When six-year-old Hope tells her 1st grade teacher there is no food at home and Mommy is always asleep, the school calls the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline. The subsequent investigation triggers a five-year journey through the child welfare system for Hope and her older siblings Alysha and Tyrone.

Care & Custody is narrated by Miriam Fine, the children’s CASA Volunteer, one of over 76,000 Court Appointed Special Advocates who represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in our country’s Family Court system. Using emails, court reports, school essays, and case files, Care & Custody reveals the trauma these children experience firsthand in their desperate quest to find safety and happiness inside a terribly broken system.

The invisible system of foster care will become very real as you read on. - Michael Piraino

This is a story for anyone who has ever wanted to help a child grow towards the light. - Perri Klass, MD

It is amazing that a book about such a troubling topic can be such a compelling read. - John D. Lantos, MD