This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

The Foster Child: A River Of Tears

Movies…Short Term 12…Brie Larson Glows

There are things in life that you see that make you want to run home and hug your children.

There are things in life that you see that make you want to call your parents, grandparents, or foster parents to say thank you.

Find out what's happening in Northamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

There are things in life that you see that that make you say before the grace of God go I.

Find out what's happening in Northamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Short Term 12 is ‘that thing’ this week. Short Term 12 is a way station and home for mentally and physically abused children. Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Keith Stanfield, and Kaitlyn Dever star. Brie and John are counselors and have this short time to repair unspeakable damage done to the children placed in their center. Kaitlyn, a wild teenager and new center resident, now lives at this home but still visits with her father on weekends. Keith Stanfield is an eighteen-year-old African American boy who is being let go by the center. He knows he has no outside life skills and fears leaving the center. His traumatic poem frames the story!

Many of the counselors have suffered the same damage as the children they are now trying to save. Their past traumas and memories helps them in their work. However, this is a sword of two colors. Repairing wounds like yours, no matter how hard you fight, often cause your wounds to resurface.

Children do not have any coping mechanisms. Sometimes adults even with coping mechanisms can’t function either. Brie’s wounds are complicated by her pregnancy and sharing issues. It is a movie of heavy burdens and heavy topics. Some of the solutions were uplifting. The failures were great lessons in life, too.

Short Term 12 is the story of lost kids and saved kids. It is not a story that attacks the overburdened, understaffed, and underfunded foster system.

Books…The Great Gilly Hopkins…Revisited

Everyone’s library should contain multiple Newbery winner Katherine Paterson’s book, The Great Gilly Hopkins. Gilly is an eleven-year-old foster child yanked from home to home. She will not let anyone love her or befriend her because she is on this mission to find her mother and the reason she was abandoned.

The last family that takes her in has a special needs’ child who is tormented in school the same as Gilly. She takes the child under wing and seems to be finally adjusting to a family that truly loves her. Still, in the back of the reader’s mind, is the notion that she is soon to take off, once again on her mother quest. Picturing what you would do in this situation drives the story.

Books… Pictures Of Hollis Woods

Hollis Woods, a twelve-year-old orphan, is a pistol. No one is going to tame her in the foster care system. Her life started in the woods where she was dumped not even wrapped in a baby blanket. Hollis Woods was the location. This Newbery Honor Book by Patricia Reilly Giff is told through Hollis’s voice and is a great overcoming adversity story and writing example for any class.

The person that really loves Hollis and is her new foster parent is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. She and Hollis need to escape before the authorities take Hollis back into the system. How a child can escape and go anywhere with someone suffering from Alzheimer’s is a monumental mystery. Figuring the end of the story before the final chapter is a rewarding challenge for the discerning young reader.


We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?