Delly Duck: Why A Little Chick Couldn't Stay With His Birth Mother: A foster care and adoption story book for children, to explain adoption or support

When Delly Duck lays an egg, she is excited for it to hatch, but she doesn't really know how to keep an egg safe, or how to look after her duckling when he hatches. A concerned goose tries to help Delly to learn how to care for her duckling, but it becomes clear that she cannot provide the care he needs, so he is temporarily taken to some kind swans, who keep him safe while Caring Goose finds the right family to look after him.
The metaphors in Delly Duck can be related to adoption, kinship care (being raised by grandparents or other extended family or friends), or long-term foster care. It has also become a favourite with one-parent families where the absent parent is not able to provide safe, consistent care for the child.

Delly Duck can help answer difficult and emotive questions, such as Why can't I live with my birth mother? and Why didn't someone just teach her how to parent me safely?
Symbolism has been used that is open to appropriate interpretation by the parent, kinship carer, social worker, play therapist, or other adult reading this story with a child. The book includes a helpful guide to how the metaphors can be used to support therapeutic life story work and answer questions about the challenges faced by a child's biological parents, such as memory or concentration problems, addiction and/or poor or inconsistent role models during their own childhoods.

Delly Duck is available in English, French, German and Spanish. A sibling version is also available. Click the author's name or the series title for more books by Holly Marlow.

Praise for Delly Duck
"One of the best adoption books of all time" - BookAuthority

"...a beautifully illustrated children's story book, explaining big issues like adoption and fostering, in an age appropriate way." - We Made A Wish adoption magazine

"...Delly Duck is a great choice for adopted and fostered children to explain adoption or support therapeutic life story work. The book can be used to help answer difficult and emotive questions..." - Maggie and Rose Book Adventurers

"A fantastic book for Parents, Foster Parents, Adoptive Parents, Legal Guardians, Kinship Carers, Social Workers, Play Therapists or Teachers... I can thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is adopting, fostering, or is a child's Legal Guardian... the book shows the love, and loss of the birth parent, and highlights the fact that sometimes a birth parent is simply not equipped with the necessary skills to keep their child safe consistently.
This beautiful, sensitively written story explains why a child may need to be removed from their birth parent, and explores in a gentle way the emotions felt by parent and child, and the roles other people play in protecting the child, and offering the child a loving, safe environment..." - Icing on the Bake