Compiler’s Notes      The purpose and intent of this bibliography is to assemble a comprehensive list of books which relate, either in whole or in part, to the subject of adoption. Therefore, for purposes of this list, I have (arbitrarily) chosen to limit the definition of that concept to so-called stranger adoption, i.e., the assumption of parental responsibility, whether formal (legal) or informal, for a child by a person or persons not related to the child by blood. I have also chosen to include the concepts of “orphanhood” and fostering (where the parental responsibility is assumed either by the state or by no one).      I have specifically chosen not to include books or stories which deal with step-families, or situations where the the assumption of parental responsibility is made by the child’s non-parental relative(s) (with a few selected exceptions). Also not included are books which deal with situations where the child is separated from a parent by divorce, but retains his or her legal connection to the absent parent.      Since the intent is to compile a comprehensive list while simultaneously keeping the size of the list as small as possible, any given title will be listed only once. Since I have (again, arbitrarily) divided the bibliography into categories, and because a given title could be included in more than one category, each title will be listed within the category that I believe is most appropriate. Therefore, if you cannot find a particular title within a category within which you may believe it belongs, that may be because it was included in a different subdivision. (If you cannot find a given title, please feel free to inquire and I will advise as to its location within the bibliography, or, in cases where the book has escaped inclusion, I will evaluate it and either add it or not, depending upon its appropriateness for inclusion.) Also, since each title is listed only once, publication data will be for the first edition, even where subsequent editions, including revised editions, have since been published.

Disclaimer      The data presented here are assembled from a wide variety of sources for the benefit of those wishing to find out more on the subject of adoption. As is reflected in the title of the compilation, the data are intended to be nothing more than a “guide” to help direct visitors in their own research.      The compiler makes no representations as to the currency or accuracy of the data presented; they are as accurate and current as the sources from which they are obtained. However, every effort is made to ensure that the data are current and accurate as of the date of posting. Visitors are encouraged to bring any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions they may find to the attention of the compiler.      The views or opinions expressed by third parties contained in this compilation, or the views or opinions of any given author expressed in any book contained in this compilation, do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the compiler, nor should their inclusion, nor the inclusion of any particular title herein, be construed as an endorsement thereof.

New Editions of Existing Titles Published in 2008 & 2009

Lost and Found by Betty Jean Lifton. The first edition of Betty Jean Lifton’s Lost and Found advanced the adoption rights movement in this country in 1979, challenging many states’ policies of maintaining closed birth records. For nearly three decades the book has topped recommended reading lists for those who seek to understand the effects of adoption—including adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, and their friends and families. This expanded and updated edition, with new material on the controversies concerning adoption, artificial insemination, and newer reproductive technologies, continues to add to the discussion on this important topic. A new preface and afterword by the author have been added, as well as a greatly expanded resources section that in addition to relevant organizations now lists useful Web sites. Betty Jean Lifton, Ph.D., is a writer, psychotherapist, and leading advocate for adoption reform. Her many books include Journey of the Adopted Self and The King of Children, a New York Times Notable Book. She regularly makes appearances as a lecturer on adoption and has an adoption counseling practice in Cambridge, MA, and New York City.

Gathering the Missing Pieces in an Adopted Life by Kay Moore. What do you say to a mother you’ve never seen? This book—written from a Christian perspective—contains true stories of trial and triumph in the search for birth families by adoptees. Written by an adopted Pulitzer Prize nominee. Ever surrounded by the love and security of the only family she had ever known, Kay Moore wondered constantly about her unknown past. Would her birth mother even be willing to meet her? Would her adoptive parents think she was ungrateful for needing so desperately to know? How would changing attitudes and new laws affect her search? That search led Kay to other adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth families. She discovered that her feelings were the shared legacy of people everywhere who want the whole truth about who they are. Their stories, told here, yield a world of inspiration and practical direction which Kay presents with a sensitivity possible only from one who has “been through it” herself. She knows what questions you’ll need to answer for a successful search and includes a listing of resources you can use along the way. You’ll see just how to pull together the missing pieces in your own past and fully discover your God-given heritage.

Keys to Parenting an Adopted Child by Kathy Lancaster Ph.D. Adoptive parents will find information and advice on preparing for placement, bonding with an adopted child, transracial and international adoptions, coping with a child’s health or learning problems, and much more. Appendices present lists of adoptive parenting organizations in the U.S. and Canada, adoption-friendly mental health resources, children’s health organizations, and pediatric and educational advocacy groups. Titles in Barron’s Parenting Keys offer help to moms and dads by focusing on challenges specific to modern family structures and today’s social environment. Bringing up kids today is different—and in many ways more challenging—than it was in past generations. The revised and updated editions of Parenting Keys speak to today’s parents with solid advice and answers to today’s problems. Kathy Lancaster, Ph.D., received the Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award for the first edition of this book. She presents workshops across the country on adoption and educational leadership topics.

Adopted and Loved Forever by Annetta E. Dellinger and Janet McDonnell (Illustrator). New Illustrations by Janet McDonnell highlight the second edition of this classic of Christian-oriented, adoption-related children’s literature.

Adopting the Hurt Child by Gregory Keck, Ph.D. and Regina M. Kupecky, L.S.W. Without avoiding the grim statistics, this book, now in its third updated and revised edition, reveals the real hope that hurting children can be healed through adoptive and foster parents, social workers, and others who care. Includes information specific to international adoptions.

Fostering or Adopting the Troubled Child by Janet Clayton Glatz. If you are considering Treatment-Level Foster Care, this updated and expended edition of Fostering or Adoting the Troubled Child offers new and valuable guidance for those who wish to enter the foster care field or to adopt a child from a troubled background.

The Politics of Adoption by Kerry O’Halloran. This book updates and significantly extends the first edition published by Springer in 2004. It addresses the social and legal functions of adoption, the changes currently taking place in England and Wales and developments in other common law countries. It identifies themes of commonality and difference in the experience of adoption in a common law context as compared and contrasted with that of civil law countries, other cultures in Asia and with the experience of indigenous peoples. It uses the international Conventions and associated ECtHR case law to benchmark developments in national law, policy and practice and to facilitate a cross-cultural comparative analysis. Like the first edition, this book will fit most comfortably in undergraduate and postgraduate Law and Social Work courses; also it would be relevant to sociology and politics.

Insight Into Adoption by Barbara Taylor Blomquist. This updated and expanded second edition continues the theme of the first edition: emphasizing the need to help adoptive parents understand some potentially challenging factors so they can deal with them positively and also comprehend the thinking process of their child. This book provides realistic and factual insight into the world of adoption. It deals with pitfalls that may not be obvious to the unenlightened adoptive parent. Adoptive parents reading this book can gain a different insight into their child’s reasoning, and this information can be used to avert some potential problems they might otherwise face. Topics include issues that adoptive families should be told about and are based primarily upon real life experiences relating equally to both sexes. In particular, it will inform those who haven t experienced adoption personally about the many obstacles the adopted child may be facing. Then the parents and others in the family can begin to understand the child’s behavior. With under-standing comes a new attitude and the impetus to change the whole atmosphere from negative to positive. The child and his parents will still have issues to deal with, but, with the source uncovered, issues can be faced openly. This book will be an invaluable resource to adoptive parents, social workers, counselors, and teachers.

The Whole Life Adoption Book by Jayne E. Schooler and Thomas C. Atwood. Recommended by the National Council for Adoption, this powerful book addresses the needs and concerns facing adoptive parents with encouragement for the journey ahead. Revised and updated in 2008.

The Nurture Assumption by Judith Rich Harris. This groundbreaking book, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times notable pick, rattled the psychological establishment when it was first published in 1998 by claiming that parents have little impact on their children’s development. In this tenth anniversary edition of The Nurture Assumption, Judith Harris has updated material throughout and provided a fresh introduction. Combining insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, primatology, and evolutionary biology, she explains how and why the tendency of children to take cues from their peers works to their evolutionary advantage. This electrifying book explodes many of our unquestioned beliefs about children and parents and gives us a radically new view of childhood.

New Titles (2010)

April

Restorative Grief by Cynthia Christensen. In this slim volume, the author recounts how she found peace of mind following the surrender of her child to adoption through self-guided “counseling” with Jesus Christ.

March

The Forever Friends Club by Sue Gainor, Sarah P. Gibson, and Miranda R. Mueller (Illustrator). Sam is the only kid on his street...until Madison, Nick, and Isabel move in! Madison’s creative, Nick is full of energy, and Isabel gets them all organized. Everything’s perfect until the friends decide to form a club for kids who are adopted: The Forever Friends Club. Only problem is that Sam isn’t adopted! He feels left out. Will Sam be invited to join the club? Will the four friends play together again? How will they solve their problem? The Forever Friends Club is a story about adoption, belonging, and what it means to be a friend.

