Now, for the first time, The Heart Knows Something Different gives them a voice. In well-crafted narratives that are remarkable for their candor, range of experience, and hard-won insight, more than three dozen young writers (ages 15-20) provide an insider’s view of growing up in “the system.”

Turning points in the lives of foster children are reflected in these powerful accounts. Shawan Raheem Samuels and Craig Jaffe run away from family problems to live on the streets; one gets arrested, the other finds refuge in foster care. Clarissa Venable finds a father figure in a caring staff member, but an anonymous writer is raped by her social worker. Shaniqua Sockwell and Lenny Jones confront the stigma of being “foster care kids”; they lead “double lives” before they come to accept themselves. Anzula Richardson draws strength from staff and peers as she becomes a teenage mother. And in four interrelated essays, Wunika Hicks describes being taken from her abusive mother, losing her brother to adoption, and her disappointment when she is reunited with relatives after ten years of separation. As her fantasies of reunion collide with hard reality, she comes full circle in redefining both her foster care experience and her expectations of family.

In his Foreword, Jonathan Kozol writes, “The dominant theme in this book ... is the power of transcendent moral courage in so many of these young survivors. ... [T]here is a special miracle at stake when affirmation of this sort is voiced by those who are surrounded by the symbols of destruction as they speak.” Intimate and honest, The Heart Knows Something Different shows us, from the inside, looking out, the mix of pain and fear, and sometimes hope and happiness that the foster care experience involves.

About the Author: The pieces in this volume first appeared in Foster Care Youth United, a bimonthly magazine published by Youth Communication, a nonprofit youth development organization in New York City, whose mission is to teach writing, journalism, and leadership skills.

Al Desetta, founding editor of Foster Care Youth United, has also served as editor of New Youth Connections, the organization’s general interest magazine for teenagers, as instructor in its juvenile prison writing project, and as director of its teacher development program. In 1990-91, he was a Charles H. Revson Fellow at Columbia University.

By the Same Author: Is Adoption Right for Me?: Teens Explore the Adoption Option (2005, Youth Communication); as well as Keeping It Secret: Teens Write About Foster Care Stigma (2005, Youth Communication) and Do You Have What It Takes? A Comprehensive Guide to Success After Foster Care (2006, Youth Communication).

Brenda McCreight, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, and therapist as well as the mother of 14. Brenda entered the adoption world as the young adoptive mom of a 14-month-old boy with undetermined “special needs.” Those special needs were later diagnosed as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, but at the time, so little was known about it that her family couldn’t even get a diagnosis, let alone find any resources. Fortunately, as a family therapist, she was able to access the scientific research. She read what little she could find, and then she began putting on workshops for other parents and professionals so that they could learn to recognize the symptoms and create ways to help their children who carried the diagnosis that would soon become so common in the adoption field.

Over the next 30 years, she adopted 12 more children and kept on top of the newest research on neuroscience so that she could provide effective counseling, parent coaching, and training. So far, she’s written four books about adoption: Recognizing and Managing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effects, Parenting Your Older Adopted Child, Eden: The Story of an Older Child Adoption, and her most recent book Help! I’ve Been Adopted. Brenda is the author of numerous magazine articles on adoption and has been given the Adoption Activist Award in 2003 by the North American Council on Adoptable Children. Brenda also enjoys writing fiction. She currently has several on Kindle including Cleah: The Lost Fury Chronicles, Good Enough: A Shay James Mystery, and Regards..., a book of short stories.

By the Same Author: Parenting Your Adopted Older Child: How to Overcome the Unique Challenges and Raise a Happy and Healthy Child (2002, New Harbinger Publications), among others.

About the Author: Kathleen Winkler holds a master’s degree in journalism from Marquette University. Her previous books for Enslow Publishers, Inc., include Cosmetic Surgery for Teens: Choices and Consequences and Bullying: How to Deal With Taunting, Teasing, and Tormenting.

Naomi Shihab Nye
Poet, essayist, teacher
Author of Going Going (2005) and other novels for teens

About the Author: Abe Louise Young works as a poet, journalist, and activist for human rights. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the James Michener Center for Writers, and teaches imaginative writing as a means of social change to youth and adults across the country.

The Youth Editorial Board consists of teenagers and young adults selected and convened by Next Generation Press to advise on each of its projects. In shaping the direction and choosing the contents of this anthology, the following youth editors from New England, California, and New York City played a key role: Dan Cervone, Rosa Fernandez, Shannon O’Grady, Rasheeda Raji, Tahani Salah, Adam Seidel, and Emily Taylor.

Compiler’s Note See, particularly, “An Adopted Korean” by Hae-ok Miller (pp.82-83), in which the author “explores the benefit of her multiple heritages as a Korean girl adopted by Jewish parents from Argentina.”

