Product Description
More than half a million children today live inout-of-home care, and many have special problems.The need forwell-trained, loving foster parents has never been greater.With thisbook, Girls and Boys Town offers these committed people theprofessional tools they need to not only care for foster children butto actually help them get better.

New or experienced foster parents as well as grandparents and otherrelatives caring for a child forced from home by a crisis will findhelp and hope in this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Cheesy at first but completley worth it
This is the most helpful book I have found on Foster parenting. Seems less to do with one person's presonal preferences and about how to help kids. I enjoyed it and could see practical applications.

AWESOME!!!!!!
This book is a really good tool for anyone doing or thinking about doing this kind of work. Good practical information.

A "foster parent friendly" guide
Collaboratively compiled and edited by Lana Temple-Plotz, Ted P. Stricklett, Christena B. Baker, and Michael N. Sterba, Practical Tools For Foster Parents: Foster Care Solutions is a straightforward and "foster parent friendly" guide to creating a safe environment, building a positive relationship with a foster child, working with the foster child's parents (even when they are uncooperative or hostile), teaching a foster child decision-making skills, how to handling transitions, and much, much more. Practical Tools Forfoster Parents is very highly recommended reading for anyone looking into the challenges and rewards of foster care. ... Read more

Product Description
Mary Callahan never planned on writing a book about her experiences as a foster parent. She had only one goal as a parent, to help the children in her care. But as she learned their stories, it became painfully clear that the Child Welfare System had no sincere regard for the welfare of children. Callahan realized the only way to truly help the children was to tell their stories.

Written from the unique perspective of a foster parent, Memoirs of a Baby Stealer chronicles Callahan's experiences with five foster children, shedding light on the inadequacies of the Child Welfare System in this country. As the author explains, "They are taking kids from places that aren't that bad, putting them in places that aren't that good, and completely ignoring the bond that exists between parent and child." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

memoirs of a baby stealer
I wish there would be more stories like this. It was interesting to read from many reasons: as a researcher this gave new ideas of how to approach the subject. Also, as a personal "biography" this was interestingly written of otherwise quite a sensitive topic

Good read for child caregivers
I liked this book. Was a great read, I work with children and it makes me realize that all children can be a challenge no matter what background they come from. I enjoyed the honesty and the importance of telling the reader what she had ot ential on a daily basis with the foster children in her care. I have read many foster care related books and some of them judge and compare and beg the reader not to become a foster parent. This book, on the other hand, wasn't in comparison to those. Yes, there was some griping about the kids but most of it was aout how each situation was different and how she was trying to help the children but got no help or good communication from the welfare offices or social workers.
I would recommend to any foster parent and to anyone who works with special needs children.

My views of Memoirs of a baby stealer
I purchased this book because I am interested in learning about fostercare.I have to say it was only mildly helpful. I did get a little information about how the department of Family and childrens services vs private agencys work, or do not work together.I feel tho the author uses the book to work out her own personal issues. While her work with these children is commendable.She seemed to be doing fostercare as a way to pay the bills.Most of the time she was too involved to be much help with these children.Perhaps she would make a better child advocate.In all I was less than pleased with the book. The book has little realtime information.

Memoirs of a Baby Stealer, Lessons I've learned as a Foster Mother
Excellent information.A must read for anyone who has had their children taken and is fighting to get them back as well as activists against the abuse of children by CPS.
Mary Callahan's stories about some of the children she cared for hold your interest as well as give you important information.It was hard to put the book down.

Great book - smart, honest, insightful
Considering Callahan's choice to raise therapeutic-level foster children (children diagnosed with behavioral and emotional abilities) one is first impressed with the author's ambition.

But it is the honesty, the frank and sometimes humorous descriptions of the successes and failures that endeared this reader to the book itself.

Callahan is a smart and intuitive foster mother, trained as an emergency-room nurse, who is great with the kids and has a special ability to step outside of the complex and emotional circumstances in which she finds herself. One is struck by the conclusions she arrives at as she is able to consider the situations in a clinical objective fashion. At one point she diagnoses a child in her care to have a rare genetic disorder, an affliction missed by doctors and social workers who had been shuffling the child around in the "system" for years.

It is the sudden and clear insights offered by Callahan during the tale that are most impressive about this story. Combined with true caring and compassion, common-sense offered in a world gone down the rabbit hole, this is a well-written, an easy and enjoyable read.

I think that this book is more than just a must for anyone who has had contact with the foster care system - I think that non-foster parents with teenagers will also find it to be a moving and worthwhile read about the struggles of raising children.

Callahan has become well-known in Maine recently as an activist looking to improve the foster care system, and a bright and articulate spokesmen for the children and parents who encounter foster care. This is a writer with many dimensions, extensive personal experience, and growing respect and influence in the foster care community. ... Read more