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A Family for Christmas
A Collection of True Stories of Children Desperate for Love
Brief Description
Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. A Family for Christmas A tragic accident leaves the life of toddler Edward changed forever and his...
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A Family for Christmas
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See moreA Christmas-themed collection of true stories from the Sunday Times bestselling foster carer Maggie Hartley. Contains A FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS, A SISTER FOR CHRISTMAS and THE LOST BOY.
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Description
Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care.
A Family for Christmas
A tragic accident leaves the life of toddler Edward changed forever and his family wracked with guilt. Maggie must help this family grieve for the son they've lost and learn to love the little boy he is now. But will Edward have a family to go home to at Christmas?
A Sister for Christmas
Worn down by her mum's drinking habits and relationships with abusive men, thirteen-year-old Jazmin asks to be removed from her mum's care herself. Years later, when her mum becomes pregnant again, Jazmin hopes the baby will provide a second chance. Will history repeat itself, or will Jazmin, with Maggie's help, be able to change things?
The Lost Boy
Teenager Carl carries a heavy burden resting on his young shoulders, but refuses to confide in anyone. With concerns about his mental health growing by the day, Maggie begins to feel desperate. Can Maggie help this confused and unhappy boy share the truth behind his misery, and live a happy, normal life?
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399646420
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 08 October 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Seven Dials
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 22.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 227g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Maggie Hartley has fostered more than 300 children while being a foster carer for over twenty years. Taking on the children other carers often can't cope with, Maggie helps children that are deemed 'unadoptable' because of their behaviour or the extreme trauma that they've been through. She's looked after refugees, supported children through sexual abuse and violence court cases, cared for teenagers on remand and taught young mums how to parent their newborn babies.
You can find her on Facebook at /MaggieHartleyAuthor, where she would love to hear from you.Also by Maggie Hartley
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Denied a Mummy
When Maggie’s latest placement arrives on her doorstep, the three young siblings have clearly been through unspeakable traumas in their short lives. Violent, malnourished, and showing signs of sexualised behaviour, the two brothers and their big sister have been left to fend for themselves by their drug-addicted parents. Maggie must use all of her skills and experience as a foster...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Exploited
'He said he loved me.' Fourteen-year-old Hannah comes to live with foster carer Maggie Hartley after her mum pleads with Social Services to take her into care, unable to cope with her daughter anymore. Previously a good student, a loving daughter and sister, Hannah is now playing truant, drinking, and taking drugs. Angry and mistrustful, it seems that nobody can...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Tiny Prisoners
Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy and wide-eyed with fear when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a terrifying world of abuse, violence and neglect. Maggie soon realises that Evie and Elliot...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Little Ghost Girl
Ruth was a ghost of a girl when she arrived into foster mother Maggie Hartley's care. Pale, frail and withdrawn, it was clear to Maggie that Ruth had seen and experienced things that no 11-year-old should have to, that she's been conditioned to 'see no evil, speak no evil'. Ruth is in desperate need of help, but can Maggie get...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Don't Leave Me Here
'Don't leave me here! Please, don't leave me.' What possesses a mum to kidnap her own child? That's what Maggie asks herself when she's asked to foster 13-year-old Saskia, the subject of a bitter custody battle between her parents. When Saskia's mum, Rosa, fears the courts are going to favour her ex-husband, James, she takes matters into her own hands....Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Battered, Broken, Healed
When six-week-old Jasmine is placed into her care, foster mother Maggie Hartley is delighted to have a baby in the house again. Maggie's been given temporary custody of Jasmine after social services were concerned that the baby was failing to thrive and develop. Her mother Hailey vehemently denies that anything is wrong, however, and social services allow her to have...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Groomed to be a Bride
Mama is gone and I cry every night. When a terrified young girl is discovered hiding in the back of a lorry, she is quickly taken into the care of social services. Arriving on the doorstep of foster carer Maggie Hartley, she is painfully thin, bruised and unable to speak a word of English. What atrocities has she escaped to...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Too Scared To Cry
Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. Too Scared to Cry When Ben and Damien arrive on Maggie's doorstep, the two toddlers are too scared to speak. More disturbingly still, their baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive—he doesn't...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Sister's Shame
‘My heart felt heavy with sadness for these two little girls.’ Foster carer Maggie Hartley is used to all manner of children arriving on her doorstep, but nothing can prepare her for sisters Billy and Bo when they arrive at her home. It is clear from the moment she sets eyes on them that four-year-old Bo and seven-year-old Billy have...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Please Don't Hurt Me
It's all my fault, I was supposed to be looking after her! After suffering domestic abuse from her boyfriend, teen mum Sherrie has her four-month-old daughter Maisy sent to live with Maggie. Torn between being protective of Maisy and heartbroken for Sherrie, Maggie is unsure what to do. In the meantime, Maggie meets fourteen-year-old Kayla, in need of short-term foster...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Please Don't Take My Sisters
Three-year-old Lexie, five-year-old Amelie, and thirteen-year-old Leo come to Maggie after Leo confesses to a teacher that his mother's addiction problems and her latest violent relationship have left him as the sole carer to his younger sisters. Maggie welcomes the three children into her home and is touched by the gentle care Leo shows to the two little girls. It...PaperbackSold Out -
Who Will Love Me Now?
The Sunday Times Bestseller At just ten years old, Kirsty has already suffered a lifetime of heartache and suffering. Neglected by her teenage mother and taken into care, Kirsty thought she had found her forever family when she was fostered by Pat and Mike, whom she comes to see as her real mum and dad. But when Pat has a...PaperbackSold Out
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