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. Gowda’s debut novel opens in a small Indian village with a young woman giving birth to a baby girl. The father intends to kill the baby (the fate of her sister born before her) but the mother, Kavita, has her spirited away to a Mumbai orphanage. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Somer, a doctor who can’t bear children, is persuaded by her Indian husband, Krishnan, to adopt a child from India. Somer reluctantly agrees and they go to India where they coincidentally adopt Kavita’s daughter, Asha.

February

Dear Strangers by Meg Mullins. In the high desert of the American southwest during the summer of 1982, the Finley family is awaiting the arrival of the baby boy they’re due to adopt. Oliver, just seven, is eager for another playmate to join him and his sister in their idyll of swimming pools, climbing trees, and playing tag. But one hot afternoon, Dr. Finley dies suddenly and everything changes. Mrs. Finley, newly widowed, decides she cannot proceed with the adoption alone.

Hot Springs by Geoffrey Becker. Vibrant, sexy, and quite possibly crazy, Bernice is determined to reclaim the child she gave up for adoption five years ago. She convinces her boyfriend, Landis, to help carry out her plan, but once the abduction is accomplished, Bernice—whose own mother was given to manic episodes and strange behavior—is plagued with doubts. Will Landis stay with her, given her volatile personality and his own drifter past? Will she and Landis both end up in jail for this crime? And, perhaps most importantly, will she fail at being a mother?

January

Heredity & Environment in 300 Adoptive Families by Joseph Horn and John Loehlin. This book presents the results of a thirty-five-year research project involving 300 families, each of whom adopted at least one child at birth from a Texas home for unwed mothers during the period of 1962-1970. The book weaves together information about the birth parents of the adopted children; information about the adoptive parents; and information about the children in these families.

She is Not Your Real Mommy! by Tricia Keierleber. One day at school, Ann Marie is teased for being different from the other kids because she was adopted. Author Tricia Keierleber weaves a wonderful story that shows how adopted children are loved the same by their parents in She is Not Your Real Mommy!

Short Squeeze by Chris Knopf. Meet Jackie Swaitowski, a smart-aleck attorney whose legal turf is supposed to be the buzzing Hamptons real-estate market. But when a new client turns up dead, things take a sudden and decidedly dangerous turn. In a client’s pocket is an envelope that contains a shocking piece of evidence that suggests that the death was anything but an accident. Jackie has bigger fish to fry—like her old flame Harry’s surprise return to town—until a late-night car chase changes her priorities. Now she has every reason to believe that the next name on the killer’s list is her own.

Snowflakes by Teresa Kelleher, with Katie Flake & Paul Kelleher-Smith; and Mora Kelleher-Smith Illustrator). I sent out many hundreds of invitations to adoptive families to contribute vignettes from their adoption experiences. The responses from adoptees and their families is what you find in this book. All contributions were included, so there is a spectrum of experiences and points of view. One adoptive mom wrote to me because she was concerned that the book would show only a “sugar-coated” side of adoption. Nope. This book tells about challenges and tough experiences as well as the positives. I was amazed throughout the project at how honest and open the contributors were. — Teresa Kelleher

Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger. When the body of a boy from one of Greece’s most prominent families turns up in a dumpster in one of Athens’ worst neighborhoods, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of the Greek Police’s Special Crimes Division is certain there’s a message in the murder. But who sent it and why? Andreas’ politically incorrect search for answers takes him deep into the sordid, criminal side of Athens nightlife and on to the glittering world of Athens society where age-old frictions between old money and new breed jealousy, murder, revenge, revolutionaries, and some very dangerous truths.

New Titles (2009)

December

Finding Our Place by Nikki McCaslin. This unique one-volume reference guide provides positive and empowering biographical sketches of 100 famous and well-known adoptees throughout time, serving to counter the many negative stereotypes that exist about people who were adopted, fostered, or lived in orphanages.

Rich Again by Anna Maxted. Maxted abandons her usually thoughtful version of chick lit for a train-wreck of a soap opera about London-based globetrotters Jack and Innocence Kent and their dysfuntional kids, among others. Plot-packed silliness filled with laughable baddies whose deaths are only slightly mourned by the reader.

Blue Ribbon Babies and Labors of Love by Christine Ward Gailey. Most Americans assume that shared genes or blood relationships provide the strongest basis for family. What can adoption tell us about this widespread belief and American kinship in general? Blue-Ribbon Babies and Labors of Love examines the ways class, gender, and race shape public and private adoption in the United States.

Brodie and The Yeti: The Yeti Saves Coco Bunny by Dennis Robert Komick. An adorable and emotional tale about a bond that is created between two little dogs and a rabbit, in this true story about Brodie, The Yeti and a bunny named Coco. One stormy night proves to be just the right setting for a truly amazing animal rescue . This is the second installment from the Brodie & The Yeti collection and is a truly amazing story that is sure to grab the heartstrings of all who read it.

November

The Korean Adoption Issue Between Modernity and Coloniality by Tobias Hübinette. This is a study of representations of adopted Koreans in Korean popular culture between 1991-2001. The study is carried out by examining and reading how adopted Koreans are represented in four feature films and four popular songs.

I Wish I Had Been Born From You by Karen Lomas. I Wish I Had Been Born From You is a collection of poems and reflections by Karen Lomas with contributions from her daughter Emily. Between them, they chart a moving and emotional adoption journey of getting to know one another and becoming a family. At once joyful, sad, bitter and humorous, the author does not shy away from describing and dealing with her pain, including coping with change and transitions, experiencing rejection, dealing with regression, and being faced with anger and confusion.

Foster Care by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome & John McBrewster, Editors. Foster care is a system by which a certified, stand-in “parent(s)” cares for minor children or young people who have been removed from their birth parents or other custodial adults by state authority. Responsibility for the young person is assumed by the relevant governmental authority and a placement with another family found. There can be voluntary placements by a parent of a child into foster care. Foster care is just a short-term alternative while on the way to determining one of the three permanent plans for the child.

My Quest to Be a Single Dad by Garry White. Author Garry White’s instinctual desire to love and provide a home for disadvantaged youth has been denied again and again on the basis of what appears to be personal bias and an isolated episode of mental illness several years in the past. In My Quest to Be a Single Dad, Garry fights the social implication and double standard that single men are unfit to be parents.

Adoption by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome and John McBrewster, Editors. Adoption has a long history in the Western world, closely tied with the legacy of the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. Its use has changed considerably over the centuries with its focus shifting from adult adoption and inheritance issues toward children and family creation and its structure moving from a recognition of continuity between the adopted and kin toward allowing relationships of lessened intensity.

But I Trusted You and Other True Cases by Ann Rule. Headlining this page-turning anthology is the case of middle-school counselor Chuck Leonard, found shot to death outside his Washington State home on an icy February morning. A complicated mix of family man and wild man, Chuck played hard and loved many...but who crossed the line by murdering him in cold blood? And why? The revelation is as stunning as the shattering crime itself, powerfully illuminating how those we think we know can ingeniously hide their destructive and homicidal designs.

Jasper by Brian DiMaggio. For as long as Jasper can remember, he has had the ability to change his dreams in any way he wishes. Now Jasper has learned that, that is not all he can do. He has amazed his friends for years with his incredible stories. But even Jasper himself did not expect what happens next—he finds that he can bring others into his Dreamworld! Join Jasper and his best friends, Christopher and Jeanie, as they explore the incredible power of their imaginations.

LGBT Adoption by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome and John McBrewster (Editors. LGBT adoption is the adoption of children by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Adoption by same-sex couples is currently legal in many countries throughout the world. Adoption of children by LGBT people is an issue of active debate; legislation to stop the practice has been introduced in the United States although such efforts have largely been defeated. There is agreement between the parties, however, that the welfare of children alone should dictate policy.

My Portable Life by Jean Nelson Erichsen. Born in the Great Depression to a sadly mismatched couple, Erichsen was moved from one small town to another in her family’s quixotic search for affluence. Neglected, abused, kept penniless in a middle-class family, she dreams of helping children find the stable family she is denied and becomes an innovator in international adoptions and a widely acclaimed and emulated agency director, social worker, and author.

Forbidden Family by Joan Wheeler. State Law presumed her illegitimacy, sealed her birth certificate, issued a false one and changed her identity. With her new parents, she grew up an only child, until... Siblings she never knew found eighteen-year-old adoptee Joan Wheeler in 1974. Shocked, Joan immediately accepted that she had two sets of real parents. Knowing her adoptive parents lied to her and didn’t want her to ever know the truth, she also learned this closed adoption was anything but private. As Joan’s knowledge increased, her adoptive and natural families held onto stigma, myths and taboos of secrecy. No one approved of her “going public.” They labeled Joan as “obsessed” with adoption. She had to be silenced. This is Joan Wheeler’s incredible 35-year journey.

