This book is what Mike Alston, Director of Central Children’s Home, Oxford, North Carolina, calls the half-million children swelling this country’s foster care system. In this deftly rendered tale of five children caught in a system in crisis, Toth chronicles the complexities of a culture that both liberates and hobbles its dependents. Cutting through the voracious maze of foster care in America, Toth has gone directly to the kids in orphanages and group homes, on the streets, and in foster care homes, capturing their voices and lives with striking clarity and poignancy. (FOSTER CARE)