Central Kansas Library System

Lauren Gabriel spent many years of her childhood in foster homes, wishing her mother would come back for her and be the family she needs. Now twenty-years-old, she still longs for a place that she can truly call home. Her work as a cashier is unfulfilling, and at Christmas it's unbearable with the songs and carols and chatter of Christmas that she hears throughout the day. When Lauren ends her shift one night, she finds herself driving aimlessly...

"The shocking, deeply reported story of a murder-suicide that claimed the lives of six children--and a searing indictment of the American foster care system"-- On March 26, 2018, rescue workers discovered a crumpled SUV and the bodies of two women and several children at the bottom of a cliff beside the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators soon concluded that the crash was a murder-suicide, but there was more to the story: Jennifer and Sarah Hart,...

Annie is a young, happy foster kid who's also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they'd be back for her someday, it's been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan. But everything's about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks, advised by his brilliant VP, Grace and Guy, makes a thinly-veiled campaign...

Gilly Hopkins has seen more than her share of foster homes and has outwitted every family she has lived with. In an effort to escape her new foster mother Maime Trotter's endless loving care, Gilly concocts a plan that she believes will bring her mother running to her rescue. But when the ploy blows up in Gilly's face it threatens to ruin the only chance she's ever had to be part of a real family.

After losing her husband and her wealth, a woman inherits a house in Georgia being used by a family taking in foster children, and when she moves in as well she finds herself helping to take care of the children and renewing her faith.

"Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in juvenile detention and -- even worse -- banned from using computers. Enter Mother, a British spy who offers her a way out of her current problem, and the chance to make a home for herself within a top secret MI6 agency. Operating...

Outcast by an injury sustained from her father, foster child Sara Crane befriends a former mental patient and her art teacher and soon creates paintings of long-ago violent crimes committed by the inmates of a local asylum.

A feisty foster kid's outrageous scheme to be reunited with her birth mother has unintended consequences in The Great Gilly Hopkins, a funny, poignant and inspiring new movie from the creators of Bridge to Terabithia.

Esther's terrifying saga continues in this thrilling prequel to the original and shocking horror hit 'Orphan.' After orchestrating a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility, Esther travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. Yet, an unexpected twist arises that pits her against a mother who will protect her family from the murderous 'child' at any cost.

In the Privilege of Youth, he supplies the missing chapter of his life: as a boy on teh threshold of adulthood. With sensitivity and insight, he recounts the relentless taunting he endured from bullies; but he also describes the thrill of making his first real friends--some of who he still shares close relationships with today. He writes about the simple pleasures of exploring his neighborhood, while trying to forget the hell waiting for him at...