The Perfect Parent Project

Stewart Foster's The Perfect Parent Project is a funny, tender story for 9 year olds about a boy in care who decides to go looking for a family himself.

What happens

Sam McCann is eleven. He's lived in nine houses in five years, and he always knows when it's about to end. The foster parents go quiet and start whispering in the kitchen.

His favourite place in the world is a yellow skip down an alley behind the shops. He calls it Eric. He's rigged up an alarm of drink cans on a string so nobody can sneak up on him (bin day is Thursday, so Wednesdays are safe).

Every day he writes a list of what his perfect parents would have. A massive garden. Holidays to Disneyland. A BMW M5, which MUST be a BMW M5.

Then Leah, who's been his best friend since his first week at the school, tells him to stop waiting and do something. So Sam writes an advert for himself. Two adults (or one) wanted to love an eleven-year-old boy, interviews by the bandstand on Saturday. Leah prints two hundred copies on her mum's ex's printer.

Sam tells you everything himself, and that's what makes it so funny and so sad at the same time. One minute he's haggling over which pets to allow (no gerbils, ever). The next he's standing on the landing in his pyjamas, watching his foster brother get a proper hug and wishing it was him.

The drama club scene is brilliant. He's so convincing as a boy desperate for the loo that his teacher has to check he doesn't really need to go!

Reilly, the little boy whose bunk bed he shares, is lovely too. He just wants Sam to help him get past level three.

It does deal with some big feelings. Sam doesn't know his dad's name and last saw his mum when he was eight. It's written with a very light touch, though, and there's a lot of warmth in it.

If you've got a reader who loves a narrator with LOTS to say and a big heart underneath, this is a great pick. It might also start a good conversation about what makes a family.

What to read next

For another child in care with plenty of opinions, try The Story of Tracy Beaker, which is also in the library. Tracy's filling in a book about her own life, and she's already been sent back by two foster families.