A Safe Place for Caleb

I know I have mentioned this book before. It is worth mentioning again. It is written on about a third grade level. It is about a boy named Caleb who has gone through foster care and is adopted. He has RAD. He shares his feelings about his birth mom and says all the deeper thoughts of a child with RAD. I have had my son read it out loud to me. He is then voicing many of his deep thoughts himself. It also has small posters and charts to put in their room about things such as Healing Beliefs. A few of the healing feelings are: I can heal one day at a time. Some people are trustworthy. Some people are not. I can learn the difference. I can heal 1 day at a time. I printed it off last night for my son's room. We are rereading the book. It seemed to really speak to Bear the first time. We were reading it on the way to therapy each week so never finished it but will this time. I told him last night that I am waiting for him to be ready but that he seems to have given up on himself. He is moving in the wrong direction. So I am going to start working again on many of the thoughts he has, but it is not going to happen unless HE does the work. This is the part he does not get. He is such a victim. He thinks he has no power. So.....will he get this? I have no idea. I will never give up.

A Safe Place for Caleb

This book is written by Kathleen and Paul Chara. I am reading this in the car with my son on the way to therapy. Actually, he is reading it to me. It is EXCELLENT. It talks a lot about the feelings of pain and separation from birth mom. It explains the hurting beliefs developed because of this. It is told in the first person by a boy named Caleb so while the child is reading he says "I felt very sad when I was taken from my birth mom even though she was not good to me." I feel it really helps my son express a lot of feelings he otherwise couldn't say. It has small posters in the back and gives permission to copy them to use in their room. It has discussion questions. We have only read the first 2 chapters but so far I am really loving this book. Today we read about healing beliefs. It says on the cover of the book it is for children, teens and adults. I would say it is about maybe a third grade reading level. If your child is younger you could read it to them. I can see how an adult would still very much identify with this. I have read many many attachment books. This is easily the only book my son has been able to read, discuss and seems to appreciate.