Books to read to your children about adoption

Brown Like Me
Brown Like Me is a fun and inventive way to encourage young children in multi-racial families to take pride in themselves and their appearance. The little girl, Noelle, is an African American adoptee raised in a Caucasian family. She identifies the color of brown in everything around her - brown leaves, brown sand, brown eyes, and brown skin - ending with the words, "I am strong brown." It is easy to reinforce this concept by finding brown with your child in their everyday world.

Black, White, Just Right
In Black, White, Just Right, a mixed-race child celebrated the rich inclusiveness of her life in a joyful picture book. Mama's face is chestnut brown, Papa's face turns pink in the sun, the child's a little dark, a little light, "Just Right!" Each double-page spread shows how members of the family are individuals with likes and dislikes, hobbies and habits that move beyond stereotype. Mom orders vegetarian; Dad orders ribs and bagels; the child likes it all.

A Koala for Katie
In A Koala for Katie, preschool-toddler, Katie, thinks a lot about babies. She wonders why she was never in her adoptive mother's belly and wants to know why her birth mother didn't want her. When she sees a mother and baby koala at the zoo, she wants a toy koala. At home, she plays out her questions. When her mother kisses her goodnight and says, "I like your baby," Katie replies, "I'm really her mommy now." This gentle story presents a few very important concerns of adoptive families.

I Love My Hair!
In I Love My Hair, a young Africa-American girl describes the familiar mother-daughter nightly ritual of combing the tangles out of her hair. When she cries because it hurts, her sympathetic mother tells her how lucky she is to have such beautiful hair. Imaginatively, the woman goes on to say that she can spin it into a fine, soft but or "plant rows of braids" along her scalp, prompting her daughter to think of other wonderful things she likes about her hair.

I Love You Like Crazy Cakes
I Love You Like Crazy Cakes is a sweetly sentimental picture-book played out like a love letter to the author's adopted Chinese daughter. As she recalls the events leading up to their first meeting ("I had been waiting for you my whole life") - the letters to foreign officials, the baby picture she received, the flight to China with other excited soon-to-be parents, and describes their joyous homecoming, she taps into a well of genuine emotion, not surprisingly, since her account is based on her own experience.

Happy Adoption Day
Happy Adoption Day, inspired by a friend's tradition, was created as an original song for those who might like to mark a special anniversary in their family's life - adoption day. His thoughtful lyrics (the score included, of course) emphasize the joy and wonder of the event. "Out of a world so tattered and torn, you came to our house on that wonderful morn, and all of a sudden this family was born." And, there's a rousing chorus just right for a festive party.

Running the Road to ABC
In Running the Road to ABC, the joy of learning shines though in this lyrical, freewheeling tale of a group of Haitian children on their way to school. Leaving at dawn, these barefoot students race through the countryside and town on their way to school to learn to read and write another letter, sound. word, line, and page in the "great and beautiful books on the Road to ABC." The text flows along with the youngsters, evoking the sounds of the early morning and the shapes of the varied terrain over which they travel. Details of the town with its bread sellers and horse tamers provide another memorable backdrop to the children's passage. This rhythmic, richly descriptive account of a "day in the life" of these young Haitians takes readers into this activity as they follow along.

Seeds of Love: For Brothers and Sisters of International Adoption
Seeds of Love is a story about a big sister waiting for her little sister to be brought home. It is written from the perspective of the big sister and discusses the questions and concerns she has regarding her sister and the time needed to go get here... "I didn't know babies came from airplanes." "You will be gone for such a long time." "Who will take care of me while you are gone, and will Grandma know to cut the crusts off of my bread like you?"

Selavi
In Selavi, Landowne uses softly rendered, uncluttered pictures and simple text to tell the story of a homeless boy and his friends. The book opens with Selavi's evocative words, "Not so long ago and not so far away, people with guns could take a family, burn a house and disappear, leaving a small child alone in the world." He joins other children living on the streets of Port-au-Prince and helping one another survive until repressive authorities force them to seek protection at a church meeting. Even the orphanage set up to help them proves unsafe when their murals are destroyed and their new home is burned down. Despite all the difficulties, the children continue to speak out about their needs, eventually establishing a radio station in a rebuilt orphanage. The book deals with complex issues over an extended period of time, so some story transitions are short on details. What does come through are the feelings of fear, anger and solidarity that bind the youngsters together.

Tap-Tap
The journey to market is long, and eight-year-old Sasifi wants to take the "tap-tap" - the brightly painted bus that is the principal mode of public transportation in Haiti - but her mother tells her that they do not have enough money. At the market the child does an excellent job helping to sell oranges, and her mother rewards her with a straw hat and a few coins. The girl chooses to spend them by treating herself and her mother to a tap-tap ride home. As they speed down a road, Sasifi's hat blows off. It is rescued, however, and all ends well.

