To the End of June
The Intimate Life of American Foster Care

Fairly well written book about a heartbreaking subject -- abused, abandoned and anonymous children stuck in the country's foster care system. I read some criticism of the author's clear "political bias". Set aside the fact that the author is, herself, a child of abandonment and a member of the LGBTQ......more

This is a compelling, though sobering, look at foster care and how it affects kids and families. This book is best read to get a sense of the major issues in foster care, and for the personal stories of the people the author follows, and less so for specific information about how the system works. Fo......more

This was a sobering book, but definitely worth reading. The author says she primarily wrote this book to be descriptive rather than proscriptive and that's accurate. It's mostly just descriptions of interviews and experiences with foster children and foster parents (and some social workers) in the N......more

I read nonfiction regularly, but I am more likely to "gulp" mysteries and fantasies than nonfiction. I gobbled Cris Beam's To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care. She compellingly and insightfully combined case studies, statistics, and theory about foster care, especially about......more

Before I read this book, I imagined all kinds of good things about what being a foster parent or foster kid might mean. That was quite naive, it turns out. It does work out well sometimes, but now I think that most often, it doesn't. This book brought home to me just how messed up the system is and......more