Adoption and foster care are topics that our parents and caregivers seem to ask for on a regular basis in my town. Whether they’re adopting a child and need to prepare a sibling, adopting a child and wanting them to know they belong and are loved right where they are, or someone not adopting at all, but is trying to show their child different world views and experiences. All these reasons, and so many more, are valid and valued in our community. Further than that, I wanted to showcase some titles meant for slightly older kids. Maybe a kid who wants to see themselves or their experience validated and represented in a book.
Early Readers (Ages 0-6)
Represents a variety of families, some big and some small, some with only one parent and some with two moms or dads, some quiet and some noisy, but all alike in some ways and special no matter what. This title speaks less specifically to adopted families, but reinforces the value that families are unique, lovely, and valid no matter how they are composed.
“Love is baking a special cake. Love is lending a helping hand. Love is reading one more book.” Whether a child has two moms, two dads, one parent, or one of each, this simple preschool read-aloud demonstrates that what’s most important in each family’s life is the love the family members share. Again, this book doesn’t focus on adoptive families, but it depicts the simple fact that love makes a family.
After Lester is adopted from his foster home by Daddy Albert and Daddy Rich, he can’t fall asleep in his new bed. What will it take to make Lester feel home at last?
For author, Rose Lewis, the journey to motherhood begins with a letter to Chinese officials, asking if she can adopt from the “big room with lots of other babies.” The infants in that room in China are each missing a mother, but Lewis is missing something, too–a baby. She travels to China to meet her new little girl and falls head over heels in love. Taking her baby home to America, Lewis introduces her to all her family and friends, and they begin their life together.
A young bear cub, who is alone in the world, and Old Bear, who is grumpy and tired of living alone, meet and discover what they have been missing.
Choco, a lonely yellow bird with no mother, sets out to find a mother but cannot find anyone that shares her appearance. At last, she meets a mother bear who cares for her and invites Choco to join the family — which includes an adopted pig, rhinocerous, and alligator.
Worrying about how his adoptive cat mom is so unlike him on the outside, a puppy develops an appreciation for his new family’s enjoyment of differences as they participate in the same loving and squabbling activities shared by all loving families.
Each year on his birthday, a young Mexican American boy looks forward to seeing how his grandfather has decorated the tree he planted on the day the boy was adopted into a Mexican American family. Spanish language is interspersed throughout the story.
Safe in the knowledge that adoption has made them “forever family,” stepsisters Mia and Tayja improvise an imaginary adventure with a joyful homecoming to a real home with their two moms. This is a super sweet and great story!
A mother weaves a magical web of tales to explain how her child came to be a part of the family.
A young girl asks her parents to tell her again the cherished family story of her birth and adoption.
Yes, adoption makes me special, it means that I am loved…” This brightly colored children’s book illustrates how adoption is brought about by love. This story takes you through an adoption journey from start to finish, making it especially good for kids who will go or have just gone through the adoption process.
Unlike the earlier Todd Parr book, this one centers solely on adoption! I adore Todd Parr because of the universal messages he presents, the bold, colorful pictures, and the simple, yet loving, language.
With fairly simple text and bright, colorful photographs, this book helps demystify adoption for young children and celebrate the joy that comes with adding to a family.
This title centers on children in foster care. Written from the foster parent to the foster child, it takes you through an abbreviated look at the emotions a young foster child experiences throughout their transition to a new home. The message to the child is that while they are in that home, they will be safe and loved. It also serves as a keepsake book with a journaling section.
“How MUCH is the crazy-much love?” This simple question is answered as two parents recount the journey of adopting their daughter and the many milestone moments that follow. From the child’s first bath and first time riding a tricycle, all the way to her boarding that big yellow bus, the crazy-much love grows SO MUCH that it spills out the windows and busts down the doors.
When Meili learns her parents are adopting another child, she must accept the role of big sister and realize a new addition can be just right too. Adding a sibling, no matter how, can involve complicated emotions. This title does a great job of acknowledging the emotions and could help any older sibling work through it.
Something rather extraordinary is happening in Caroline’s life today . . . her family is adopting a new baby sister! A warm and loving story about school, family, siblings, and adoption, for anyone eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new sibling.
Adoptive parents promise to fill their new baby girl’s life with love, security, and adventure.
When her parents find a baby wolf on their doorstep and decide to raise him as their own, Dot is certain he will eat them all up until a surprising encounter with a bear brings them closer together.
“The stars belong in the deep night sky, and the moon belongs there too, and the winds belong in each place they blow by, and I belong here with you.” This title mimics a bedtime book, with affirmations of love and reminding children that they are right where they belong.
Older Elementary (ages 6-12)
This nonfiction book looks at how foster families are made, how they might thrive and how they are just as valid as any other family type.
When tasked with a family tree project at school, Molly, who is adopted, struggles with doubt before finding support from the people who have always given her love.
Eleven-year-old Makeda dreams of meeting her African American mother, while coping with serious problems in her white adopted family, a cross-country move, and being homeschooled.
Imani is adopted, and she’s ready to search for her birth parents. But when she discovers the diary her Jewish great-grandmother wrote chronicling her escape from Holocaust-era Europe, Imani begins to see family in a new way. Imani knows exactly what she wants as her big bat mitzvah gift: to find her birth parents. She loves her family and her Jewish community in Baltimore, but she has always wondered where she came from, especially since she’s black and almost everyone she knows is white.
New friends and a mystery help Aden, thirteen and adopted, adjust to middle school and life at a dying western theme park in a new state, where her being born armless presents many challenges.
Relates the adventures of a family with two fathers, four adopted boys, and a variety of pets as they make their way through a school year, Kindergarten through sixth grade, and deal with a grumpy new neighbor.
Since his mother’s death, Jayson, twelve, has focused on basketball and surviving but he is found out and placed with an affluent foster family of a different race, and must learn to accept many changes, including facing his former teammates in a championship game.
Librarian Ginny 