All the Children Are Home: A Novel

Written by Patry Francis

Narrated by Kimberly Woods, Nora Hunter, Mia Barron and Patrick Zeller

A sweeping saga in the vein of Ask Again, Yes following a foster family through almost a decade of dazzling triumph and wrenching heartbreak—from the author of The Orphans at Race Point.

Set in the late 1950s through 1960s in a small town in Massachusetts, All the Children Are Home follows the Moscatelli family—Dahlia and Louie, foster parents, and their long-term foster children Jimmy, Zaidie, and Jon—and the irrevocable changes in their lives when a six-year-old indigenous girl, Agnes,  comes to live with them.

When Dahlia decided to become a foster mother, she had a few caveats: no howling newborns, no delinquents, and above all, no girls. A harrowing incident years before left her a virtual prisoner in her own home, forever wary of the heartbreak and limitation of a girl’s life.

Eleven years after they began fostering, Dahlia and Louie consider their family complete, but when the social worker begs them to take a young girl who has been horrifically abused and neglected, they can’t say no.

Six-year-old Agnes Juniper arrives with no knowledge of her Native American heritage or herself beyond a box of trinkets given to her by her mother and dreamlike memories of her sister. As the years pass and outside forces threaten to tear them apart, the children, now young adults, must find the courage and resilience to save themselves and each other. Heartfelt and enthralling, All the Children Are Home is a moving testament to the enduring power of love in the face of devastating loss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063045460

Patry Francis

Patry Francis was the author of All the Children Are Home, The Orphans of Race Point and The Liar’s Diary, as well as the blog “100 Days of Discipline for Writers.” Her short stories and poetry appeared in the Tampa Review, Antioch Review, Colorado Review, Ontario Review, and American Poetry Review, among other publications. She was a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and twice the recipient of the Mass Cultural Council grant.

[Thamar Bosse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is amazing! Sad story well told. I enjoyed listening to this book.

[Pat Mowery · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Heart-wrenching, beautifully written, a story that happens all too often.

[irenecole · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was enchanted by Agnes, the abused child who is placed with the family, but most intrigued with Dahlia, the home bound foster mom who has suffered agoraphobia for years. From the beginning you can tell something horrible happened to her in the past. Most women will guess the gist of it but when she finally reveals the details it is both heartbreaking and enraging, Dahlia and her husband Louie have taken in many foster children over the years. Dahlia has tried not to let herself get too attached to them so as not to have a broken heart when it's time for them to leave. She and her husband sometimes appear cold even towards each other but their love for each other and the children is fierce.

This was an intense story of neglect and abuse, love and loss and proof that families don't have to share DNA to be real., Though set in the 1950s it somehow felt timeless, in that the foster care system of those days is as broken today. There were a couple of little things that bothered me about what seemed like inaccuracies for the time period for example I am pretty sure the term Bipolar was never used before the 80s, back in the 60s it would have been called manic depression, but the depth of the characters and the way they engaged with each other felt genuine to me.

I received an advance copy for review.

[bereanna · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good to read the perspective of a foster mother and her foster children each narrated by themselves as the story weaves. Sometimes My attention wandered thru tedious dialogue, but the gist is good. Won’t reread.

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Be prepared for a heartbreaking story about a foster family. Set in a small Massachusetts town in the 1950’s, the Moscatelli family has raised siblings Jon and Zaida as well as Jimmy as their own, they are asked to take a child as an emergency placement. Agnes has been ignored since birth and the developmentally delayed 6-year-old has been placed in multiple homes. Although not wanted by the adult Moscatellis, Agnes sees the family as her “real” family even after being placed with a wealthier family who wants to adopt her. Agnes keeps running away from what should be an ideal home to return to the Moscatellis and chooses to grow up with them while being scorned as “crummy foster kids”. Jon and Zaida’s biological father reappears and takes Jon back to Colorado with him. After serving in Vietnam, Jon returns to his foster family. Agnes is in high school and a frightening person from Agnes early childhood threatens the family again. The multiple viewpoints and well-developed characters portray a resilient family who survives heartbreak and hardship.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Foster parents come in all shapes and sizes. Some are successful, have pure motives, some do not and cause more harm than good. Dahlia and her husband are good ones, emotionally invested in these traumatized children that have been entrusted to their care. Wanting to foster only boys, they ultimately come to foster two very different girls, alongside the boys in their care. Agnes arrives as a very traumatized six year old, and will change the dynamic of this household.

