41. Hope’s Boy by Andrew Bridge
Bridge details his life starting at age 5 when he returns to live with a mother he never really knew. After 2 years he is placed into foster care after she continuously displays erratic behavior in public. He never actually says it, but it becomes clear during the book that she most likely suffers from schizophrenia. He then describes his life living in the Los Angeles foster care system for the remainder of his childhood.
It is not a complete horror story like many of the foster care books you read, but it offers the perspective of a boy who lived in a fairly decent foster home (although far from perfect) and who manages to succeed in life attending Harvard Law School and becoming a successful lawyer.
But it becomes clear that despite the lack of outright abuse, Bridge suffers from a lack of love and of feeling wanted in his life. Although the family he lives with for most of his life treats him fairly well, they never truly accept him as a son and he never stops hoping that his mother will come and give him the love he so craves.
It’s a good story, and provides a good look at how damaging foster care can be to a child even when there isn’t outright abuse.
I give it an 8 out of 10.