Zachary's New Home: A Story for Foster and Adopted Children

By Paul Blomquist, Geraldine M. Blomquist, Paul B. Blomquist

Book Overview

One day Zachary's mom had a visitor named Sarah. Sarah talked to Zachary's mom. She also talked to Zachary. She told him he could not live with his mother anymore. Sarah was going to take him to another home to live.

Children in foster care and adopted children have usually suffered painful separations from their families for reasons they may not understand. They are often very confused, angry, and sad. This appealing and comforting story explores their experiences, problems, and emotions. Foster and adoptive parents, counselors and therapists will find Zachary's New Home to be a useful tool for understanding these children and helping them to cope with their many losses and to feel happier about the present and optimistic about their future.

From the Introduction for Foster and Adoptive Parents:

This story may evoke strong emotions in foster and adoptive children. It is important that knowledgeable and concerned adults discuss these with the children, allowing them to explore their own feelings. After reading the book, it would also be helpful for the parents or counselors to provide nurturing activities, reassurance, and love, thus sustaining and encouraging the children's optimism about their future.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0945354274
• ISBN13: 9780945354277
• Release Date: November 1990
• Publisher: Magination Press
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 7.7" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Great Book!

This book explains foster adoption very well. My niece loves this book and has told me that the child we are adopting she is going to adopt them as well, as a sister. I guess if I can be the Mom then she doesn't have to be a cousin she is going to be the sister. Very good four year old logic. It is a great book, I love the use of animals instead of people doesn't make the process seem scary and has good messages for everyone involved in an adoption.

From an adoptive parent's perspective

We are in the process of adoptiong 2 children, ages 3 and 4, from the foster care system. We have found this book to be an excellent tool for helping our children understand their story and begin to heal from their wounds. Other books on adoption for children are based on the premise that they were adopted at birth, which has confused our kids because they have been in foster care for as long as they can remember and therefore these books are not always relevant. Zachary's new home has been exactly what they needed!

Fabulous for adopting a child through the foster care system

This book clearly explains the child coming into foster care and then being adopted. Great for children who were adopted though the foster care system.

THOUGHTFUL CHILDREN'S BOOK ABOUT A TOUGH TOPIC

As a foster mother and author of books for foster children, it is wonderful to see good quality books available for foster children! The writing is easy to understand and deals with some being in foster care and then being adopted. The illustrations are charming--I like how animals are used because they are appropriate for the whimsy of children, plus they do not peg the reader into thinking about whether the book's subjects are "black" or "white," etc. Children will be able to relate to this book, and they will find comfort in its story. -Cynthia Miller Lovell, author of The Star: A story to help young children understand foster care, and Questions & Activities for The Star: A handbook for foster parents

Great tool to help these kiddos...

I am a social worker with Child Protective Services and I use this book all the time. It helps me to explain to a child what is happening in their life as well as frame their situation in a perspective they can understand. I have used this book both at the time I am removing a child from a birth home and at the times that I place a child in an adoptive home. They often ask me to read the story again. I recommend this book for anyone with a foster child in their home or a child adopted from the Child Welfare System.