"This is such an imaginative, tender, reassuring book - children will love using it."Jacqueline Wilson, children’s author
This beautifully illustrated, interactive book - accompanied by accessories (see list below) which will delight young children - will encourage children to voice their fantasies about adoption and to come to terms with reality. Tia’s Wishes is intended to help children aged between four and ten, who are waiting to be placed for adoption, to understand and to cope with their mixed feelings of uncertainty, apprehension and hope.
Tia’s Wishes should be regarded as an integral part of life story work for children who need permanent alternative families. The book can be used to work with children well before a new family is identified in order to explore fears about separation from birth and foster families and anxieties about the unknown. Divided into two parts, ‘Tia’s wishes and her new family’ and ‘Tia’s new family’, each page of text faces a page which includes questions to encourage the child to think about what they want in their new family, their feelings about the past and the future, and where they can illustrate their hopes and fears.
The sensitively written guidelines will help the adoption worker, or foster carer, to get the most out of each section of the story, starting with material wishes and dreams - which children often find less threatening - then moving on, as Tia does, to help the child explore more difficult areas at their own pace.
Note: While the central character, a young girl of seven and a half, will appeal to girls of various ages, boys may prefer the companion book Tyler's Wishes which features a boy as the central character.
A selection of helpful materials come with the book (the guidelines suggest other items):
A magic wand to make wishes
A “scared bear” to keep secret fears and wishes
Stickers, glitter glue and sheets of rainbow paper
A special pen.
"Here is an excellent book which helps social workers listen to the views of children being prepared for adoption. It helps children understand what it is they want, and it helps adopters understand more about the children they are being prepared to look after. All this and a free packet to glitter too!"Paddy Sheehy, Children’s Guardian and Trainer
The book and the accessories are packaged in a box entitled "My wishes for my new family" to which a child can add their own name.
