Puppy Brain: Allison Romens

Puppy Brain: Foster Care & Reunification walks the reader through the feelings a child has when foster care is coming to an end, and the child is getting ready to go home to a relative. The reader is invited to look through Manuel's scrapbook of memories from his foster care journey. Manuel describes his first day. coming into care when he was too scared to get out of the care, but the foster care puppy helped him overcome his scared feelings and enter the home. This puppy stays by his side for the time he is in care and helps him daily to overcome trauma triggers and feel less scared as his brain starts to heal from trauma. Manuel describes his feelings of excitement to go home, mixed with fear and sadness to leave the foster placement he has called home for so long. This book will benefit children in care who are starting the reunification process to understand the complex feelings that come with reunification. This book is for adults and children in the foster care world and therapists who help them. Manuel is a young five-year-old who hides from anything that scares him. His body has learned through previous trauma to hide to stay safe. In the first few pages, the reader is shown this characteristic through his difficulty in leaving the social worker's car. Manuel grows emotional throughout the story, overcoming his instinct to hide whenever a stressful situation or trauma trigger presents itself. This book is written with trauma-informed brain science woven in with the presence of Brain Buddy to inform the audience of what is happening in the brain as we go through Manuel's time in care.