In Search of a Family by Kevin and Ginger Carlisle. In Search of a Family: A Story of an International Adoption takes the reader inside a personal journey through the unknowns of an international adoption. This true story takes place in the ex-Soviet bloc country of Ukraine. As they travel through this young, independent republic, Kevin and Ginger Carlisle encounter numerous obstacles that could derail their hopes of achieving their dream of creating a new family.

Closed Adoption Policy in the 1960s by Carol Major. The closed adoption policy that saw hundreds of thousands of white babies relinquished by their unmarried mothers in many western countries was among a range of seemingly humane social engineering projects popular during the 1950s and ’60s. The policy was abandoned in the 1970s with subsequent investigations of the practice revealing human rights abuse. Yet so many acts are undertaken in the context of a time’s context that blinkers society to the pain inflicted, until the context mutates. This book explores the social construction of individual motivation and the uses of fiction in exposing that construction.

Family Matters by Ruth Meese. To help librarians and teachers gain a deeper understanding of this sensitive subject, Family Matters: Adoption and Foster Care in Children’s Literature takes a close look at 115 works of children’s literature that have themes related to adoption and foster care, including many that have received the Newberry Award, Caldecott Award, or other prestigious honors from the American Library Association. Family Matters is not just a digest of titles. It is an expert resource for addressing adoption and foster care in the classroom, both as a literary subject and as a personal issue with students.

Isaac’s Will by Kris Durso. One bullet has changed everything for fifteen-year old Will Karras. It killed his father and forced him and his mother to move from their suburban Rochester home in upstate New York to a new one—on the grounds of a cemetery. His mother’s addictions and a bully set on destroying him are proving to be too much for Will to handle. But among the snowy gravestones in his new backyard, Will meets a mysterious stranger who knows the secrets of his past, and more importantly, holds the keys to his future.

Destiny by Chris Johnson. A renegade member of the New Orleans Mafia forces Lee Farrell to participate in a criminal scheme involving rare African gemstones, hallucinogenic South American tree frogs, and a Mississippi Gulf Coast casino. Trying to find his origins among the voodoo secrets of the New Orleans French Quarter, Farrell must save his failing marriage while outmaneuvering the mob and the FBI. Is his life being controlled by an ancient curse, or is he being overtaken by the darkness of his own past?

Late Delivery, a Memoir by Al Lucero Mascareñas. Memoir of a man who disocvers late in life that he had been switched at birth, and that the family he had grown up in was not really his. Not precisely an adoption story, but one with the same issues and ramifications. In the author’s own words, “Adult adoptees are the people I most identify with who have significant numbers and visibility. My feelings about my birth are similar to theirs.”

A Pinch of Dry Mustard by Barbara Roose Cramer. Natalie Pickford Andrews gives birth to a baby girl at the young age of eighteen and her parents force her to give the baby up for adoption. After she attempts to commit suicide, she is no longer physically able to have a child of her own. Obsessed by what she can no longer have, Natalie becomes involved in a series of drug dealings, kidnapping, and an attempted murder to get a child which she so desperately wants—even if it means seeking out and abducting her own daughter’s child.

The All Inclusive Handbook to Adopting a Child by KMS Publishing.com. This all-inclusive guide will take you throughout the entire adoption process, from beginning to the end. This book will give you information significant for helping you decide if adoption is right for you, how to prepare for it, how to speed up the adoption process, what to expect during the adoption process, how to handle drawbacks you might encounter, and how to handle sensitive situations concerning your adopted child.

Falling Through the Cracks by JLC Pulliam. What if you were a speech therapist responsible for two elementary school girls who couldn’t talk and you discovered something horrible had happened to make them that way? Then what if you found out they couldn’t speak because of you? Falling Through the Cracks is a novel about rebuilding a family after a murder.

Children of the Manse by Lewis Richard Luchs. A popular college town minister and his wife want to adopt a four-year-old girl but learn she has three older brothers and decide to welcome all four children into their home. They arrive from a bleak county children’s home, bringing with them invisible histories of neglect and abuse.

Aurelia’s Journey Home by Kim Oakes. Families are made in many ways, and adoption is one of the special ways that families can be created. Aurelia is coming from a far away land to be with her new family, and they are very excited about it. Hop on the plane and embark on Aurelia’s Journey Home.

Raven Summer by David Almond. Liam and his friend Max are playing in their neighborhood when the call of a bird leads them out into a field beyond their town. There, they find a baby lying alone atop a pile of stones—with a note pinned to her clothing. Mystified, Liam brings the baby home to his parents. They agree to take her in, but police searches turn up no sign of the baby’s parents. Finally they must surrender the baby to a foster family, who name her Allison. Visiting her in Northumberland, Liam meets Oliver, a foster son from Liberia who claims to be a refugee from the war there, and Crystal, a foster daughter.

Pieces of the Pearl by Teresa Ann Winton. Pieces of the Pearl: Memoirs of a Foster Child’s Triumphant Transformation tells the true-life story of Teresa Ann Winton, who invites you to journey into the depths of her soul where a vulnerable and profoundly sad little girl once lived. Teresa’s unstable home left her exposed to abuse, poverty, and neglect. Foster care, a system meant to help the helpless, brought even more trauma and loss. But in spite of it all, Teresa forged ahead, refusing to succumb to despair.

The Borrowed Wind by Dew Platt. Not borrowing the wind is out of the question. For every breath, the wind is borrowed. To honor his grandmother’s dying wish, Dave Evers must go back home unfulfilled. He finds himself swallowing harsh winds as he confronts his successful older brother, gasping at a mother’s betrayal he must uncover to find himself and losing his breath in love quite complicated with Leslie Brown. There is that whiff of murder he must take in, that smell of a cadaver when Barbara Landry turns up dead. He is prime suspect. But when his brother is arrested for the crime, he faces a different dilemma. He hadn’t done it? How hadn’t he done it? His brother is not talking, and Dave faces his harshest wind yet.

Pieces of Me by Robert L. Ballard. Pieces of Me: Who do I Want to Be? is a collection of stories, poems, art, music, quotes, activities, provocative questions, and more all for the young adopted person who wants to figure out his or her story but doesn’t know where to begin. A submission-based book with over 100 different pieces, this book was designed for the teen who happens to be adopted, but it will reach all those who live, love, and work with them.

Mississippi Moon by Theresa M. Lennon. In this autobiographical book, Theresa Lennon tells her story of survival of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as serious mental illness and addiction, including the birth and surrender to adoption of her two daughters.

From Child Welfare to Child Well-Being by Sheila Kamerman, Shelley Phipps and Asher Ben-Arieh, Editors. This unique volume is an outstanding tribute to Al Kahn one of the most influential researchers on children welfare in the 20th century and an impressive collection of 23 chapters written by leading researchers in the field. The book provides an exceptional opportunity to “experience” the history of the last 50 years of child welfare as well as its current status and future.

American Smile by Cody Young. A D-Day love story is uncovered, and a present day romance unfolds, when a young woman finds out that her family tree is a work of fiction. Emma Rowland searches for the truth about her ancestry, with the help of a shy American aircraft mechanic who already knows more than he is willing to say. A secret kept hidden since World War Two is revealed, and a DNA test comes back with surprising results.

The Black Squirrel Ball by Amy Liptak Caruso. Samantha Jane Cummings is organized, creative, and resourceful but terribly frustrated in her corporate job. With some prodding from her Aunt Reggie, she quits her job to take on a short-term assignment as the Fortieth Black Squirrel Ball coordinator at Peaceland Park, the event that her grandfather, the former superintendent of Peaceland Park, founded forty years ago. However, while working to ensure that every last detail of the event is perfect, Sam learns that the inaugural co-chairperson, Pauli Suarez, mysteriously died in the park the evening of the first ball.

Shadows of the Past by Lois D. Carlson. Ripped from her adoptive home and returned to Mack and Wanda, her abusive alcoholic father and controlling mother, Sheila struggles to survive in this chaotic environment. Traumatized by the separation from her only known parents, she is plagued with fears of abandonment. One day, an uncle mysteriously appears who provides an escape from this dysfunctional situation.

Perfectly Made by K.J. Adams. A children’s picture book.

UnSweetined by Jodie Sweetin. Jodie Sweetin grew up in front of America, melting our hearts and making us laugh for eight years as the cherub-faced middle child on Full House. Her ups and downs seemed not so different from our own, but more than a decade after the popular television show ended, the star we knew as goody-two-shoes Stephanie Tanner publicly revealed her shocking recovery from methamphetamine addiction. Even then, Jodie still kept a painful secret—one that could not be solved in thirty minutes with a hug, a stern talking-to, or a bowl of ice cream around the family table. The harrowing battle she swore she had won was really just beginning.

