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Home Girl
When Naomi, a fourteen-year-old white girl, is placed with a black foster care family, her life takes some dramatic twists and turns.
Discussion Guide for Home Girl
1. Does it matter if a potential foster carer is of a different race or culture than the child who needs to be fostered?
2. Should foster carers keep to a code of behavior that they set for their own children, or should they bend the rules for children who have been in the care system?
3. How important is it that foster carers open up about themselves and their childhoods and how they might have overcome their own issues and problems?
4. Is it enough for foster parents to be affluent and able to provide a nice home, or should they have to prove that they can engage with vulnerable children?
5. Would it be a benefit to Naomi if she spent more time with young people who were well educated and had progressive careers?
6. Is it a good idea for Naomi and other troubled teenagers to be attending the same education unit?
7. Are there adequate resources in the care system to recognize and cater to children who are suffering from trauma or PTSD?
8. Why is it crucial for a vulnerable child to be placed in a stable home for a good length of time?
9. Why is it so important that Naomi is encouraged to dance by her friends and her foster family?
10. Although Naomi has been forced by circumstances to take on adult responsibilities in her young life, is she mentally equipped to look after herself?
11. How can foster carers and social services safely monitor the influences of Naomi’s friends without intervening in Naomi’s independence?
12. Should the Goldings be encouraged to foster/adopt Naomi?