To the End of June

The Intimate Life of American Foster Care

Cris Beam

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9780547999531
• Print ISBN:
  9780544103443
• Subtopic: Social Policy

A New York Times Notable Book that "casts a searing eye on the labyrinth that is the American foster care system" (NPR's On Point).
 
Who are the children of foster care? What, as a country, do we owe them? Cris Beam, a foster mother herself, spent five years immersed in the world of foster care looking into these questions and tracing firsthand stories. The result is To the End of June, an unforgettable portrait that takes us deep inside the lives of foster children in their search for a stable, loving family.
 
Beam shows us the intricacies of growing up in the system—the back-and-forth with agencies, the rootless shuffling between homes, the emotionally charged tug between foster and birth parents, the terrifying push out of foster care and into adulthood. Humanizing and challenging a broken system, To the End of June offers a tribute to resiliency and hope for real change.
 
"A triumph of narrative reporting and storytelling." — The New York Times
 
"[A] powerful . . . and refreshing read." — Chicago Tribune
 
"A sharp critique of foster-care policies and a searching exploration of the meaning of family." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
"Heart-rending and tentatively hopeful." — Salon

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Preface
• Catch
• King Solomon’s Baby
• Eye of the Beholder
• Timing Is Anything
• Drugs in the System
• Catch as Catch Can
• Hold
• Surge Control
• Chutes and Ladders and Chutes
• Arrested in Development
• Taking Agency
• Homespun
• Release
• Fantasy Islands
• There’s Something About Mary
• Experiment
• Touching the Elephant
• Last Call
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Sample Chapter from I FEEL YOU
• Buy the Book
• About the Author