Books about International Adoption

20 Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
In 20 Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, Eldridge brings an original approach to the topic of adoption. In an attempt to inform adoptive parents of the unique issues adoptees face, she discusses adoptee anger, mourning, and shame and adoption acknowledgment while using case studies to illustrate how parents can better relate to their adopted child.

Adopting for Good
Adopting for Good will show you how to find the child who needs you--whether you are single, infertile or medically prohibited from having a child, or just looking for the boy or girl you've always wanted.Author Jorie Kincaid is an adopted child herself, and she and her husband, Ron, have adopted children both domestically and internationally. In this practical guidebook she provides all the information you need to decide whether adoption is for you and to begin working through the adoption process.You'll find out how adoption works both domestically and internationally, learn the differences between open and closed adoption, and explore the steps you can take to make adoption permanent. Kincaid offers advice on special adoption needs for older children and children from other countries, cultures and races. She also helps you wrestle with ethical questions like "When does adoption become 'buying a baby'?" If you are considering adoption or if you are already in the midst of adopting a child, here is an encouraging and helpful resource you'll turn to again and again. If you're curious about whether adoption is right for you, here is experienced counsel to help you make a wise decision

Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections
Adoption Parenting features over 100 contributors overseen by EMK Press writer-editors MacLeod and Macra., This book is a virtual one-stop shop for adoption information for readers at any knowledge level. Divided into chapters like "Sleep," "Claiming," "Language," and "Food," it touches upon major issues in brief essays written by adoptive parents, adoptees, and therapists. For instance, in the chapters dealing with learning issues,educators and adoptive parents discuss the intricacies of forming effective individual education plans tailored to special-needs adoptees, while in the section on therapy, there are essays about selecting an appropriate therapist and about treating attachment disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.

I'm Chocolate You're Vanilla
A child's concept of race is quite different from that of an adult. Young children perceive skin color as magical--even changeable--and unlike adults, are incapable of understanding adult predjudices surrounding race and racism. Just as children learn to walk and talk, they likewise come to understand race in a series of predictable stages. Based on Marguerite A. Wright's research and clinical experience, I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla teaches us that the color-blindness of early childhood can, and must, be taken advantage of in order to guide the positive development of a child's self-esteem. Wright answers some fundamental questions about children and race including: * What do children know and understand about the color of their skin? * When do children understand the concept of race? * Are there warning signs that a child is being adversely affected by racial prejudice? * How can adults avoid instilling in children their own negative perceptions and prejudices? * What can parents do to prepare their children to overcome the racism they are likely to encounter? * How can schools lessen the impact of racism? With wisdom and compassion, I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla spells out how to educate black and biracial children about race, while preserving their innate resilience and optimism--the birthright of all children.

The Post-Adoption Blues: Overcoming the Unforseen Challenges of Adoption
Post Adoption Blues is a compassionate, illuminating, and ultimately uplifting book and the first to openly recognize the very normal feelings of stress that adoptive families encounter as they cope with the challenges and expectations of their new families. Where do parents turn when the waited-for bonding with their adopted child is slow to form? When they find themselves grieving over the birth child they couldn't have? When the child they so eagerly welcomed into their home arrives with major, unexpected needs? Until now, adoptive parents have had to struggle silently with their feelings, which can range from flutters of anxiety to unbearable sadness. At last, Karen J. Foli, a registered nurse, and her husband, John R. Thompson, a psychiatrist, lift the curtain of secrecy from 'Post-Adoption Depression Syndrome' (PADS). Drawing on their own experience as adoptive parents as well as interviews with dozens of adoptive families and experts in the field, the couple offers parents the understanding, support, and concrete solutions they need to overcome post-adoption blues-and open their hearts to the joy adoption can bring.

Toddler Adoption
Toddler Adoption is a resource designed to help adopting parents and placing professionals involved in adoptions of children in the unique developmental stage from ages one to three, usually referred to as toddlerhood. Books focusing on parenting an adopted infant, and those written for the special needs adopters of school-aged children contain little of relevance for those adopting a toddler. These children are up on their feet and walking, and have achieved cognitive growth providing a store of remembered life experiences with caregivers and age-peers to whom they have probably become attached, but the language and cognitive skills of toddler-aged children are still too unsophisticated to allow a toddler to make use of the therapies that can help smooth transitions and deal with losses. Toddler Adoption fills this gap admirably. Toddler Adoption is essential reading for anyone considering the adoption of a boy or girl falling within the one to three year age bracket.