SUGGESTED READING
We’ve compiled a list of the most recent and helpful books, articles, blogs and essays on adoption. From a young adult novel about a teenage girl of color whose adoptive white father is running for president to a personal essay written by an adult adoptee challenging the perception of a happy family, these writings will inform, inspire and exasperate. We hope you find something that speaks to you. And please send us an email if you think we’ve missed anything.
| BOOKS | ARTICLES | BLOGS |
BOOKS
| Guides | Biography/History | Memoir | Young Adult | Children’s |
- Guides
- Ten Steps to Successful International Adoption: A Guided Workbook for Prospective Parents, by Brenda Uekertskip (May 2007)
- Eastern European Adoption: Polices, Practice and Strategies for Change, Edited by Josephine A. Ruggiero and Jean Lydall (May 2007)
- Adopting a Daughter from China, by Denise Harris Hoppenhauer (2006)
- Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents, by Deborah D. Gray (2002)
- Raising Adopted Children, Revised Edition: Practical Reassuring Advice for Every Adoptive Parent, by Lois Ruskai Melina (1998)
- Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, by Frank H. Wu (2002)
- Wanting a Daughter Needing a Son: Abandonment, Adoption and Orphanage Care in China, by Kay Ann Johnson and edited by Amy Klatzkin (2004)
- The Family of Adoption: Completely Revised and Updated, by Joyce Maguire Pavao (1998)
- Are Those Kids Yours?: American Families With Children Adopted From Other Countries, by Cheri Register (1991)
- Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, by Sherrie Eldridge (1999)
- The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child, by Nancy Newton Verrier (1993)
- Birthmarks: Transracial Adoption in Contemporary America, by Sandra Patton (2000)
- Shared Fate: A Theory and Method of Adoptive Relationships, by H. David Kirk (1984)
- Adoption and Ethics: The Role of Race, Cultur and National Origin in Adoption, a series by Madelym Freundlich (2000)
- Unlearning Adoption: A Guide to Family Preservation and Protection, by Jessica DelBalzo (2007)
- Inside Transracial Adoption: Strength-based, Culture-sensitizing Parenting Strategies for Inter-Country or Domestic Adoptive Families that Don’t “Match”, by Gail Steinberg and Beth Hall (2000)
- Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Multiracial Children, by Donna Jackson Nakazawa (2003)
- Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind, by David Berreby (2005)
- West Meets East: Americans Adopt Chinese Children, by Richard Tessler, Gail Gamache and Liming Liu (1999)
- Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections, edited by Jean MacLeod and Sheena Macrae, PhD (2006)
- Transracial Adoption and Foster Care: Practice Issues for Professionals, by Dr. Joseph Crumbley (1999)
- Dr. Crumbley spoke with us for “Adopted: The New American Family”. View his clips>>
- Biography/History
- The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption, by Barbara Raymond (April 2007)
- Adoption, edited by Barbara A. Moe and Mildred Vasan (June 2007)
- This compilation of the best thinking about adoption by both historical and current authorities reveals a vital, ever-changing practice affecting the lives of millions of people around the globe.
- International Korean Adoption: A Fifty-year History of Policy and Practice (Haworth Health and Social Policy), by Kathleen Ja Sook Bergquist (July 2007)
- The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade, by Ann Fessler (2006)
- Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race, by Matthew Frye Jacobson (1998)
- Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution Is Transforming America, by Adam Pertman (2000)
- Memoir
- Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother’s Journey to Adoption in China, by Beth Nonte Russell (March 2007)
- Intercountry Adoptees Tell Their Stories, by Heather Ahn-Redding and Rita Simon (March 2007)
- The Mistress’s Daughter: A Memoir, by A.M. Homes (April 2007)
- Two Little Girls: A Memoir of Adoption, by Theresa Reid (April 2007)
- Without a Map: A Memoir, by Meredith Hall (April 2007)
- Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption: On the Meaning of Family and the Politics of Neurological Difference, by Ralph James Savarese (May 2007)
- China Ghosts: My Daughter’s Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood, by Jeff Gammage (June 2007)
- Jeff Gammage writes for the New York Times Relative Choices blog. Read his articles>>
- Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Sun Yung Shin (2006)
- Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away, by June Cross (2006)
- Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology By Korean Adoptees, edited by Tonya Bishoff an Jo Rankin (1997)
- After the Morning Calm: Reflections of Korean Adoptees, edited by Dr. Sook Wilkinson and Nancy Fox (2002)
- Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, by Hope Edelman (1994)
- The Lost Daughters of China, by Karin Evans (2000)
- The Family Nobody Wanted, by Helen Doss (1954)
- Somebody’s Child: Stories from the Private Files of an Adoption Attorney, by Randi Barrow (2002)
- The Language of Blood, by Jane Jeong Trenka (2003)
- No One to Call Me Home: America’s New Orphans, by Rev. James J. Close (1994)
- Beyond Good Intentions: A Mother Reflects On Raising Internationally Adopted Children, by Cheri Register (2005)
- A Single Square Picture, by Katy Robinson (2002)
- Katy Robinson writes for the New York Times Relative Choices blog. Read her articles>>
- Young Adult
- Kimchi & Calamari, by Rose Kent (April 2007)
- First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, by Mitali Perkins (June 2007)
- Children’s
- The Colors of Us, by Karen Katz (April 2007)
- Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House, by Rickey Pittman and Judith Hierstein (April 2007), ages 5-8
- Waiting for May, by Janet Morgan Stoeke (May 2007), ages 4-8??
- Every Year on Your Birthday, by Rose Lewis (May 2007), ages 4-8??
- Lucy’s Family Tree, by Karen Halvorsen Schreck (2006), ages 4-8
- Just Add One Chinese Sister, by Patricia McMahon and Conor Clarke McCarthy (2005), ages 4-8??
- The Skin I’m In: A First Look at Racism, by Pat Thomas (2003)
ARTICLES
- Happy Adoptees, by Julie A. Rist, Adoption Crossroads (2003)
- What Kinds of Emotional Issues will my Adopted Child Face during Adolescence?, AdoptionIssues.org
- Voices of Adoption - essays, poems, and video clips of Korean adult adoptees, First Person Plural at PBS.org
BLOGS
| Adoptees | Adoptive Parents |
- Adoptees
- Harlow’s Monkey
- Made in Korea
- Julia’s Jam
- Peace of Rice
- Twice the Rice
- John Raible Online: A home away from home for transracial adoptees and our allies