A family that is made from the ashes of trauma, maybe more special because it is a family of choice. Trauma, past memories, yearning for a future for children who might have had none. A good home with good people but not one without scars and trauma which need to be worked through. These characters change and grow, secrets in their past are revealed as they come together, break apart and come together again. A wonderful novel, a heartfelt one that affirms the importance of love and connection.

[bookchickdi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes you finish a book that touches your heart so that when you finish it, you want to immediately turn to the first page and begin reading it all over again; Patry Francis' novel, All The Children Are Home, is such a book.

Set in 1959 in a small town near Boston, Dahlia and her husband Louie Moscatelli have a home with three foster children- teenagers Jimmy and Zaidie, and Zaidie's younger brother Jon. They have a tightknit family. One day a social worker asks them to take in a eight year-old girl named Agnes on an temporary emergency placement.

Dahlia and Louie have agreed "no more emergencies", but Dahlia relents and accepts Agnes. Agnes is very small for her age, she suffered from a failure to thrive as an infant, and has come from a bad placement. One of the saddest things in her story is that she only learned her colors from the Jello she ate in the hospital.

Agnes is part Native American, and her previous foster father treated her cruelly because of that. When she arrived at Dahlia and Louie's, the other children were immediately protective of Agnes. Being allowed to eat at the table with the family was new to her, and the other children teach her everything she needs to know. Zaidie gives Agnes her shamrock barrettes, and Jimmy teaches her how to play baseball.

Dahlia is an agoraphobic, spending her days doing puzzles, watching soap operas, and reading Reader's Digest condensed books from the library. Louie works long hours as a mechanic, and although he is gruff, he is kind to the children, slipping them money to get candy at the store. Agnes says that Dahlia is "a shadow- always present, but less real than everything around her." We eventually discover the reason behind that.

The neighbors don't like the Moscatellis, frequently complaining about the children. Some of the kids at school are cruel to them as well, and Jimmy seems to suffer more than the others as he grows older. Zaidie is smart and organized, she has goals in life, even taping photos of her heroes- Eleanor Roosevelt among them- on her wall for inspiration.

All The Children Are Home is about what it means to be a family. This family is not perfect in the eyes of the world, but they are to each other. They face many challenges as the children grow older, and how this family loves and supports each other in the face of disdain from neighbors and harassment from schoolmates is heartwarming, heartbreaking and hopeful. I read this book in one day and I will be recommending it to everyone. With unforgettable characters, it is simply one of the best books I have read in a long time.

[carolee888 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was difficult to get through because of the tremendous sorrow and mistreatment of the foster children. It really brought forward the heartlessness of a system that can remove children from a home where they are loved and cherished and return them to a home where they were abused and not valued.

My only experience with a foster child was meeting one from the neighborhood. He had been booted from one home to another until he never fit in with any family. He did not have enduring love and was sent to home where they had money but were unable to relate. That was a tragedy in the 1960s.

The book follows the Moscatelli family with the foster parents Dahlia and Louie. The children were Jimmy, always being reminded of his father the worthless drunk, unable to pull away and get his own identity, Zaida, who knew the tiny girl, Agnes needed mothering and wanting to understand her, Jon, who was later removed from their home to live with people who did not deserve him. Too young to be protected by state laws from unloving parents. And lastly, Agnes, who started life malnourished and abandoned but through Zaidie saw the possibility of family. The parents, the Deans had secrets of their past. The mother wanting to mother but so damaged that she withdrew more and more into herself, hiding from the family, the outside and scars on her heart.

I received this Advance Copy from the publishers as a win from FirstReads and my thoughts and feelings n this review are entirely my own.