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Title details for Safe by Mark Daley - Available

Safe

Two Dads, the Broken Foster Care System, and the Risks We Take for Family

by Mark Daley
Mark Daley
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
"If you want a lifechanging book, this is the one to read." —The View

"A truly revealing" (Hillary Clinton) memoir of an unlikely journey to parenthood through America's broken foster care system.
What does it take to keep a child safe?

As a long-time strategist and activist fighting for better outcomes for foster children, Mark Daley thought he knew the answer. But when Ethan and Logan, an adorable infant and a precocious toddler, entered their lives, Mark and his husband Jason quickly realized they were not remotely prepared for the uncertainty and complication of foster parenting.

Every day seven hundred children enter the foster care system in the United States, and thousands more live on the brink. Safe offers a deeply personal and "riveting" (Booklist) window into what happens when the universal longing for family crashes up against the unique madness and bureaucracy of a child protection system that often fails to consider the needs of the most vulnerable parties of all—the children themselves.

Daley takes us on a roller-coaster ride as he and Jason grapple with Ethan and Logan's potential reunification with their biological family, learn brutal lessons about sacrifice, acceptance, and healing, and face the honest, heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious challenges of becoming a parent at the intersection of intergenerational trauma, inadequate social support, and systemic issues of prejudice.

For fans of Nicole Chung's All You Can Ever Know, Stephanie Land's Maid, and Roxanna Asgarian's We Were Once a Family, Safe is "a strong indictment of a failed child welfare system, but with an unexpectedly happy ending that speaks to the power of love" (Kirkus Reviews).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 30, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797172958
      • File size: 237603 KB
      • Duration: 08:15:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 27, 2023
      Daley, a former communications director for Hillary Clinton, debuts with a heartbreaking memoir about foster parenting. Daley and his husband, Jason, got married in 2015 and were eager to have children. After considering surrogacy, they changed course when a friend shared her experiences growing up in foster care, spurring the couple to look into becoming foster parents. Soon after getting approval from Los Angeles County, Daley and Jason welcomed brothers Ethan (13 months old) and Logan (three months) into their home. Despite inconsistent visits from the boys’ birth parents, who struggled with substance use and neglected the brothers in the early months of their lives, an appeals court ruled that Ethan and Logan had to be returned to their biological family after just a year and a half with Daley and Jason. The bulk of the narrative details the couple’s unsuccessful efforts to regain custody of the boys; eventually, they adopted three siblings in 2020. (“Does this story have a happy ending?” Daley writes in the conclusion. “Yes and no.”) Across the memoir’s middle stretch, Daley lets his frustrations with the foster system fly, yet he manages to do so without compromising his strikingly compassionate tone. The result is a gripping and earnest examination of the meaning of family. Agent: Lara Love Hardin, True Literary.

    • Library Journal

      September 13, 2024

      In his self-narrated debut memoir, Daley details the ups and downs of the foster-to-adopt system, recalling the rocky journey that led to him and his husband, Jason Daley Kennedy, making a permanent home for three siblings. With a heartfelt, compassionate tone, Daley describes how, as newlyweds, he and Kennedy fostered two young boys for a year and a half, letting them go when the courts determined that the birth parents were entitled to reclaim their sons. Daley sensitively allows listeners a window into the frustration and heartbreak they encountered as they worked within the system, trying to guard their hearts while protecting the children and ensuring their needs were being met. Daley's account of the court hearing where a different set of parents relinquished their parental rights, laying the groundwork for Daley and Kennedy to adopt the children, is harrowing yet uplifting. VERDICT Listeners may want to have tissues handy as they learn how the couple grows stronger, supports their fostered children, and eventually meets the three children who would become their own. A must-listen for those seeking an insider's take on the child welfare system.--Sharon Sherman

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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