{"product_id":"foster-care-odyssey-theresa-cameron-9781578064205","title":"Foster Care Odyssey: A Black Girl's Story","description":"Without signing the documents that would permit adoption, young Theresa Cameron's mother placed her little daughter under the aegis of Catholic Charities, and then the mother vanished forever. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e During the 1960s and 1970s this abandoned, unadoptable child was shuttled through foster homes in the vicinity of Buffalo, N.Y. Insecure, desolate, and frightened, she was rotated through group homes and the houses of alien families, the victim of religious hypocrisy, racial prejudice, and insult. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Theresa remained in this bleak, shame-imposing limbo until she was eighteen. \u003ci\u003eFoster Care Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e is her candid story. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"What little I owned,\" she writes, \"could have fit inside my usual moving-day luggage--a couple of shopping bags. Besides my clothing, I only had a few school supplies. Like the other girls at the group home, I attached very little sentimental value to the items I owned. The only thing of value that could not be taken away from me were my thoughts.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Theresa places her narrative against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in blue-collar Buffalo, where mixed-race foster homes were almost unknown and where she witnessed a welfare system that accorded only marginal benevolence to children, particularly black children caught in the squeeze of bureaucratic machinery. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As she passed through her turbulent teenage years, she acquired both a strong will and a tough veneer to shield herself from the many hurts in a restrictive world infused with racism and institutional segregation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Her coming-of-age narrative voices plainspoken criticism of the pernicious system which engulfed her and other helpless abandoned children.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Theresa Cameron\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1578064201\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781578064205\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Mississippi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/12\/2002\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 381\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.22h x 6.40w x 1.01d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePW Notes and Reprints\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/08\/2002 pg. 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/08\/2002","brand":"Theresa Cameron","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44054807478527,"sku":"9781578064205","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_9c6957f1-0a0d-4599-a368-d1dac2b0e19e.jpg?v=1685032111","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/foster-care-odyssey-theresa-cameron-9781578064205","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}