There are so many books about adoption now, that you could read a different book about adoption or foster care every day this month, and still not read them all. You can also include books about different kinds of families. Ask your local library, and your school library, to do a display of books about foster care and/or adoption. If they do not have books that are appropriate, provide them with a list of books that they can add to the library.

These are some of our favorites:


I Don’t Have Your Eyes by Carrie Kitze


This book is especially good for children that do not look like their parents. My kids look as if they could be my biological children, but that is not the case in many families. This book is beautifully written from the child’s point of view and says that we are a family, no matter how we look.

Lucy’s Family Tree by Karen Halvorsen Schreck

This is a wonderful book for helping kids get through the dreaded family tree project and is a great book for educators as well. Lucy comes home from school with the family tree project, and doesn’t want to do it because her family is not the “traditional” family. It explores how family can come in different forms.

Shaoey and Dot by Mary Beth & Steven Curtis Chapman

This is a story of international adoption, but could also help with adoption in general. It is told from the viewpoint of a ladybug, Dot, who talks about the fear, uncertainty and joy that surround adoption from both a child’s and parents’ viewpoint. I donated this book to our church library.

Welcome Home Forever Child by Christine Mitchell

So many books are written about international adoption or infant adoption. It’s difficult to find books about older child adoption. This is a good book for that.

Maybe Days by Jennifer Wilgocki & Marcia Kahn Wright

Kids in foster care or a pre-adoptive placement have so many questions about their permanency and what will happen with their birth family once their adoption is finalized. This books helps to answer some of those questions, and can open up discussions on things your kids may have been afraid to ask.

Zachary’s New Home by Geraldine & Paul Blomquist

This is a sweet story of a kitten who goes into “foster care” and is eventually adopted by a family of geese. For children who don’t want to face their emotions directly, it can help that the characters in the book are not people, but still lets them handle their feelings.


I’ll Always Love You by Peony Lewis

This is not directly an adoption book, but it fits so well with our kids. In the book Alex Bear breaks his mother’s favorite honey bowl. He is afraid his mother will stop loving him because he has done something wrong. This is the feeling that many of our kids have. They have been moved from home to home when their behaviors got to be too much. Kids will not believe that they are loved the first time you read it to them, but it is a good starting point to talk about feelings and permanency in a family.

The Twelve Gifts of Birth by Charlene Costanzo.

Again, this is not adoption specific, but is a great book to let every child know that they are a gift.

What are some of the books that your family enjoys?

One of my plans is to write a children’s book acknowledging the feelings that kids have as they go through foster care, but especially into the pre-adoptive placement. I want to acknowledge and validate the feelings, thoughts and fears that they have. I just have to find an illustrator because I can only draw stick figures.

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