Curse of the Spider King by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper. The Seven succeeding Elven Lords of Allyra were dead, lost in the Siege of Berinfell as babes. At least that’s what everyone thought until tremors from a distant world known as Earth, revealed strange signs that Elven blood lived among its peoples. With a glimmer of hope in their hearts, sentinels are sent to see if the signs are true. But theirs is not a lone errand. The ruling warlord of Allyra, the Spider King, has sent his own scouts to hunt down the Seven and finish the job they failed to complete many ages ago. Now 13-year-olds on the brink of the Age of Reckoning when their Elven gifts will be manifest, discover the unthinkable truth that their adoptive families are not their only kin.

The Ultimate Book of Top Ten Lists by Listverse.com. A compendium of “Top 10” lists from the website, including some relating to both “bizaare relationships” and “amazing coincidences” involving adoptees.

Haven by Beverly Patt. Fourteen-year-old Latonya Dennison needs a home and, as luck would have it, Rudy Morris’s home is available. However, because Latonya is black and Rudy’s family is white, the foster care system is unwilling to make the placement. When Latonya, Rudy and Rudy’s goofball friend, Stark, take matters into their own hands, each discovers a unique definition of family, as well as a few surprises along the road.

The Serpent’s Tracks by Maurizio Salva. As Commissioner Alberto Ruggeri stands in the rain, flashes of lightning and a floodlight show a murdered man on a merry-go-round. Someone shot the victim, identified as a Romanian mason, once to the temple. A three-story building and a wooded area flank the playground that is now a crime scene. Now, Ruggeri must try to find out who the laborer is, why he was killed and who is to blame. His investigation leads him to the building nearby and its odd cast of characters.

Spinning Forward by Terri DuLong. Sydney Webster’s comfortable New England life comes crashing down when her husband dies suddenly, leaving her penniless and evicted. She had no idea about his huge gambling debts, and is getting no sympathy from her hurt and angry twenty-something daughter. With nowhere else to turn, Sydney takes shelter at a college friend’s B&B in Cedar key, FL, where she begins to form a plan.

Gay Fatherhood by Ellen Lewin. Men are often thought to have less interest in parenting than women, and gay men are generally assumed to prefer pleasure over responsibility. The toxic combination of these two stereotypical views has led to a lack of serious attention being paid to the experiences of gay fathers. But the truth is that more and more gay men are setting out to become parents and succeeding—and Gay Fatherhood aims to tell their stories.

Hot and Irresistible by Dianne Castell. In a city of history, mystery, and more than a few ghosts, four best friends who have never fit in anywhere except with each other are about to get close—and closer still—to four sexy bachelors with some very alluring secrets. Bebe Fitzpatrick’s hard upbringing taught her how to take care of herself, how to tell true friends from false, and how to be a good cop. She can also sweet-talk a man like she means it ... until she stumbles into the arms of a damn sexy Yankee who’s gunning for Savannah’s favorite shady entrepreneur.

Moonlight and Mistletoe by Dawn Temple. Small town through and through, Shayna Miller believes she was squarely placed in the world to help people, a trait she learned from “Daddy”—a man she shared no blood tie with but who adopted her as a child, and raised and loved her like she was his own. Shayna’s biological parents, a sleazy get-rich-quick scheming mother and a megalomaniac father with a false reputation on the line come slithering back into her life and threaten to expose a secret she has kept for nearly two decades.

October

International Children’s Rights by Sara Dillon. This book provides an exciting and comprehensive look at the main themes legal and political affecting international children’s rights today. Designed for use in both graduate and law school settings, it is divided into seven major topics: the role of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, child labor, children in the global sex industry, children without parental care, children and punishment, children and armed conflict, and finally children’s rights as interpreted and applied in regional human rights systems.

Happy Hour by Michele Scott. Jamie is editor-in-chief at Wine Lover’s Magazine, and a single mother. Kat is a sommelier, and co-owner of a restaurant with her chef husband Christian. Danielle is a vintner who finds herself entrenched in both an identity and family crises when her eldest daughter returns home from college with a bombshell of a secret. And Alyssa is an artist and gallery owner who must must face the skeleton in her closet and rely on her friends to see her through her darkest hours when a tragic past event catches up with her.

Brother-Sister Adoption Day by Linda Sakevich and C.J. Sakevich (Illustrator). This book honors the day your child became part of your family. Because of this event, you too, can celebrate “Adoption Day” as a holiday each year in your family. This story is about circling the globe to make a family complete. It tells of a child’s desire for a sibling through his or her own eyes. The book is variable to apply to a variety of sibling pairings to fit your family.

The Hidden One by Cyrus Nowia-Pahlavi. In 1971, an Iranian boy was hastily adopted by an American military family stationed in Teheran. The family was secretly paid thousands of dollars to swiftly get the boy out of Iran. After coming to America and enduring years of abuse by his adoptive father, the young man fled his adoptive family in 1997 and began a twelve-year quest to discover his true identity.

20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed by Sherrie Eldridge. In her groundbreaking first book, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, Sherrie Eldridge gave voice to the very real concerns of adopted children, whose unique perspectives offered unprecedented insight. In this all-new companion volume, Eldridge goes beyond those insights and shifts her focus to parents, offering them much-needed encouragement and hope.

Black Market Baby by Renee Clarke. Black Market Baby chronicles Clarke’s life journey and search for birth parents, evolving into an epic tale of illegitimate babies sold illegally through adoption rings operating in Montreal, Quebec, and the northeast United States during the ’30s, ’40s and early ’50s. This intriguing account is told against a backdrop of historical events from 1940 to the present day.

The Long Division by Derek Nikitas. An Atlanta housecleaner flees her nowhere life to reunite with the son she gave up for adoption. The teenage boy joins his long-lost mother on an unlawful road trip that proves how much they both have to lose by finding each other. Elsewhere, a deputy must track down the shooter in a drug-related double murder before other investigators discover the deputy’s illicit ties to the case.

My New Mommy by Lauren Barrett. Little Han Fumei is only a baby, but she is about to encounter some big changes. Han Fumei is a Chinese baby chosen to get a new mommy. But she’s afraid to leave the comfort of the orphanage. See what’s it like as nannies get her ready to leave China for her new life in America.

Randy’s Ride by Barbara Taylor Blomquist. Randy never felt like he fit in. Adopted when he was young, he never found his place within his family. Because of this disconnected feeling, Randy decided to set out on his own. Author Barbara Blomquist invites readers to come along on Randy’s Ride, a touching story of one young man’s journey to self-discovery.

How to Become an Adoptive Parent and Adopt a Child by Dannie Elwins. Discover tremendous and useful information inside of this book! In the areas that we can’t give specific information, we’ll give you guidelines for where to look so that you aren’t being bounced around when trying to figure it all out.

Adopted Twice by Richard Whatley. This book is about a boy who lived with his biological parents until he was seven years old. He was taken away from them along with his two younger brothers by the Welfare Department for child neglect. He lived in seven different foster homes and was adopted twice by the time he was ten years old. His second adopted parents were abusive toward him both physically and mentally. This book will tell about his experiences and the effect it had on him throughout his life.

Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd. Memories of mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school, and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes.

Susie Q Kitten, Is That Your Sister? by Carol Linden. Two adoptive sisters, Cherié and Susie Q, get into adventuresome trouble in Susie Q Kitten, Is That Your Sister? Susie Q is a beautiful white cat and Cherié a beautiful brown bunny. The girls learn the meaning of family and fun in this whimsical, lighthearted tale with a relevant message.

Adoptive Parents by Rae Simons. Some couples can’t have children, for a variety of reasons. Too many children don’t have families of their own to love and care for them. When these couples reach out to adopt, they gain the children they were longing for, and they also find a whole set of issues and complications, some of them unique to their situation.

Runaway Twin by Peg Kehret. A unique story for young readers of separated twins and the unexpected consequences of their reunion.

Gateway by Sharon Shinn. As a Chinese adoptee in St. Louis, teenage Daiyu often feels out of place. When an elderly Asian jewelry seller at a street fair shows her a black jade ring—and tells her that “black jade” translates to “Daiyu”—she buys it as a talisman of her heritage. But it’s more than that; it’s magic. It takes Daiyu through a gateway into a version of St. Louis much like 19th century China.

Busting Loose by Cheryl Swanson. Cheryl Swanson was inspired to write Busting Loose when a confluence of events had her undergoing treatment for breast cancer, adopting a child from Guatemala and writing her first suspense novel—all at the same time. Busting Loose shows women how they can use the light of their cancer experience to reveal the path to climb the mountains in their lives.

The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau. Zeeta’s life with her free-spirited mother, Layla, is anything but normal. Every year Layla picks another country she wants to live in. This summer they’re in Ecuador, and Zeeta is determined to convince her mother to settle down. Zeeta makes friends with vendors at the town market and begs them to think of upstanding, “normal” men to set up with Layla. There, Zeeta meets Wendell. She learns that he was born nearby, but adopted by an American family. His one wish is to find his birth parents, and Zeeta agrees to help him.

