Aimed at parents of 9-16 year olds, this A-Z of questions and answers covers every conceivable dilemma – from what age you should give your child a mobile phone, to dealing with internet chat rooms.
When can your child legally get a job? When can they baby-sit the kid next door? Tackling the trickiest problems head on, Karen Sullivan explains when it is safe, appropriate, necessary or even normal for children to do certain things. As your children enter their teenage years and want more independence, the questions multiply.
You Want to Do What? offers reliable guidance and information instantly. Karen draws on developmental, advisory, legal and statistical information to set out the facts and offer a reasoned solution. Her informed, no-nonsense, common sense approach to parenting allows you to make decisions quickly and with confidence. And if you need to say 'no' to your teenager, You Want to Do What? gives you the best reasons to explain why.

You Want to Do What?: Instant answers to your parenting dilemmas

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Sullivan, Karen

Psychology & Counseling

Collins

In her new book, Cathy Glass, the no.1 bestselling author of Damaged, tells the story of the Alice, a young and vulnerable girl who is desperate to return home to her mother.
Alice, aged four, is snatched by her mother the day she is due to arrive at Cathy's house. Drug-dependent and mentally ill, but desperate to keep hold of her daughter, Alice's mother snatches her from her parents' house and disappears.
Cathy spends three anxious days worrying about her whereabouts before Alice is found safe, but traumatised. Alice is like a little doll, so young and vulnerable, and she immediately finds her place in the heart of Cathy's family. She talks openly about her mummy, who she dearly loves, and how happy she was living with her maternal grandparents before she was put into care. Alice has clearly been very well looked after and Cathy can't understand why she couldn't stay with her grandparents.
It emerges that Alice's grandparents are considered too old (they are in their early sixties) and that the plan is that Alice will stay with Cathy for a month before moving to live with her father and his new wife. The grandparents are distraught – Alice has never known her father, and her grandparents claim he is a violent drug dealer.
Desperate to help Alice find the happy home she deserves, Cathy's parenting skills are tested in many new ways. Finally questions are asked about Alice's father suitability, and his true colours begin to emerge.

I Miss Mummy: The true story of a frightened young girl who is desperate to go home

Politics & Social Sciences

Glass, Cathy

Social Sciences

HarperElement

The harrowing true story of the young boy who captured the heart of the nation when he testified in court, to find justice against those responsible for his brother’s death.
Terry O’Neill was just ten years old when he stood up in court to testify against his brutal foster parents, accused of the manslaughter of his twelve-year-old brother, Dennis.
Terry and his brother had been taken into care and moved through many foster homes until they came to live on the Shropshire farm owned by Reginald and Esther Gough in 1945. There they were to suffer brutal beatings and little care or love – they survived as best they could, looking out for each other, until the terrible morning when Terry couldn’t wake Dennis.
In a time when the country was united by war and struggle, the case shocked the nation and made headlines around the world. Terry, a small figure in the courtroom, captured the hearts of mothers and families everywhere, and the public outcry against the foster services led to the instigation of the first provisions to protect other vulnerable children from neglect and cruelty.

Someone to Love Us: The shocking true story of two brothers fostered into brutality and neglect

O’Neill, Terence

Humor & Entertainment

A new memoir from Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Cathy Glass.
When Cathy receives a call about a terminally ill widower terrified of leaving his son all alone in the world, she is wracked with sadness and indecision. Can she risk exposing her own young children to a little boy on the brink of bereavement?
Eight year old Michael is part of a family of two, but with his beloved father given only months to live and his mother having died when he was a toddler, he could soon become an orphan. Will Cathy’s own young family be able to handle a child in mourning? To Cathy’s surprise, her children insist that this boy deserves to be as happy as they are, prompting Cathy to welcome Michael into her home.
A cheerful and carefree new member of the family, Michael devotedly prays every night, believing that when the time is right, angels will come and take his Daddy to be with his Mummy in heaven. However, incredibly, in the weeks that pass, the bond between Cathy’s family, Michael and his kind and loving father Patrick grows. Even more promising, Patrick is looking healthier than he’s done in weeks.
But just as they are settling into a routine of blissful normality, an unexpected and disastrous event shatters the happy group, shaking Cathy to the core. Cathy can only hope that her family and Michael’s admirable faith will keep him strong enough to rebuild his life.

The Night the Angels Came

Self-Help

Death & Grief

The fifth book from bestselling author and specialist foster carer Casey Watson.
A recent census shows that there are at least 175,000 child carers in the UK, 13,000 of whom care for more than 50 hours a week. Many remain invisible to a system that would otherwise help them. Abigail is one of those children. This is her story.
Ten-year-old Abigail has never known her father. Her mother, Sarah, has multiple sclerosis, and Abigail has been her carer since she was a toddler – shopping, cooking, cleaning and attending to her personal needs. When Sarah is rushed to hospital, suddenly this comes to the attention of the social services, and Abigail has nowhere to go.
Though she doesn’t fit the usual profile of a child that specialist foster carers Casey and Mike Watson would take on, they are happy to step in and look after Abigail. It’s an emergency, after all – and all that’s needed is a loving temporary home, while social services look into how to support the family so that they can be reunited.
But it soon becomes clear that this isn’t going to happen. Sarah’s MS is now at a very advanced stage, and the doctors are certain that there will no longer be periods of remission. Abigail’s emotional state starts to spiral out of control as she struggles to let go of the burden of responsibilities she has carried for so long.
Sarah and Abigail insist that they do not need help, but with no other family to contact, social services are left with no choice but to find long-term care for Abigail, against their wishes. But Casey never gives up on a child in need, and she knows there must be another solution…

