This book is a remarkable achievement and the author made me laugh on almost every page with his humorous and entertaining turns of phrase. Sharp wit and irony weren't what I expected from a book about an elderly couple becoming foster carers, but they are here in abundance.
David and Marsha Learmont are nothing short of incredible and it is heartening that there are people willing to pour so much energy and commitment into taking on troubled children and helping them. Neither does the author spare the negligent parents!
I have nothing but respect and admiration for the Learmonts and I hope they are enjoying their second retirement in Andorra.
The Foster Factory deals with the experiences of David and his wife once they retired and started working again, this time as foster carers. David claims that if he had written the book as a novel, some of its characters would have been considered "too outlandish to be credible."
How David and Marsha cope with egomaniacs, kleptomaniacs, tractor-maniacs, junior sex-offenders, and children who stab him and burn down their house is described by David with "what remains" of his sense of humour and his "diminishing stock" of faith in mankind. Read it and weep. Or laugh. Possibly both.
"At our first training session we were asked to assign a value, or an idea, to each of the letters that made up the word 'foster'. Then, my choices were predictable and anodyne: Friendliness, Order, Safety, Thoughtfulness, Effort and Respect. Later, they would have been Fear, Outrage, Sadness, Theft, Envy and Rage."
Like trouble, getting into foster care is easy. Getting out again is something else.
I am told there are millions of would-be foster carers out there, I think they should all read The Foster Factory first.
The Foster Factory is available from Amazon (Paperback £7.99, Kindle Edition £2.99/€3,95) as well as Barnes and Noble (Paperback $9.99).
Review by Jane Robertson
