I had always wondered why I had never been able to find a great book about foster parenting, and reading this book, I think I realized why. Foster parenting can be *so* different from state to state, and can even differ hugely within states depending on the county or program.

As a result, there's a lot of great information in this book -- but not all of it may be an accurate picture of what foster care is like where you live. Repeatedly throughout the book, I came across info that was presented as a universal truth of foster care that just is not true here where I am -- and it's not like our county is a unique little special snowflake, different than everywhere else. :p As an example, the book states several times that foster parents have to pay for daycare out of their own pockets (and that's a cost that will almost always be greater than the monthly stipend), but in the two areas I've lived in most recently (and in different states), the foster care program does indeed pay all daycare costs in most circumstances. This wasn't the only thing, there were just lots of little issues like that.

At the same time, the book doesn't go very far past "intro" level stuff, which sets up an odd conundrum. The people who have enough background to know which information just doesn't apply in their area probably aren't going to get very much out of the book; and the people who will find the most new info in the book are probably also those who may not be able to tell which parts aren't relevant to their situation.

So, why did I give the book 4 stars instead of 2 or 3? Because I think for a very specific population, this could be a truly excellent book -- people considering foster care, who are just wanting to learn more about how it works and haven't taken the training classes yet. The other books that are out there are really focused on people who are already foster parents -- and often on foster parents who have taken on especially challenging children, to boot. It's great to have a book that I can pass on to friends who want to learn more about foster care that doesn't go straight into reactive attachment disorder, etc., but instead focuses on the broader issues about what foster parenting can be like. I'd feel totally confident passing this book on to people like that, I'd just do so with the caveat that some of the logistic information presented may not be true with their state/county/agency/program. I think this book can be a great starting point for people who have been thinking about signing up for that foster parenting orientation session they've seen advertised at church or the library, but haven't felt comfortable taking the plunge. ( )