Highest Duty by Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. In this inspirational autobiography, Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, the airline pilot whose emergency landing on the Hudson River earned the world’s admiration, tells his life story and talks about the essential qualities that he believes have been so vital to his success.

Pinocchio’s Dream by Paul W. Wright. A journey of discovery! It’s a journey that took 43 years, but I now have answers to questions I was never allowed to ask and I owe it all to luck. The last living person who knew the truth about my birth broke her vow of silence after watching a TV program. A TV program that showed the reunion of a man with his birth mother. She decided that I deserved to know about “the rich heritage that I came from” [her words]. The poems here were written before and after my discovery and cover the spectrum of emotion.

Not Lost Forever by Carmina Salcido, with Steve Jackson. For those who remember Carmina Salcido only as the sole surviving victim of the 1989 mass murders committed by farm worker Ramón Salcido, this book tells the story of what followed: how she was adopted by a Catholic extremist family who tried to change her name and bury her past; how she tried to escape their sheltering influence by joining a Carmelite convent and then a ranch for troubled girls; and how the psychological trials she endured along the way nearly broke her spirit—until, at last, she found peace by turning to the one relative still alive to share her grief: her grandfather.

Once in a Blue Moon by Eileen Goudge. Lindsay and Kerrie Ann are sisters who have known hardship from an early age. Without guidance from their neglectful mother, their only aid came from an unlikely source, a retired exotic dancer by the name of Miss Honi Love. When the girls’ mother was sent to prison, Miss Honi tried unsuccessfully to save them from being separated and sent into foster care. Thirty years later, Lindsay is still trying to reconnect with her sister.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart and Diana Sudyka (Illustrator). Join the Mysterious Benedict Society as Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance embark on a daring new adventure that threatens to force them apart from their families, friends, and even each other. When an unexplained blackout engulfs Stonetown, the foursome must unravel clues relating to a nefarious new plot, while their search for answers brings them closer to danger than ever before.

The Ball’s in Her Court by Heather Justesen. Growing up in the foster care system was no picnic, but after being adopted into a loving LDS family, playing college basketball, and launching her career in the software industry, Denise Dewalt finally feels as though she’s left her former life behind her. What she doesn’t realize is that she must confront her past if she ever wants to move on to a brighter future. While her search for her biological family isn’t an easy one, Denise s biggest fear is that even when she finds her family, she’ll have nothing to give Rich, the only man who can see past the tragedies of her childhood.

Unleashed by Jami Alden. Tall, dark and rippling with muscle, Danny Taggart takes no prisoners. But when his latest case puts him up close and personal with the woman who once left him raw and aching, he’s shell-shocked. Caroline Medford is still hotter than hell. But she’s also got her pretty grip on the truths that have shaped him into the soul-ravaged warrior he is today. Burned once, Danny’s plan is to satisfy his craving for Caroline and walk away. Yet once he has her warm and willing beneath him, he can’t get deep enough—or close enough. Not even when danger threatens to destroy everything he’s ever fought for. Including the only woman he’s ever loved.

The Last Word by Kathy Herman. When Vanessa Jessup returns home from her sophomore year of college, her mother, Police Chief Brill Jessup, is stunned to see that she’s pregnant—by one of her professors. Brill is glad Vanessa rejected the father’s abortion ultimatum, but hurt that she ignored her upbringing and angry that the professor has disappeared without a trace.

The Swiss Courier by Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey. It is August 1944 and the Gestapo is mercilessly rounding up suspected enemies of the Third Reich. When Joseph Engel, a German physicist working on the atomic bomb, finds that he is actually a Jew, adopted by Christian parents, he must flee for his life to neutral Switzerland. Gabi Mueller is a young Swiss-American woman working for the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA) close to Nazi Germany. When she is asked to risk her life to safely “courier” Engel out of Germany, the fate of the world rests in her hands.

One Week in December by Holly Chamberlin. The Rowans’ rambling Maine farmhouse is just big enough to contain the family members gathered there in the week before Christmas. Becca Rowan has driven north from Boston with one thought in mind—reclaiming the daughter she gave up when she was a frightened teenager. Raised by Becca’s older brother and his wife, Rain Rowan, now sixteen, has no idea she was adopted. And though Becca agreed not to reveal the truth until Rain turned twenty-one, lately that promise, along with all her career success, counts for little in the face of her loneliness and longing.

A Summer of Silk Moths by Margaret Willey. Seventeen-year-old Pete Shelton is working “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Abe McMichaels, a “silent type” who lived with Pete’s adoptive family for six years. They’re creating a public nature preserve along the St. Joe River in Buchanan, Mich., in memory of Abe’s older brother Paul, a gifted naturalist who died in a car accident 15 years earlier. The past is stirred up with the unexpected arrival of Nora, Paul’s never-before-seen teenage daughter who is fleeing a “creepy stepdad” and a tempestuous relationship with her embittered mother.

September

Policy and Practice Implications from the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) Study by ERA Study Team. The English Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study is a remarkable exploration of the experiences of children whose early lives in Romanian institutions were unimaginably poor and who were then adopted into English families with all the material, emotional and social advantages that this brings. This publication focuses on the policy and practice implications of what has been learned through this 17-year longitudinal study. Rather than focusing on the research findings as such, which have been reported upon elsewhere, this publication tackles those questions most often posed by practitioners and policy makers.

Tripping with Gabrielle by Julie Harrell. Tripping with Gabrielle is a story of one woman’s soul survival. Gabrielle is a German adoptee who begins life early on with a biological father who is so abusive he tries to kill her the night she is born. She is placed into a Catholic orphanage that provides a minimal amount of childcare, including one diaper change per day. Fortune shines upon this little baby when her real father and mother, a special Army couple, find and immediately fall in love with her. Gabrielle finally leaves Germany on a ship with her new family, and begins her American journey into the angst-ridden, child then teenage world that we know as the USA.

The Boy from Baby House 10 by Alan Philps and John Lahutsky. Subtitled “From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America,” this book tells the story of Vanya (co-author John Lahutsky), a Russian boy who, after being abandoned by his mother and relegated to the vagaries of a Russian orphange, is ultimately adopted by Paula Lahutsky, a single American woman, with the help of Sarah Philps, wife of co-author Alan Philps.

Someone’s Daughter by Aurette Bowes. Someone’s Daughter is the author’s own true account of how, as an adult, she learned that she is not her parents’ biological child, but was adopted by them as a baby in a closed adoption. The book tells of the profound and permanent impact this discovery had on her life and that of her family. It documents the search for her birth mother, their reunion and the development of their relationship thereafter.

A Foster-Adoption Story: Angela and Michael’s Journey by Regina M. Kupecky L.S.W. and Christine Mitchell (Illustrator). A therapeutic workbook designed to open the door to discussion of difficult topics associated the experiences of children going from foster care to adoption, and to help them process their experiences and grief along the path to healing.

The First Excellence by Donna Carrick. Join Fa-ling on an incredible journey into the heart of mainland China as she sets out to discover the land of her birth. In order to determine her future, Fa-ling must first unlock the mysteries of her past. To this end, she travels with a Canadian adoption group to the exotic southern province of Guang-Xi Zhuang. Searching for her lost heritage, Fa-ling encounters murder, kidnapping, political intrigue and organ theft. Together with Detective Wang Yong-qi and his brilliant but uncouth partner Cheng Minsheng, Fa-ling must uncover a high-stakes kidnapping plot—before another child goes missing!

Adoption Made Easy by Manuel Ortiz Braschi (Editor). Downloadable e-book that will tell you everything you need to know about adopting a child.

The Million Dollar Demise by R.M. Johnson. Picking up where The Million Dollar Deception left off, Freddy Ford knocks on Nate Kenny’s door, storms into the house, and shoots both Nate and his ex-wife Monica. But he doesn’t stop there—before driving off, Freddy manages to escape with little Nathaniel, Nate and Monica’s beloved adopted son, while little Layla sleeps upstairs. Nate is expected to survive the brutal attack, but Monica is left in a coma, and doctors are not certain that she will ever recover. When Lewis Waters—Freddy’s best friend and Layla’s actual father—visits the hospital to see Monica, Nate bargains with him: if Lewis can get Freddy arrested, Nate will give him back his little girl.

Yushi and the Tall Man by Tami Staut and Colleen Comer (Illustrator). Left tightly swaddled near the steps of a hospital, this precious child is like thousands of babies abandoned each year in China. The baby is found by a police officer and taken to an orphanage. There Yushi must share a crib with several other babies until her “forever family” arrives. After fourteen months, a loving father and tender brother take Yushi home to their family where they promise to love and care for her forever.

