An intimate, authoritative look at the foster care system that examines why it is failing the kids it is supposed to protect and what can be done to change it.

"Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice"--

Foster care and adoption can be rewarding ways to become parents. But the system itself seems almost rigged for failure, confusion, fraud, and disappointment. This book takes readers on an insider's tour of the system, its successes and failures, and the joys adoption can bring through the real stories of those involved on all sides.

Seventeen-year-old Margaret "Cuckoo" Clark keeps a journal detailing the trials and tribulations of high school life as she and her close-knit group of outcast friends try to break down the barriers between their school's "warring nations.".

When their mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent by the Children's Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri in 1860.

After a rough childhood in multiple foster homes, Krista Galloway is not a fan of Christmas. When she accepts a job as a city manager in the mountain town of Winter Hill, Washington, Christmas is part of the deal: the small town is famous for its Christmasville celebration. Krista doesn't always feel welcomed in the close-knit town, and her daughter Emily continually wonders, "Where's the snow?" Can a friendly stranger and his family help restore...

"Werebear shifter Annette Garsea is a caseworker for the Interspecies Placement Agency. When a selectively mute and freakishly strong teen werewolf is put in her custody, Annette has to uncover the young girl's secrets if she's to have any hopes of helping her. And not even the growling of a scruffy private investigator can distract her from her mission...Bear shifter David Auberon appreciates Annette's work with at-risk teen shifters, but he's not...

"Red's inexplicable power over the wind comes from her mother. Whenever Ruby "Red" Byrd is scared or angry, the wind picks up. And being placed in foster care, moving from family to family, tends to keep her skies stormy. Red knows she has to learn to control it, but can't figure out how. This time, the wind blows Red into the home of the Grooves, a quirky couple who run a petting zoo, complete with a dancing donkey and a giant tortoise. With their...

This sequel to Gibbon's beloved classic Ellen Foster stands on its own as an unforgettable portrait of a redoubtable adolescent making herself up out of whole cloth. Now fifteen, Ellen is settled into a permanent home with a new mother. Strengthened by adversity and blessed with enough intelligence to design a salvation for herself, she still feels ill at ease in the world. Her sole surviving ritual - a visit to the county fair - takes on totemic...

Told in two voices, high school seniors Chloe Holden and Cash Colton try to determine if she is his foster mother's daughter, Emily, who was kidnapped at age three.