I’ve been reading this book to Pudding all week and he has loved it. The Blanket Bears, by Samuel Langley-Swain, is a book aimed at adoptive families with young children as a soft and sensitive warm up to life story work.
The Plot
The book is about two little bears who were left outside a cold and empty house huddled and scared. Tilly (who I am guessing is a social worker) came to see the bears as she heard they needed her help.
She then phoned around and found the bears a warm place to stay. She explained to the little bears that it was their job as ‘Foster Care Bears’ to help families in need.
The book goes on to show how the ‘Foster Care Bears’ look after and cared for the little bears by making them blanket coats.
The book also touches on ‘forever families’ and how it was Tilly’s job to find them their ‘forever family’ and how this felt big and scary.
Eventually, Tilly found the little bears their ‘forever family’, showed them a book about the family (like in real-life adoption). It also mentions about introductions and how after a few weeks the little bears eventually moved into their new home.
The book finishes with the little bears settling in with their new family
The Characters
- Two Little Bears
- Tilly – Social Worker
- Bailey & Niko – Foster Careers
Our Opinion
We’ve read a few books about adoption written for children of Pudding’s age. What I loved about reading this book was the gentle, beautiful way it explains why and how some children come to adoption.
Pudding loved pointing out all the different characters in the book, Tilly the fox and the Panda bear (not sure if it’s Bailey or Niko). He also loved pointing out the little red bag that appears all the way through the book.
The book touches on all the stages of the adoption journey. capture with softly drawn children friendly pictures.
From my point of view, reading this book to Pudding also made me resonate about the journey that myself and Darran took. It brought back the good, the bad and the ugly process that us adopters have to go through to find our forever family.
What’s also great about this book is that it’s endorsed by AdoptionUK
You can buy a copy of ‘The Blanket Bears’ on the official Owlet Press website