I began reading books on adoption in 2005 when we took our first serious look into adopting our first child. These are the resources I've viewed along the way. My ratings are 0 to 5 stars and are purely my opinion.
Categories Listed Below (books within categories in alphabetical order by title)
Books on Adoption
Transracial Adoption
Fiction Books with an Adoption Theme
Non-Fiction Books with a China Theme
Fiction Books with a China Theme
Favorite Children's Books on Adoption or China
Documentaries
Websites
Websites
Books on Adoption
Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore - Parallels earthly adoption with adoption in Christ. Encourages Christians and churches to step forward and help orphans. I enjoyed this book a lot. ****1/2
Carried Safely Home: The Spiritual Legacy of an Adoptive Family by Kristin Swick Wong - A memoir of a woman's experience of leaning on God through the process of adopting their sons from Vietnam. I really enjoyed this book. I liked how she took the focus off herself and put it on God. Great book! ****1/2
Castaway Kid: One Man's Search for Hope and Home by R.B. Mitchell - The detailed story of his childhood in an Illinois orphanage, memories of his mentally ill mother and times with his grandmother who knew well, but was unable to care for him full-time. I believe he was one of the last children in America to age-out of an orphanage. ***1/2
Finding Home: An Imperfect Path to Faith and Family by Jim Daly - The biography of Jim Daly who was deserted by his alcoholic father and his alcoholic mother died when he was 10, leaving him as an orphan. He had four older siblings that tried to stay together. He became the President of Focus on the Family. ***
The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family by Dave J. Pelzer - A continuation of the horrific A Child Called It, about a boy, severely abused by his alcoholic mother, who is finally removed from her home and finds himself dealing with the struggles of foster care. ***
The Lost Daughters of China: Adopted Girls, Their Journey to America, and the Search for a Missing Past by Karin Evans - A woman's journey to adopt her daughter from China. The updated edition has a chapter on the adoption of her second daughter as well as accounts of experiences of teen girls adopted from China growing up in the U.S. This book is often the first book people read when they decide to adopt from China. ****
Message From An Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran - Stories of Chinese women driven to abandon their children. This book was eye-opening. I cherish this book because it gives an inside view to why children are abandoned in China and what drives them to go that far. The range of reasons is dramatic. The only thing I wished she would have covered is stories about women who abandoned children with special needs, particularly boys. Her main focus was on healthy girls. ****1/2
Saving Levi: Left to Die...Destined to Live by Lisa Misraje Bentley - A boy was found badly burned in a
field in China. This is the miracle surrounding how he was helped
and finally adopted. ***
The Strength of Mercy by Jan Beazely - The story about a family that
adopts a little girl from Romania. They started adoption agency All God's Children. **
Secure In God's Embrace: Living as the Father's Adopted Child by Ken Fong - Parallels adoption into an earthly
family with our adoption by God into his spiritual family. I thought this would be very good for an adoptee to read. What do you think? ***
Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage by Kay Bratt - I struggled with this book. I appreciated the information she provided about Chinese orphanages, but was annoyed by, what I felt was, whining throughout the first half of the book. I almost stopped reading it. By the second half of the book she had gotten used to China and the book became more readable. At least she was honest, but almost to the detriment of the book. *** (The three stars are specifically for the information on Chinese orphanages.)
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children by Melissa Fay Greene - A great book about Haregewoin Teferra, an Ethiopian woman, who opened up her home to some of Ethiopia's orphans, turning it into an orphanage and day care center and began facilitating adoptions to families all over the world. I really enjoyed this book. She's a great writer. ****
Adoption
Ministry
Adoption as a Ministry, Adoption as a Blessing by Michelle Gardner - She shares her experiences of adoption and what the Bible says about helping others to encourage others to adopt. She parallels earthly adoption with our adoption in Christ. (I didn't record any stars for this book and I don't remember what I thought of it).
Adoption as a Ministry, Adoption as a Blessing by Michelle Gardner - She shares her experiences of adoption and what the Bible says about helping others to encourage others to adopt. She parallels earthly adoption with our adoption in Christ. (I didn't record any stars for this book and I don't remember what I thought of it).
The Adoption Network: Your Guide to Starting a Support System by Laura Christianson -A very practical, step-by-step guide to starting an adoption network. It was very helpful, although I was never able to get ours off the ground. ****
Parenting
the Adopted Child
After the Dream Comes True by Michelle Gardner - Post-adoption support for Christian families. I read this in my adoption support group. I enjoyed it. It's short and easy to read. ***
Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents by Deborah D. Gray – This book scared the crap out
of me before we adopted our first child. I would never recommend
this book to anyone who has not yet adopted. With that said, if you
have already adopted your child and are struggling with or suspect
attachment issues, this seems to be the authority on attaching in
adoption. ****
The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family by
Karyn Purvis - I read this with my adoption support group. I felt myself getting defensive with some of the material. Unfortunately, I can't remember why - will need to look back at my notes. **
Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew by Sherrie Eldridge – My husband read this book.
