Mom Writes Children’s Books to Comfort Foster Kids

Brut America

Keri Vellis Author and her husband have fostered 19 children. After struggling to find relatable books for her foster kids, she decided to write her own.

Transcript

00:00I want these kids who are in foster care to not feel any different than any child.

00:06And children who've been abused, I don't want them to feel shame.

00:16Imagine your child being removed from your arms, being placed in a new home,

00:21how scary that is and what these children go through.

00:24To have a child sit and read a book and feel good about their situation

00:29what kind of gift are you giving them?

00:43My husband and I had three children, three birth children together

00:47and through foster care we have adopted three children.

00:51Our first two children were severely abused.

00:55I wanted to find a book that I could help these children relate with a bedtime story

01:00and there was nothing at the bookstore.

01:02And I came home and I told my husband, there are no books, I want to write a book.

01:06And I wrote my first book which is called Sometimes.

01:10Sometimes is a story about a child who's removed from their home and lives in a new home.

01:15How they might feel, what they might be going through.

01:25These kids come from situations, all different situations.

01:28They could be living in a trailer, they could be homeless, they could be living under a bridge.

01:33There's kids all over the U.S. who have suffered some type of abuse

01:37and I want them to have my book when I was little.

01:40It's a story about a child who's been abused, who suffers from nightmares,

01:44who has a hard time and how they disclose to a therapist about their abuse

01:50and how things are getting easier for them.

01:52You don't realize that your kid's classmate might be in foster care

01:56and it doesn't mean their parents don't love them, it doesn't mean that they're bad kids.

02:00These books help these children realize situations happen and it's not their fault.

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