While We Wait by Heidi Schlumpf. Written by a mother while she struggled through the adoption process herself, While We Wait is a hope-filled collection of reflections on the everyday, practical aspects of adoption that offers a spiritual grounding for frustrated and stressed-out prospective parents.

Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children by Abbie E. Goldberg. This title provides a comprehensive overview of the research on same-sex parenthood, exploring ways in which lesbian and gay parents resist, accommodate, and transform fundamental notions of gender, parenting, and family. It integrates both qualitative and quantitative research. It highlights understudied aspects of same-sex parenting, such as termination of couple relationships. It offers practical recommendations in every chapter.

Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children in Care by R.J. (Seán) Cameron and Colin Maginn. In this book, which is essential reading for carers, commissioners, policymakers, support professionals, designated teachers and students of social work, the authors explain why the problems of children and young people in public care have resisted governemntal efforts to improve personal, social and educational outcomes, and how achieving positive outcomes for children in care is possible when the root causes of failure are tackled.

Developmental Psychology for Family Law Professionals by Benjamin Garber, Ph.D. Developmental Psychology for Family Law Professionals serves as a practical application of developmental theory to the practice of family law. This book helps family law and mental health professionals gain a broader understanding of each child’s unique needs when in the midst of family crisis. It presents developmental theories with which professionals might better assess the developmental needs, synchronies, and trajectories of a given child.

Before You Finalize the Adoption by Joyce Vrooman. In Before You Finalize the Adoption: The Pre-Adoption Workbook, author Joyce Vrooman provides advice and information for parents who are thinking about adopting a child. Based on personal experience, Vrooman developed this workbook to guide parents through the adoption process to ensure they are knowledgeable and informed.

The Missing by Beverly Lewis. Twenty-one-year-old Amishwoman Grace Byler longs to find her missing mother and to uncover the secret that drove her to leave them three weeks before. “Englisher” Heather Lang has come to Amish country to relive fond memories of her mother and to contemplate a grave medical prognosis of her own. While in Bird-in-Hand, Heather meets Grace Byler and the two young women strike up a fast friendship, amazed by how well they click. Following the only clue they have, Grace and Heather travel together in hopes of finding Grace’s mother and bringing her home. Will they find what they’re looking for...or something much more?

The Water Giver by Joan Ryan. Joan Ryan spends months with her son in the hospital and in rehab, watching him fight to survive a traumatic brain injury. In her memoir of the experience, Ryan retraces the tumultuous, complicated relationship that delivers mother and son to this moment when, through his brush with death and his painful rehabilitation, they are challenged to redefine who they are and what they mean to each other.

‘Bananas, Bastards and Victims’? by Kim Michele Gray. Intercountry adoption emerged in Australia in the 1970s, at the end of the Vietnam War and with each new decade the adoption community and broader society have become more aware of the challenges and complexities of the adoptee experience. This book addresses the dearth of sociological literature available on the topic and considers the diverse experiences of Australian intercountry adoptees.

The Pink Guide to Adoption for Lesbians and Gay Men by Nicola Hill. The Pink Guide to Adoption is the very first guide in the United Kingdom for lesbians and gay men considering adoption. The book outlines the process and explains what prospective adopters should expect and the stages they will have to go through, as well as providing case studies of lesbians and gay men, both couples and single adopters, at various stages in the adoption process.

What Works in Foster Care? by Peter J. Pecora, Ronald C. Kessler, Jason Williams, A. Chris Downs, Diana J. English, James White, and Kirk O’Brien. In one of the most comprehensive studies of adults formerly in foster care ever conducted, the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study found that quality foster care services for children pay big dividends when they grow into adults. The results of this unparalleled study document not only the more favorable outcomes for youth who receive better services but the overall return when an investment is made in high quality foster care: every dollar invested in a child generates $1.50 in benefits to society. These findings form the core of this book’s blueprint for reform.

Obtaining Grants to Fund Your Adoption by Mardie Caldwell (Producer). Audio CD that offers advice and information about obtaining grants to fund the adoption process.

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult. When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle-bone disease), they are devastated—she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. In order to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte files a wrongful-birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, hoping that the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance—words that her husband cannot abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. In a subplot addressing the question of what it means to be a mother from a different perspective, Marin Gates, an attorney employed at the firm retained by Charlotte in her lawsuit, is searching for her own answers and the birth mother who gave her up.

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore. As the United States begins gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, the Midwestern daughter of a gentleman hill farmer—his “Keltjin potatoes” are justifiably famous—has come to a university town as a college student, her brain on fire with Chaucer, Sylvia Plath, Simone de Beauvoir. Between semesters, she takes a job as a part-time nanny. The family she works for seems both mysterious and glamorous to her, and although Tassie had once found children boring, she comes to care for, and to protect, their newly adopted little girl as her own.

This Book is Not Good for You by Pseudonymous Bosch. In this third book in the author’s “Secret” series (which began with The Name of This Book is Secret [2007] and continued in If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late [2008]), the adoptive origins of the 11-year-old heroine, Cassandra (a/k/a Cass), are revealed.

A Christmas Chanukah Wish by Irene Buggy and Ileana Nadal (Illustrator). Katie’s family celebrates Christmas and Chanukah every year. Each holiday season, Katie wishes for a baby brother or sister. After several years, Katie’s wish comes true in a surprising and wonderful way.

It’s Not About Him by Michelle Sutton. Susie passed out while drinking at Jeff’s party and later discovered she’s pregnant. She has no idea who the father is and considers having an abortion, but instead decides to place her baby for adoption. Following through ends up being more wrenching than she imagined, but she’s determined to do the right thing for her baby.

Brodie and The Yeti by Dennis Robert Komick. A heartwarming story for children of all ages with messages about family, adoption, cooperation, adventure, and friendship throughout. — Bobbi Jean Greenseth, First Grade Elementary School Teacher

Standing in Two Places by Ashley Dyson. Standing in Two Places is a moving memoir that tells the story of a journey through the controversial practice of surrogacy. Ashley Dyson is the intended mother who, after enthusiastically entering a surrogacy arrangement with Norah, suddenly finds herself stuck in a sort of motherhood purgatory: she is a mother of a three-year-old daughter and an unpregnant mother-to-be of a baby growing inside the womb of another woman four states away.

August

Anya’s Gift by Sandy Jones and Pam Yourell (Illustrator). Anya’s Gift: A Tale of Two Christmases is the fully illustrated story of Anya, a dejected orphan who is sent by Father Frost, the Russian Spirit of Winter, on a magical sleigh ride with his good friend, Santa Claus. On the journey, Anya comes to understand the mother she never knew, and the life she desperately desires. She is soon to discover that dreams do come true! This is a verse-style story celebrating adoptive families and the true meaning of Christmas.

Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip are reeling from the news that they’re both missing children from history, kidnapped from their proper time period. Before they can fully absorb this revelation, a time purist named JB zaps Chip and another boy, Alex, back to the fifteenth century, where they supposedly belong. Determined not to lose their friends, Jonah and his sister, Katherine, grab Chip’s arms just as he’s being sent away. The result? Jonah and Katherine also end up in the fifteenth century, where they decidedly do not belong.

To Be a Mother by Deanna Jones. Follow as Deanna Jones takes you through her difficult childhood and painful abortion decision to miraculous redemption in Christ and victory in the birth and adoption of her children. To Be A Mother reminds us that in Christ we find true empowerment and fulfillment as the Lord turns our ashes into crowns of beauty.

The Best for You by Kelsey Stewart. Adoption is about love for the child, not that the child was not wanted. This heart warming book is aimed to help children and parents understand what one birth mother was thinking when she decided to adopt. Written in her perspective, she tells her child the reasons why she chose adoption for her baby.

Every 10th Starfish by Sandy Knauer. How does a psychotherapist raise an abused, headstrong, 15-year-old foster child in a family of five? You will see what many foster families go through in order to heal the physical and mental damage in this remarkably revealing story.

You Can Adopt by Susan Caughman and Isolde Motley. From Adoptive Families magazine, the country’s leading resource on adoption, this warm, authoritative book is full of practical, realistic advice from leading attorneys, doctors, social workers, and psychologists, as well as honest, intimate stories from real parents and children.

Major Inversions by Gordon Highland. Your roommate says you should date more... , [t]hat this quicksand town of floozies, fiends, and filmmakers will survive without your commercial jingles. ... [a]nd [t]hat you should turn in your daytime security-guard badge and settle down. He’s got the perfect girl.... Always lurking in the periphery, the roommate remains buried in his Master’s thesis, the parasitic puppeteer behind your reinvention, the search for your birth parents, and your all-too-brief film scoring career.

Tough Choices by Ekaterina Hertog. As is the case in Western industrialized countries, Japan is seeing a rise in the number of unmarried couples, later marriages, and divorces. What sets Japan apart, however, is that the percentage of children born out of wedlock has hardly changed in the past fifty years. This book provides the first systematic study of single motherhood in contemporary Japan.