He
enjoyed it. Then he attended a panel based on this book with adults
that were adopted and they disagreed with most of what the book said.
So I never read it.
Transracial Adoption
Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White by Frank H. Wu – I
haven't actually read this book, only about the first 10 pages, so I
can't rate it. Looks like a well-researched book and I already
learned in the little I read.
Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?: A Parent's Guide to Raising Multiracial Children by Donna Jackson Nakazawa
Non-Fiction
Books with a China Theme
Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman - The wife of singer, Steven Curtis Chapman, tells about her journey through life and adoption of their three daughters from China and how they lost their youngest daughter in a tragic accident. I struggled with this book. It was very depressing for me. I know it's not a happy subject and perhaps I picked a bad time to read it. It was very hard to get through. Friends who read it said they loved it. **1/2
Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold by Janet & Geoff Benge – Biography of Eric Lidell, the 1924 Olympic runner who refused to run the Olympic 100-meter race, his best event, because it was held on a Sunday. He later broke an Olympic and world record in the 400-meter race, which was not his best event. Later, he became a missionary to China. He was the inspiration for the movie Chariots of Fire. ***
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang (NF) - The author takes a fascinating peek into the lives of a few of the 130 million migrant workers. Many of the migrants are girls from the China countryside that leave their families and everything they know to migrate to the city to work in large factories, some hoping for a better life, others sent to provide for their family. When I was in Guangzhou I saw a number of dorm buildings that looked similar to the dorms described in this book. A life-style so different than the typical American way of life. ***1/2
Gladys Alyward: The Adventure of a Lifetime by Janet & Geoff Benge - A biography of Gladys Alyward, missionary to China. ***1/2
The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun by Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway
Lost
on Planet China (NF) - Troost, Maarten J. - A
hilarious account of Maarten's adventures tromping through China. An
enjoyable must-read for anyone who has visited China. I felt
understood when reading this book. ****
Red China Blues by Jan Wong (NF) - Jan Wong, a Chinese-Canadian,
left Canada for China as a Maoist, but over time began to see the
cracks in the "utopian" society she thought she was living
in. She describes the Tiannamen Square Massacre in detail as she
witnessed it first hand. ***1/2
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang (NF) - Ji-li Jiang writes from her point
of view as a young girl during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) as friends and neighbors began to turn on her family because they were considered to be in a different class. A fascinating look at the Cultural Revolution. ***
To
Run and Not Be Weary by Stan Cotrell - The story of Stan Cotrell ultra long-distance runner who ran the distance of the Great Wall of China. He tells of his
experiences getting there and along the way. This book is out of print. ***
Fiction
with an Adoption Theme
Oceans
Apart by Karen Kingsbury - A man has an affair and eight years
later he's presented with his son and the possibility of adopting him
after the boy's mother dies. Good message about forgiveness. ***1/2
In
Search of Eden by Linda Nichols - A woman goes to Abingdon, Virginia to
search for the child she gave up reluctantly for adoption almost 12
years prior. ***
Fiction
with an China Theme
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck - Set in pre-revolutionary China,
this story details a farmer's life and how it changes over time, yet
stays the same. ***
Safely
Home by Randy Alcorn - An American visits his old Chinese friend
who is suffering for his faith in China. This is a novel about the
persecuted Christians in China. ****
Thousand
Pieces of Gold by Ruthanne Lum McCunn - A historical novel about Lalu Nathoy (Polly) who was sold into slavery from China
and sent to the U.S. where she got out of slavery, married a man and
farmed some land. There is land named after her in Idaho - Polly's
Place. ***
Favorite
Children's Books on Adoption or China
My Blessing from Above by Patti Henderson ****
The Colors of Us by Karen Katz – (Race/Transracial adoption) This is my second favorite book on adoption. An artist mother and her adopted daughter look at the colors of skin as different shades of brown. They travel through the neighborhood describing the beautiful and scrumptious shades of brown of their friends. *****
The
Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson ****
A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza – (Transracial adoption) This is my favorite children's book on adoption. Choco is unable to find his mother and wonders who will be his mother. He asks a number of animals if they are his mother, but they all say they couldn't be because they don't look like him. Until Choco meets a Mama Bear who doesn't care that they don't look a like and would love to be his mother. *****
Websites
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