A Home for Foundlings describes the hospital Captain Coram founded, the luminaries involved—including Handel, Hogarth, and Dickens—and the daily lives of the foundlings themselves. Full of archival photos and materials, and published in cooperation with the newly established Foundling Museum in London and Lord Cultural Resources, A Home for Foundlings is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and timely book. Author Marthe Jocelyn’s text has particular resonance: her grandfather, Arthur Jocelyn, was raised in the Foundling Hospital.

About the Author: Marthe Jocelyn is an award-winning author and illustrator who worked for many years as a toy designer before turning her hand to writing. Although this is her first work of non-fiction, she has written five novels, including the critically acclaimed works of historical fiction Mable Riley and Earthly Astonishments. Marthe Jocelyn lives in New York City and Stratford, Ontario with her husband, artist Tom Slaughter, and their daughters.

By the Same Author: Folly (2010, Wendy Lamb Books).

About the Author: Sheila Stewart has written several dozen books for young people, both fiction and nonfiction, although she especially enjoys writing fiction. She has a master’s degree in English and now works as a writer and editor. She lives with her two children in a house overflowing with books, in the Southern Tier of New York State.

Camden Flath is a writer living and working in Binghamton, New York. He has a degree in English and has written several books for young people. He is interested in current political, social, and economic issues and applies those interests to his writing.

In A House Between Homes: Youth in the Foster Care System, you will learn about foster care, laws that govern the system today, and the history of foster care in North America. You will read about the orphan trains of the United States and the British Home Children who were sent to Canada. You will also learn about the challenges youth face as they negotiate the circumstances that foster care creates in their lives and about some of the newest and most innovative foster programs. As you read, you will meet Bobby and Kara, a brother and sister who find their family torn apart by abuse and neglect.

Their journey through a frightening childhood, foster care, and an ultimate solution to their displaced lives will teach you a great deal about the foster care system.

About the Author: Joyce Libal is a writer and artist living with her husband and assorted pets on their orchard in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. When she is not writing, Joyce enjoys painting, quilting, and gardening.

About the Author: Formerly of Manhattan, Alyssa Danzig now makes her home in Fairfield County, CT. A mortgage banker by day, Alyssa and her daughter, Arianna (who at press time, is about to enter the 4th grade) have collaborated to write and illustrate their first book.

About the Author: Regina M. Kupecky, LSW, has worked in the adoption arena for more than thirty years as an adoption placement worker and therapist. She was named “Adoption Worker of the Year” in 1990 by the Ohio Department of Human Services. She is currently a therapist with Dr. Keck at the Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio, where she works with children who have attachment disorders. She trains nationally and internationally on adoption issues, sibling issues, and attachment. Ms. Kupecky authored a resource guide, Siblings Are Family Too, which is available through the Three Rivers Adoption Council in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has coauthored a curriculum with Dr. Keck and Arleta James called Abroad and Back: Parenting and International Adoption and has written a curriculum on sibling issues titled My Brother, My Sister: Sibling Relations in Adoption and Foster Care.

About the Author: Jill Krementz works as a journalist, photographer, and portraitist, in addition to turning her talents to writing and photographing books for children. The publication of nineteen children’s books has established her reputation as a writer who knows how to listen to and communicate with children. She has won the praise of sociologists and educators, as well as the affection of many young readers.

Ms. Krementz was the 1984 recipient of the Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award for “creatively produced books, works that make a difference.” She lives in New York City with her husband and young daughter.

Stefon and Latisha, ages seven and six when the books were written in 1990, are birth siblings who were adopted at ages six and five after being in foster care for three years. Stephanie, who was seven years old when the books were written, was adopted at age six weeks. All of the Herbert children have borth siblings. Only Stefon and Latisha have periodic contact with three of their siblings.

The children each chose the subject matter of their individual book and the feelings they wanted to express. Shaun, the oldest Herbert child, helped his brother and sisters draw the illustrations when they had difficulty showing action or proper body proportions.

Why was I adopted?

How did you find me?

What was it like where I was born?

Children have many questions about adoption. These insightful photographs, matched with a simple text, encourage children to reflect and ask questions about adoption. Most of all, this poignant book celebrates another way a family can grow.

About the Author: Shelley Rotner is an award-winning author and photo-illustrator of more than thirty books. Her photographs have been published in National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, Time, and other magazines. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Sheila M. Kelly is a clinical psychologist who practiced for thirty years in western Massachusetts, where she specialized in work with young children, their parents, and teachers. A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, she currently lives in Austin, Texas.

About the Author: Rebecca Felix is a writer and editor from Minnesota. She has a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Rebecca has written and edited numerous books for children and young adults on a variety of topics. These topics include exploration, genetics, energy alternatives and conservation, civil rights, and social issues.