Berlin Connection by Lily Scheel. Middle-aged and still reeling from her four-year-old divorce, Dee spends her days helping people piece together their family histories and worrying about the day her adopted daughter Jill will meet her birth mother. But when Dee meets seventy-four-year-old Mikhail, she is drawn from her life in present-day Seattle to war-torn Europe a half-century earlier.

My Adoption, My Search, and My Right to Know by Rick L. Weiner. The author’s self-published story of his determination to find his natural parents, while maintaining the love and devotion that he holds for his adoptive parents; how he went about searching, with all its successes and failures; and an outline of some of the many adoption laws which vary from state to state that are in place to protect both of the families and how he was able to overcome his fears and follow his dreams.

A Dress for Anna by Deborah Amend. A Dress for Anna: The Redemption of the Life of a Ukrainian Orphan tells the fascinating story of how God led Deborah and Rob Amend to adopt a handicapped preschooler from an orphanage in Ukraine, and intricately knit her into their family. Beginning with the circumstances that opened their hearts to adoption, continuing through the entire process, and culminating with the difficult adjustments for Anna as she experiences life in a new culture, this book honestly shares the struggles, grief, and joy the Amend family faced as they followed God down the rocky path of international adoption.

Out of Many One Family by Bart and Claudia Fletcher. Are they all yours? Do you run a day care? Is this a youth group? Why didn’t you want to have any children of your own? These are questions faced often by parents of large families, but especially by adoptive parents. What makes the Fletcher family s story unique is that their twelve children all came home within twelve years.

Back Again to Me by Gretchen Hirsch. According to the author, this book is about women and the ways we relate to each other as mothers and daughters, sisters, and friends, and also to the men in our lives. The story is simple: The narrator, Corrin, is a widowed working mom with a sixteen-year-old daughter, Shelley. Shelley is clearly a highly gifted child, but she becomes pregnant. The rest of the book is about the decision the family must make about keeping the child or surrendering him for adoption. It’s about hard choices and growing up.

Within Striking Distance by Ingrid Weaver. Ever since she learned she was adopted, Becky Peters has dreamed of finding her birth parents. When a prominent NASCAR family reveals their daughter was kidnapped at birth, Becky dares to hope...to believe. Could she be “the lost Grosso”? Private Investigator Jake McMaster knows he’s in trouble the moment Becky walks into his office. With Becky stirring a lot more than his protective instincts, Jake’s determined to keep his professional distance...until she becomes the target of someone just as determined to keep certain secrets buried.

July

The Girl in the Orange Dress by Margot Starbuck. “Chosen.” “Special.” Those are the words Margot Starbuck used to describe herself as a child adopted into a loving family. And when her adoptive parents divorced, her dad moved east, and her mom and dad each got remarried, she told herself that she was extra loved, since she had more than two parents and people in different times zones who cared about her. But the word she really believed about herself was rejected.

Porkpie by Paul McGoran. Just picture this—the hunky casino dealer you met in Las Vegas turns around and marries your stepsister for her money, but you go ahead and have an affair with him anyway. And then you find out a bible-quoting P.I. suspects him of two brutal murders back in Vegas. What would you do—help him bribe the detective, turn him in to the cops, or run like hell before he decides to cut your throat?

Cutting Edge by Allison Brennan. When security specialist Duke Rogan’s state-of-the-art computer system fails at a controversial bio-tech firm, a raging inferno spreads, and a grotesquely charred body is discovered in the aftermath. With an extremist anti-technology group claiming responsibility, the case grows even more complex when the victim’s autopsy unexpectedly reveals that he bled to death. Heading the FBI’s domestic terrorism unit, Agent Nora English is fiercely determined to track and stop a sadistic assassin.

The Anatomy of Evil by Michael H. Stome. The crimes of Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, and other high-profile killers are so breathtakingly awful that most people would not hesitate to label them ’evil’. In this ground-breaking book, renowned psychiatrist Michael H Stone—host of Discovery Channel’s former series Most Evil—uses this common emotional reaction to horrifying acts as his starting point to explore the concept and reality of evil from a new perspective. Basing his analysis on the detailed biographies of over 600 violent criminals, Stone has created a 22-level hierarchy of evil behaviour, which loosely reflects the structure of Dante’s Inferno.

The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne. Taut, gripping, and edgy, The Last Bridge is an intense novel of family secrets, darkest impulses, and deep-seated love. Teri Coyne has created a stunning tapestry of pain and passion where past and present are seamlessly interwoven to tell a story that sears and warms in equal measure.

A Family of Choice by Paul Hampsch. Having been partners for many years, Paul Hampsch and his life partner, Domenic, made the decision together to adopt. But finding an adoption agency that would even consider allowing a single gay man and his partner to adopt was quite a challenge. With the support of friends and family, Paul was surrounded by blessings and felt sure he would eventually be able to adopt.

What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen. In 1999, Cohen was a 44-year-old divorcee raising an adopted daughter and dating a 34-year-old fellow performer. Her gynecological history was bleak—a DES daughter with an abnormal uterus, she had been told she was infertile and believed herself to be on the brink of menopause. When a hard lump appeared in her abdomen, she feared it was cancer. After some absurd misdiagnoses, however, she learned that she was six-months pregnant.

A Princess Found by Sarah Culberson and Tracy Trivas. Sarah Culberson was adopted one year after her birth by a loving, white, West Virginian couple and was raised in the United States with little knowledge of her ancestry. Though raised in a loving family, Sarah wanted to know more about the birth parents that had given her up. In 2004, she hired a private investigator to track down her biological father.

So You Want to Be a Foster Parent—What Do You Want to Do That For? by Suzanne Grummell and Tom Grummell. Guidance from one foster parent to another: navigating the system to provide a caring and protective environment for the children you will grow to love. 20% of the sale of each book will be donated to the Daisy’s Eye Cancer Fund to help families access essential life and sight saving treatment for their children who are affected by retinoblastoma eye cancer.

International Adoption by Diana Marre and Laura Briggs, editors. Transnational adoption has been marked by the geographies of unequal power, as children move from poorer countries and families to wealthier ones, yet little work has been done to synthesize its complex and sometimes contradictory effects. Rather than focusing only on the United States, as much previous work on the topic does, International Adoption considers the perspectives of a number of sending countries as well as other receiving countries, particularly in Europe.

White Mother to a Dark Race by Margaret D. Jacobs. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, indigenous communities in the United States and Australia suffered a common experience at the hands of state authorities: the removal of their children to institutions in the name of assimilating American Indians and protecting Aboriginal people. White Mother to a Dark Race takes the study of indigenous education and acculturation in new directions in its examination of the key roles white women played in these policies of indigenous child-removal.

June

Adoption by Tracey Vasil Biscontini, editor. A volume in Greenhaven Press’s “Issues on Trial” series, various issues in adoption are examined through a review of court cases that touch on the relevant topics, including Protecting the Parental Rights of Unmarried Fathers; Defining the Rights of Fathers of Illegitimate Children in Adoption Cases; whether Putative Fathers Must Register to Protect Their Right to Contest Adoptions; and Denying Same-Sex Couples the Right to Adopt.

The Heartbreak Option by Lori D. Cartagena. This is the amazing-but-true story of Lori Dawn Cartagena, a glamorous young Australian entertainer who traveled to America after spending over twelve months, from 1968 to 1969, entertaining American and Australian troops in Vietnam during the war, who was reunited with the son she had given up for adoption in the United States after 34 years.

The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley. Kat’s true identity is a secret, even from her. All she has ever known are Grace and Anna and their small village. Kat wants more—more than hours spent embroidering finery for wealthy ladies and more than Christian, the gentle young farmer courting her. Then a stranger appears in their cottage, bringing the mystery of Kat’s birth with her. In one night, Kat’s destiny finds her.

Coming Together by Joyce Norman and Joy Collins. Coming Together is a story of love, intrigue, and hard choices, where life and death are constant reminders of making the wrong decisions. Lives are at stake when Daisy, Luis, and Isabella take on the Brazilian dictatorship in order to bring freedom and a future to those who matter most.

Lately’s Home by L.N. Cronk and S.N. Whitfield (Illustrator). An adoption alegory for young children utilizing the behaviors of African indigobirds and red-billed firefinches. The idigobitrds lay their eggs in the nests of red-billed firefinches, who then raise the indigobird chicks along with their own brood.

Web of Secrets by Ernesto Patino. A phone call from a blackmailer turned Sarah’s life upside down. The man claimed to know the circumstances of her illegal adoption thirty years ago. He also revealed some shocking facts about her real parents. Rather than have the blackmailer go public with the information and risk her husband’s career, she agreed to a one-time payoff. Their situation was far from resolved, and doubts about her heritage put a strain on their once ideal marriage.

