger children but also for the older children as the strategies used by the mother and the similarities of the difficulties the young person will struggle with can be adapted for all ages.”

We hope you enjoy reading the books recommended by our carers, get in touch if you want to let us know about other amazing books.