About the Author: John Raible is a biracial adult adoptee, the adoptive parent of children of color, and an assistant professor of diversity and curriculum studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In her essay, “Racial Matching in Adoption Should Be Encouraged,” McRoy argues that placing a child in an adoptive family of the same race acknowledges that race is a significant factor in a child’s life, and that more effort should be placed in finding same-race families for minority children than in encouraging transracial adoption.

In her oppositional essay, “Racial Matching in Adoption is Racist and Discriminatory,” Bartholet argues that any preference given to same-race families in adoption hurts children and is clearly discriminatory, concluding that adoption decisions should be based on the best interests of the child. Since it is clearly in the interest of the child to be placed in a qualified two-parent home as quickly as possible, she maintains, this is the only criterion that should be used in placement.

About the Author: Ruth G. McRoy is a professor in the school of social work at the University of Texas and the coauthor of Transracial and Inracial Adoptees.

Elizabeth Bartholet, a professor at Harvard Law School, frequently writes on reproductive issues.

In her essay, “Transracial Adoptions Should Be Encouraged,” Perez argues that, because minority children comprise a large percentage of youngsters in need of adoption and must often wait years before being placed in permanent homes—which is often a hindrance to a child’s emotional development—adoption policies that emphasize placement of minority children with parents of their own race can be harmful. These children should not be required to wait the extra amount of time that it can take to find them parents of their own race solely because no same-race parents can be found.

In her oppositional essay, “Transracial Adoption Should Not Be Encouraged,” Neal clarifies the influential stance against transracial adoption taken by the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) in 1972, arguing that African-American children need to grow up within their own culture among members of their own race. The NABSW maintains that black children need black parents to learn to deal effectively with racism and to develop a healthy cultural identity and self-esteem. Neal argues further that there are plenty of black families who could adopt, and that the policies of many child-care agencies which create barriers to the adoption of black children by black families must be abolished; that transracial placements should occur only when all efforts to find same-race parents fail.

About the Author: Amanda T. Perez is a law clerk for a United States District Court in New Jersey.

Leora Neal, directs the New York chapter of the Association of Black Social Workers Child Adoption, Counseling and Referral Service.

In his essay, “Transracial Adoptions Should Be Encouraged,” Kennedy argues that the practice of requiring people to adopt children of the same race (“race matching”) shortchanges black children by denying them potentially loving homes, claiming that white parents can raise black children as effectively as black parents, and, in fact, can offer these children advantages. He maintains that white parents can counter the psychological impact of racism and self-destructiveness.

In their oppositional essay, “Transracial Adoption Should Not Be Encouraged,” Cho and Yung, themselves transnational adoptees who identify as “transracial abductees,” argue that transracial adoptees are often prevented from exploring their own cultures, noting that their own adoptive parents had described them in racist terms, such as China dolls, and would punish them for identifying the racism they experienced in the community.

About the Author: Randall Kennedy a professor at Harvard Law School, is author of Interracial Intimacies, from which his essay was excerpted.

Stephanie Cho and Kim So Yung founded Transracial Abductees, an organization that helps transracial adoptees integrate into communities of color.

About the Author: Founded in 1980, Youth Communication publishes high-quality, true stories by teens. Youth Communication has won dozens of awards for its publications and work with teens including: President’s Committee on the Arts, and the Humanities, Parents Choice, Parents Guide, Association of Educational Publishers, Casey Journalism Center, Child Welfare League of America, Independent Press Association, National Mental Health Association, MacArthur Foundation (MacArthur Fellowship awarded to Executive Director and founder Keith Hefner).

By the Same Author: The Heart Knows Something Different: Teenage Voices From the Foster Care System (1996, Persea Books); as well as Keeping It Secret: Teens Write About Foster Care Stigma (2005) and Do You Have What It Takes? A Comprehensive Guide to Success After Foster Care (2006).

With refreshing honesty Catherine tells about her own adoption and how her younger sister became part of the family, from the day the social worker came to visit for the first time to the morning they all went to court together and Carla’s adoption became legal.

Is That Your Sister?, a true story of how one family grew by adoption, deals warmly and openly with some of the most complicated questions and feelings adopted children experience. Catherine’s story, illustrated with pictures from her family’s album, makes it clear to all children that adopted means being wanted and loved; that adoption is a special way to make a family.

About the Author: Catherine Bunin lives in New York City with her mother and father, sister, Carla, and her two brothers, Alexander and Nicholas. She goes to P.S. 75 and every summer spends a month in Maine, where she would like to live all year round.

Sherry Bunin is Catherine’s mother. She is on the staff of the New York Council on Adoptable Children, a citizen’s group that she and other adoptive parents organized to help parents adopt children more easily and to help children find their way to a permanent home and a family of their own.