theresafraser.com
Therapist Acclaim For BILLY HAD TO MOVE
Written by Theresa Fraser, illustrated by Alex Walton
and published by Loving Healing Press
"This story of Billy and the importance of this grandmother in his healing is timely and sensitively presented. Theresa is a unique and gifted play therapist and teacher who, so ably, put this story into words and with the equally talented illustrations, leaves us with a very special new book for children".
Dr. Nancy Riedel Bowers, RSW, PhD, Rpt-S
Assistant Prof, Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
“A wonderful addition to the bibliotherapy field. This is a much-needed book for foster care children to help them in adjusting to a new caregiver and placement. It offers a welcoming view of how children's worries and losses can be understood by a caring play therapist, in a warm and inviting setting. Theresa Fraser is to be congratulated on her moving story and beautiful book!”
Athena A. Drewes, PsyD, RPT-S; Director of Clinical Training,
The Astor Home for Children, Poughkeepsie, NY
“Billy Had To Move is a profound story about the complex issues children in foster care often face. Theresa Fraser provides important lessons for those that care for these children. The book gracefully introduces the sandtray and provides insight into how powerful the experience can be when the child has an opportunity toexplore their trauma in the sandtray.”
Mark E. Hulbert, MA, LLP
"In this engaging warm-hearted story, Billy, grieving the loss of his grandmother, finds a way to heal by expressing his thoughts and feelings in play therapy. Highly recommended".
Charles E. Schaefer, Phd., RPT-S
Director Emeritus, The Association for Play Therapy
“This gem of a book gently frames the stages of a child's natural quest to make sense of his story. Fraser has created more than a teaching story: she generously offers a sacred space that compassionately holds and supports the multidimensional realities of our foster children and their birth families, our social workers andfoster families, our teachers and child psychotherapists.”
Gisela Schubach De Domenico, Phd, MFT, R-PTS
“Billy Had To Move sensitively depicts the multitude of emotions children may go through when they have experienced an attachment loss. This sensitively written story will touch many young children, validate their feelings and provide them with an understanding of how they can be helped to heal. As a Child Psychotherapist/ Play Therapist, who works with many foster care children everyday, this beautifully illustrated story provides a much needed tool for helping young clients find a way to open up their hearts and minds to the journey ahead of them. It will certainly be a helpful resource for foster parents, child and youth workers, child welfare social workers and therapists alike. This team of people can change lives and now Billy’s story can help too!”
Lorie Walton, M.Ed.
Certified Child Psychotherapist, Play Therapist Supervisor
President, Canadian Association for Child and Play Therapy.
Stories for children magazine- July 2009
Billy Had To Move
By: Theresa Ann FraserIllustrated by: Alex Walton
Published by: Loving Healing Press, 2009
ISBN: 978-1932690-873
Ages: 6-12
4 stars
Reviewed by: Stories for Children Magazine
Illustrated by: Alex Walton
Published by: Loving Healing Press, 2009
ISBN: 978-1932690-873
Ages: 6-12
4 stars
Reviewed by: Stories for Children Magazine
Founder, VS Grenier
Billy Had to Move is more than about a little boy
who has to move to a new home. As many of us
know, every month children are put into Child
Protection Services for many reasons from parents
not being able to care for their children to abuse.
However, sometimes children end up in the system
because of death. This happens to be the situation
for young Billy.
As the story unfolds, we learn Billy has been living with his grandmother for some time.
Billy’s father and mother are not around to take care of him, so his grandmother has
taken on the role has Billy’s caregiver. Billy loves living with his grandmother, his pet
cat, and even taking piano lessons. However, one-day Billy’s grandmother becomes ill
and passes away. Billy hopes the people who have come to help will be able to locate his
mother; unfortunately, no one knows where she is. This places Billy in a situation most of
us never hope to see our children in. No one to care for our children.
What makes this book so important is we learn sometimes children are put into Child
Protection because there are no loved ones left to care for a child. These children are in
situations where they have to live with strangers who are willing to help a child who has
lost everyone they have ever cared about. Sometimes it is because a parent can’t care for
them, or because
of abuse, but what about those children who have no loved one in theworld to help them?
I feel this book is great not only for children who are going through the loss of a loved
one and having no one else to turn to but strangers . . . but also for children who have
loving homes so they can better understand other children they may know who do live in foster care.
Billy Review posted on Amazon.ca
A much-needed book for foster care children, Aug 14 2009Billy Had to Move is not your typical children's story because it is written from the perspective of a boy who has suffered great loss, and who experiences the procedure of foster care placement and therapy.By Laura Fabiani (Montreal) - See all my reviews
It is the story of Billy, who went to live with his Nana (grandmother) when his mother could no longer take care of him. At the age of 7 his grandmother dies, his mother has disappeared, and he is placed in foster care with a kind family. As time passes and he begins to adjust, there is always the question of whether the Child Protection Services will find his mother and he will possibly have to move back with her. Billy then begins therapy and the story ends on a hopeful note.
As a parent, this book certainly opened my eyes to the realities of foster care and the many complex issues these children face when confronting placement. I reread the story several times, and each time I appreciated the way the author's knowledge of foster care makes this book a great tool for all those involved in the field of Youth Protection Services. The caregiver's guide at the end of the book is an excellent addition for the caregiver as it points out the issues dealt in the story and the purpose of the book:
"Using Billy Had to Move to normalize some of your child's symptoms and experiences is the primary purpose of this book. Billy Had to Move can be used as a tool to introduce foster care or therapy. It can also be used to help children recognize that they are not alone in experiencing various types of loss."
I read this book with my 8-year-old daughter who, at the end of the story, wanted it to continue so she could know how the play therapy was going to make Billy feel better. I understood that she wanted to be reassured he would feel better. She also pointed out that there were "too many words on the page". I agree that less paragraphs on one page and more illustrations will make this book more user-friendly for children of this age group, especially since the reader needs time to absorb the deep issues brought up in the story.
Canadian author, Theresa Ann Fraser, has written an important book extremely useful to the foster care child, the caregiver, the therapist and the teacher. As such a book is not common, it is valuable for this field and also in all schools since, unfortunately, the number of cases dealt by the Youth Protection Services has become more common. Kudos to Theresa for her insightful assistance through this fine book!
This book can be utitilized over a few sessions by Child and Youth Workers, Foster Parents and Therapists in order to normalize feelings that children may be having about Foster Care, Adoption or Play therapy.
