Berthoud Community Library District

Psychotropic medication are often prescribed to treat challenging behaviors and mental health issues. While necessary in some cases, numerous studies have demonstrated that the rates of psychotropic medication prescriptions are disproportionately high among children in foster care.

Dave Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in California history, tells the story of his adolescent years after he was removed from his home and placed in foster care, and discusses the influence on his life of Dan Brazell, the man he came to regard as his father.

"Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakota people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato - where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies...

Sixteen-year-old high school senior Emma's life is transformed by Dylan, her new foster brother, but she finds herself torn between romantic and familial feelings in a tale reminiscent of Wuthering Heights.

For one 14-year-old boy, life can be a challenge sometimes. With all of the usual crises that accompany being an adolescent, foster kid Billy has some additional obstacles in life. A chance encounter with a mystical wizard completely changes everything. And it's not long before this boy discovers that one phrase grants him the ability to make a transformation into a superhero. In fact, it couldn't be easier. All Billy needs to do is shout "Shazam!"...

"A debut novel about an odd assortment of residents living in a crumbling apartment building in the post-industrial Midwest"-- The automobile industry has abandoned Vacca Vale, Indiana, leaving the residents behind, too. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, a number of people now reside quietly, looking for ways to live in a dying city. Apartment C2 is lonely and detached. C6 is aging and stuck....

"Sky Fielder is a typical college student, except that she is a product of the foster care system, lives in a halfway house, and meets with her caseworker on a weekly basis. While failing to balance her grades and erratic social life, she receives a call from a hospital, asking her to make medical decisions for her brother Ben;who died more than a decade before. The call must be a scam, and besides, Sky has a new life now. None of her classmates know...

From the moment he was born, Andrew Bridge and his mother, Hope, shared a love so deep that it felt like nothing else mattered. Trapped in desperate poverty and confronted with unthinkable tragedies, all Andrew ever wanted was to be with his mom. But as her mental health steadily declined, and with no one else left to care for him, authorities arrived and tore Andrew from his screaming mother's arms. In that moment, the life he knew came crashing...

In the first book of its kind, Toth presents the stories of five kids caught in a system in crisis, and chronicles the complexities of a culture that both liberates and hobbles its dependents. In addition to speaking to social workers, judges, officers, counselors, and psychologists, as well as to the remnants of shattered families who can't or won't raise their own children, Toth goes directly to the kids - capturing their voices and lives with striking...