Mummy’s Little Helper: The heartrending true story of a young girl secretly caring for her severely disabled mother

Watson, Casey

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson tells the heartbreaking true story of a teenage mother and baby in need of a safe and loving home.
At fourteen, Emma is just a child herself – and one who’s never been properly mothered. She has been in foster care several times already and when she discovered she was pregnant, and refused to have an abortion, her mother threw her out of the house.
Casey and her family instantly form a strong bond with Emma’s baby Roman, but dealing with Emma’s behaviour and constant lack of responsibility is a far tougher challenge. And before long Casey finds she’s doing something she never thought she would – covering up for Emma’s shortcomings as she allows her personal involvement to colour her judgement.
But the more Casey gets to know Emma the more she’s convinced that with the right help and guidance this lonely and unsupported girl can become a good mother to her gorgeous little boy. That’s what makes it even harder when Casey and her family have to make a stark choice: to hold on to Emma or look after Roman; to help a teenage girl desperate to turn her life around, or offer an innocent baby a safe home and much-needed good start in life.

A Last Kiss for Mummy: A teenage mum, a tiny infant, a desperate decision

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Experienced foster carer, Rosie Lewis, takes on the heart-breaking case of Megan, a baby born with a drug addiction and a cleft palate.
Addicted to drugs from birth because of her mother’s substance abuse during pregnancy, new-born Megan is taken into Rosie’s loving care. Rosie is supposed to help Megan find her new permanent home, but it turns out that Megan has already found her ‘forever mummy’ in Rosie.
Rosie grows incredibly attached to Megan and applies to adopt her, but the system refuses her in favour of a young couple and Rosie is devastated. Against all her instincts, Rosie does her job and prepares Megan for her new ‘forever family’, but everything about Megan leaving feels wrong.
When Rosie learns a few months later that Megan’s adoption has broken down, she is saddened but also filled with hope – will this little girl be allowed to return to her true ‘forever home’?

Taken

Lewis, Rosie

Mental Health

‘I’m so sorry, Casey,’ my link worker John said, sounding weary. ‘I know this is probably the worst time I could ring you, but we desperately need someone to take a child tonight.’
It’s the night before Christmas when Casey and Mike get the call. A twelve year old girl, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Her father is on a ventilator, fighting for his life, while her mother is currently on remand in prison. Despite claiming she attacked him in self-defence, she’s been charged with his attempted murder.
The girl is called Bella, and she’s refusing to say anything. The trouble is that she is also the only witness…

The Silent Witness

Teen & Young Adult

Can I Let You Go? is the true story of Faye, a wonderful young woman who may never be able to parent her unborn child.
Faye is 24, pregnant, and has learning difficulties as a result of her mother’s alcoholism. Faye is gentle, childlike and vulnerable, and normally lives with her grandparents, both of whom have mobility problems. Cathy and her children welcome Faye into their home and hearts. The care plan is for Faye to stay with Cathy until after the birth when she will return home and the baby will go for adoption. Given that Faye never goes out alone it is something of a mystery how she ever became pregnant and Faye says it’s a secret.
To begin with Faye won’t acknowledge she is pregnant or talk about the changes in her body as she worries it will upset her grandparents, but after her social worker assures her she can talk to Cathy she opens up. However, this leads to Faye realizing just how much she will lose and she changes her mind and says she wants to keep her baby.
Is it possible Faye could learn enough to parent her child? Cathy believes it is, and Faye’s social worker is obliged to give Faye the chance.

Can I Let You Go?: A heartbreaking true story of love, loss and moving on

Innocent is the shocking true story of little Molly and Kit, siblings, aged 3 years and 18 months, who are brought into care as an emergency after suffering non-accidental injuries.
Aneta and Filip, the children’s parents, are distraught when their children are taken into care. Aneta maintains she is innocent of harming them, while Filip appears bewildered and out of his depth. It’s true the family has never come to the attention of the social services before and little Kit and Molly appear to have been well looked after, but Kit has a broken arm and bruises on his face. Could it be they were a result of a genuine accident as Aneta is claiming? Both children become sick with a mysterious illness while, experienced foster carer, Cathy, is looking after them. Very worried, she asks for more hospital tests to be done. They’ve already had a lot. When Cathy’s daughter, Lucy, becomes ill too she believes she has found the cause of Kit and Molly’s illness and the parents aren’t to blame. However, nothing could be further from the truth and what comes to light is far more sinister and shocking.

Innocent: The True Story of Siblings Struggling to Survive

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