Books, booklets & multimedia

Making Good Assessments: A practical resource guide
BAAF Working Group (BAAF, 1999)
Price: £14.95
This is an invaluable guide for adoption and fostering workers, panel members, decision makers and those tasked with making placements of children.

Making It Alone – A study of the care experiences of young black people
By Lynda Ince (BAAF 1998)
Price: £6.95 (previously £10.95)
This study examines the personal experiences, feelings and opinions of ten young black people who had been on care orders. All had spent part of their lives in transracial placements, and most experienced problems with their racial identity and felt unprepared for the process of leaving care.

A marginalised resource?
Recruiting, assessing and supporting single carers
By Bridget Betts (BAAF, 2007)
Price: £9.95
A new Good Practice Guide that examines the legal position on adoption and fostering by single men and women, how agencies can successfully recruit and support single adopters and carers, and the issues that need to be considered when assessing single men and women for adoption and fostering. Contains a wealth of practical guidance as well as signposts to further resources and references.

Managing Difficult Behaviour
By Clare Pallett, Kathy Blackeby, William Yule, Roger Weissman and Stephen Scott with Eileen Fursland
Illustrations by Fran Orford (BAAF, March 2008)
Price: £10.95 + £1.92 VAT
A unique handbook that aims to provide foster carers of the under 12s with new skills to help them improve a child’s behaviour. Includes useful tips, case examples and exercises to help improve relationships and make every day seem easier and more manageable.

A guide for medical advisers -
Advocating, promoting and protecting the health of looked after children in Scotland
by Ian Millar with Eileen Fursland (BAAF, March 2006)
Price: £6.95
Many medical advisers to adoption, fostering and permanence teams and panels have little direct experience of adoption and fostering, and can find the surrounding legal and social work context intimidating. This guide sets out the main issues surrounding the work of the medical adviser, looking particularly at the work of the medical adviser in Scotland, where the legal system has a significant effect on practice.

Models of Adoption Support - What works and what doesn’t
By Hedi Argent (BAAF, April 2003)
Price: £9.95
This timely anthology will contribute to, and inform the debate about adoption support and its role in modern adoption practice.

Morris and the Bundle of Worries
Written by Jill Seeney (BAAF 2007)
Illustrated by Rachel Fuller
Price: £9.95
A colourful picture book for young children in which Morris the Mole learns that talking about his problems, and facing his worries with the help of others, is more helpful than hiding his fears.

Mother me
Written by Zara H Phillips (BAAF, March 2008)
Price: £8.95
A frank and honest personal memoir which explores the far-reaching impact of adoption on childhood, adolescence, relationships and self-esteem. It also provides a unique insight into pregnancy and motherhood from the perspective of an adopted woman.

My life and me
by Jean Camis (BAAF 2001, reprinted 2006)
Price: £17.04 (£14.50 + £2.54 VAT)
Colourful life story workbook for use with children separated from their birth families.

My Life Story CD Rom
by Bridget Betts and Afshan Ahmad (Information Plus, 2003)
Price: £69.95(£59.53 + £10.42 VAT)
Reduced from £229
My Life Story is designed to meet the same needs as traditional life story materials but the big difference is in using an approach children understand and don't find threatening.

Myths & Practices -
A national survey of the use of experts in care proceedings
by Julia Brophy, Christopher J Wale and Phil Bates (BAAF, 1999)
Price: £5.95
This research, the first national survey in England and Wales of the use of experts, explores a range of practices by courts, guardians ad litem, local authorities and parents.

New Families, Old Scripts – A guide to the language of trauma and attachment in adoptive families
By Caroline Archer and Christine Gordon (Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2006)
Price: £18.99
Provides an accessible introduction to understanding the challenges of dealing with unresolved attachment issues or early traumatic experiences. Will help children and their families to develop a shared language and understanding of each other.

Next Steps in Parenting the Child who Hurts: Tykes and teens
Caroline Archer (JKP, 1999)
Price: £15.95
This volume follows on from the First Steps book and continues the challenging journey through childhood and into adolescence.

Nobody ever told us school mattered – Raising the educational attainments of children in care
Edited by Sonia Jackson (BAAF 2001)
Price: ££9.95
This anthology charts the slow growth of awareness of the educational attainment of children in care. It consists of papers from leading experts in the field which discuss the impact of government initiatives, innovations in policy and practice, issues raised in research and ideas from overseas.

Novices, Old Hands, and Professionals: Adoption by single people

by Morag Owen (BAAF, 1999)
Price: £5.95
The first major study of single-person adoption, both descriptive and analytical.

Nutmeg Gets Adopted
by Judith Foxon (BAAF 2001)
price: £10.00
This book tells the story of Nutmeg, a little squirrel who goes to live with a new family after his birth mother realises that she cannot keep him safe.

Nutmeg Gets Cross
by Judith Foxon (BAAF, July 2002)
Price: £10.00
Suitable for post-adoption work with children, this story offers a practical way to identify, explore and understand painful feelings that are likely to surface following adoption.

Nutmeg Gets A Letter
by Judith Foxon (BAAF, September 2003)
Price: £12.00
Another story from the "Nutmeg" series, suitable for post-adoption work with children, this book is about contact in adoption.

Nutmeg Gets A Little Help
by Judith Foxon (BAAF, December 2004)
Price: £12.00
This story focuses on adoption support and life story work, and how these can aid adopted children. Now Nutmeg is settled with his adoptive family, powerful feelings have resurfaced about his past, which confuse and worry him...

Nutmeg Gets a Little Sister
By Judith Foxon, illustrations by Sarah Rawlings (BAAF, 2007)
Price: £12.00
The adventures of Nutmeg, the small red squirrel, continue with this appealing story exploring family relationships, which can be particularly complicated for adopted children. Nutmeg’s adoptive family is about to grow as his parents have decided to adopt his baby sister, who can’t be looked after by his birth mother any longer. Nutmeg is excited and expectant, but the reality of having a new child in the family also leads to some arguments and difficult adjustments before the family settles happily into their life together.

Nutmeg gets into trouble
by Judith Foxon (BAAF, March 2006)
Price: £12.00
This engaging story follows Nutmeg, the small red squirrel, as he continues on his adoption journey. School is a major part of every child’s life and this new book explores some of the problems that adopted children may have, or may come into contact with, in the school environment. Designed to be read to or with children by their own social worker, their current carers or adoptive parents, the story will encourage children from a wide age range to explore their feelings about their circumstances and situations.

Oh Brother!
Tom gets a new adopted brother
By Claire Friday
(Adoption UK, 2005)
Price: £5.95
Aimed at children aged between 7-11 years, Oh Brother! tells the story of Tom, a 10-year-old single birth child whose parents decide to adopt another child.

One of the family: A handbook for kinship carers
by Hedi Argent(BAAF, August 2005)
Price: £6.50
This handbook aims to give families and friends who are kinship carers, or may become kinship carers, information about the choices they can make, the assessment process, the legal framework, the child care system, the support they can expect and the financial help available.