Best Children’s Book about Foster Care: A Home for Bessie
The story of a girl going through the foster system looking for a home but also building ones for her companion doll.
Speaking to kids about adoption or fostering is not easy. But there are some fantastic children’s books featuring adopted or foster kids that can help show both kids and adults how to have thoughtful conversations about adoption and foster homes and tackling subjects like worry, sadness, uncertainty, adaptation, and love.
In a heartfelt, tug at your heartstrings story from children’s author, Jennifer Aicher, a young girl named Gabby alongside her best friend, Bessie, her doll, tells her story of being a foster child. This picture book is told through the eyes of the little girl, Gabby, who is herself going through the Foster Care process.
Gabby and Bessie live in many houses. When Bessie first moves with her great-aunt, her doll has gorgeous hair, lots of accessories, and even her own castle. But, when Gabby’s aunt dies, she begins her journey through foster care. Gabby recounts her feelings of sadness, her frustrations with the system, and the painful memories of being in foster homes. The book, while at times heartbreaking, highlights Gabby’s strengths and resilience as she finds her forever home.
This children’s book is a beautiful, relatable story that is guaranteed to open up dialogue and let kids know that they are not alone in their feelings or experiences and allows other children to understand the struggles that foster children go through.
Where Can I Find "A Home for Bessie?"
You can find A Home for Bessie by Jennifer Aicher on Amazon.
About the Author, Jennifer Aicher
“Jennifer Aicher was able to travel around the world many times while working in Environmental Science before settling down and having a family. Most of her writing comes as a way to reach the children around her. Everyday is a new adventure, and she looks forward to sharing it with you!”
Rapid Fire with Jennifer Aicher
Q. What does your family think of your writing?
Jennifer: My family is extremely supportive of giving me time to write and enjoying my stories. The children’s books began when I started teaching for my daughter’s preschool class.
Q. What advice do you have for writers?
Jennifer: Seriously, be ready to market yourself almost as much as write. I think the ones who really succeed a)have amazing stories to tell, and b) know how to get their voices heard.
Q. Describe what your ideal writing space looks like?
Jennifer: Ideal….. would be a big glass window looking over the ocean.
The reality, any corner I can escape to with my work. Rough drafts for the children’s books are almost always with pen and paper. Coffee is an important component of this picture.
Q. What do you love most about the writing process?
Jennifer: Making points I didn’t even know I had. Going back and looking at something later, and thinking, wow, that was where I was in my head. Sometimes the research is an amazing adventure as well.
Q. How did you become involved in the subject or theme of your book?
Jennifer: I knew children in foster care growing up, and read extensively about them when someone close to me was in a sad situation. You hear the stories of kids being moved in the middle of the night, having only a trash bag to carry their belongings, but it isn’t a reality until you see it directly. As a first-time parent over 40, an underlying fear that my child could be swept into the system if something happened to her father and I at once was terrifying.
Q. What type of books do you write?
Jennifer: I began writing cozy mysteries and oceanographic adventure stories before turning to children’s books. I write about a variety of subjects, some A-Z books about nature, a fun rhyming farm series for young children, etc. I am currently working on early chapter books about a set of siblings that solve mysteries traveling through portals in children’s science museums.
Q. Is there a message in your novel that you hope readers will grasp?
Jennifer: Children in foster care need help. They need services when aging out of the system. They need compassion and commitment to recognize their needs as they grow, often without a steady home life.
All in all, my family and I have really enjoyed this book and we know you will too! Don’t forget to check out my other children’s book reviews as well! Please feel free to leave me any comments or questions about this review. I look forward to hearing from you!
* This book was kindly sent to me by Author, Jennifer Aicher in exchange for an honest review.
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