Fugitive Visions by Jane Jeong Trenka. Whenever she speaks to a stranger in her native Korea, Jane Jeong Trenka is forced to explain what she is. Japanese? Chinese? The answer—that she was adopted from Korea as a baby and grew up in the United States—is a source of grief, pride, and confusion. The powerful second memoir by the author of the widely acclaimed The Language of Blood.

Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice. Still reeling from divorce and feeling estranged from her teenage son, Trish Taylor is in the midst of salvaging the remnants of her life when she uncovers a shocking secret: her sister is alive. For years Trish believed that her mother and infant sister had died in a car accident. But the truth is that her mother fatally overdosed and that Trish’s grandparents put the baby girl up for adoption because her father was black.

A Life Worth Living by Nick Rogen. Nick Rogen is your average small-town teenager until his mother’s bipolar disorder interrupts his youth and forces him into a world full of suicide attempts, doctors, and memory-erasing electroshock treatments. He tries everything from backpacking around Europe to winning a fridge on The Price is Right to help find meaning in his crumbling life. It isn’t until his family drags him across the world to China that he begins to find hope and the inspiration to clean up his life through their adoption of an abandoned Chinese girl.

A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families by Colleen Sell. The newest volume from the beloved and bestselling Cup of Comfort® series is sure to resonate with the thousands of happy couples who adopt children every year—and those looking to become mothers and fathers.

Drowning River by Kim Byrne. “I thought you were dead.” Those were the last words Elise Moloney expected to hear when she came to Wickman College as a graduate student. Nestled along the windswept dunes and seacoast of Cape Cod, Wickman was home to a tragedy the year before when troubled Hannah McPhee fell from a bridge into the freezing currents of the Drowning River. With gasps and stares, Elise’s fellow grad students insist she is a dead ringer for Hannah.

The Love I Never Had by Sheila T. Williams. An adopted child has so many emotional issues. We feel anger, grief, pain, joy, happiness, and love. The emotions I thought were laid to rest with the passing of my parents have re-emerged with the knowledge of my birth family. My life expressed in poetry, is how I have been able to deal with so many unanswered questions.

Trouble by Kate Christensen. Manhattan therapist Josie realizes her long marriage to her professor husband Anthony is over. It’s all very civilized. Anthony is sad but agreeable while their precocious 11-year-old daughter Wendy, adopted as an infant from China, decides to stay in the apartment with Anthony. Meanwhile, Josie’s half Mexican college friend Raquel, now a major singing star, is targeted by scandal blogs after her affair with a television hunk half her age. Hiding from the media in Mexico City, Raquel asks Josie to keep her company, and Josie, on a two-week Christmas break from her practice, agrees.

Parenting Adopted Adolescents by Gregory C. Keck, Ph.D. In his newest release, Dr. Gregory C. Keck offers new insights and parenting strategies relative to adolescents, especially adopted adolescents. Parents will find humor and relief as they realize their role in their child’s journey.

Monster Baby by Dian Curtis Regan and Doug Cushman (Illustrator). Mrs. Oliver’s dreams have come true when her husband finds a tiny baby on the doorstep of their farmhouse. He looks like any other newborn—well, except for the fur, the tail, the pointy teeth, and the horns. But to Mrs. Oliver, he is beautiful.

Liberian Adoption by Angel Q. Rutledge. A must-have resource guide for any family adopting a child from Liberia. It’s one thing to make it through the process of adopting internationally; it’s an entirely different thing to be properly prepared for a child’s homecoming. In this book, written by Liberia Adoption Coordinator Angel Rutledge, adoptive families learn about the history of Liberia, cultural influences that affect Liberian adoptions, common post adoption challenges, medical issues, and how to ensure the best transition possible for their family and child.

Adoption is a Loving Choice by Troy Strausbaugh. Cora and Liam are searching for answers on how to start their family. After four years of marriage they decided to adopt. After filling out the paperwork their dreams were put on hold for an extra year because of Cora’s age. Their social worker called them about a young girl about to give birth searching for a family.

God Found Us You by Lisa Tawn Bergren and Laura J. Bryant (Illustrator). Another story of adoption for very young children utilizing anthropomorphised foxes, with a decidedly religious slant. From the same team that wrote God Gave Us You and its sequel, God Gave Us Two.

Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert. To fans of Little House on the Prairie, Melissa Gilbert grew up in a fantasy world with a larger-than-life father, friends and family she could count on, and plenty of animals to play with. She was a natural on camera, but behind the scenes, life was more complicated. Adopted as a baby into a legendary show business family, Melissa wrestled with questions about her identity and struggled to maintain an image of perfection her mother created and enforced. Only after years of substance abuse, dysfunctional relationships, and made-for-television movies did she begin to figure out who she really was.

The Finishing Touches by Hester Browne. Twenty-seven years ago, an infant turned up on the Academy’s doorstep, with a note tacked to her blanket by an elegant golden brooch—Please take care of my baby. I want her to grow up to be a proper lady. Loved by Lady Frances Phillimore and her kindhearted staff, Betsy grew up aspiring to be an Academy girl. But when Franny and her husband, Lord Phillimore, advise Betsy to instead hone her considerable math skills at college, she brokenheartedly leaves behind the only family she’s known.

Adoptees: Webster’s Timeline History, 1789-2007 by ICON Group International. Webster’s bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on “Adoptees,” including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Adoptees in their name).

Wish You Were Here by Annie P. Scott. This novel, based on true events, pulls the reader inside the intimate and chaotic lives of soul mates Bella and Alexander. Together they share their darkest demons and brightest dreams and even though life sweeps them down opposite paths, they always gravitate to each other. Alexander is pulled to the brink of insanity as an early morning phone call opens the possibility that life, as he knew it, was gone.

Star of the Week by Darlene Friedman and Roger Roth (Illustrator). It’s Cassidy-Li’s turn to be Star of the Week at school! So she’s making brownies and collecting photos for her poster. She has pictures of all the important people in her life—with one big exception. Cassidy-Li, adopted from China when she was a baby, doesn’t have a photo of her birth parents.

The Generosity of Women by Courtney Eldridge. Short-story author Eldridge gives distinctive voice to six very different characters in her challenging debut novel. Each character has a story to tell, and Eldrige employs an elliptical style that forces the reader to approach each woman’s story from the outside. It takes a while to fully grasp the various overlapping conflicts that compel the plot, but readers willing to do the work will be rewarded with a rich, emotionally and intellectually engaging experience.

Adopting Alesia by Dee Thompson. What do you do when you encounter a spirited little girl in a Russian orphanage and know in your heart that she is yours and you have to adopt her? For single, childless, 40-year-old Dee Thompson, it began with an astonishing dream of a little girl reaching out to her. Meeting the little girl led to an almost two year odyssey that changed Dee forever.

Perfect Piece by Rebeca Seitz. Perfect Piece is the fourth and final book in the Sisters, Ink series of books. At the center of each are four unlikely young adult sisters, each separately adopted during early childhood into the loving home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair. The Sinclair sisterhood is about to be rocked from its foundation when Meg—the bedrock sibling most like Momma—collapses with a brain tumor. Surgery removes the invading mass but leaves a sister full of mood swings, depression, anger, and bitterness.

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Allison Bottke. Fifty-something salon owner Susan Anderson was once a New York mover and shaker, but now she is a successful businesswoman on the Las Vegas strip. Her husband is set to retire, and Susan’s calm life is about to explode. The debut entry in a new series for baby boomers.

Scared by Tom Davis. Stuart Daniels has hit bottom. Once a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist, he is reeling from debt, a broken marriage, and crippling depression. The source of Stuart’s grief is his most famous photo, a snapshot of brutality in the dangerous Congo. A haunting image that indicts him as a passive witness to gross injustice. Stuart is given one last chance to redeem his career: A make-or-break assignment covering the AIDS crisis in a small African country.

Razor Sharp by Fern Michaels. A Friend In Need...Needs The Sisterhood. When it comes to repaying a debt, the women of the Sisterhood —Myra, Annie, Kathryn, Alexis, Yoko, Nikki, and Isabelle—never forget. And now one of their allies needs help only they can give. A powerful attorney with a cut-throat reputation, Lizzie Fox has just taken on a high-profile new client—Lily Flowers, the Madam of a high-end bordello operating under the guise of a summer camp.

May

Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore. A stirring call to Christian families and churches to be a people who care for orphans, not just in word, but in deed. The gospel of Jesus Christ—the good news that through Jesus we have been adopted as sons and daughters into God’s family—means that Christians ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans in North America and around the world.
Three’s Company by Terri Griffin. Terri Griffin as she tells the true story of her daughter’s adoption through the eyes of a family of ducks. This tender story will warm hearts and perhaps inspire others to consider fostering children who are in desperate need of being shown God’s love.
Dare to Love by Heather T. Forbes. Emerging science has helped us to understand children better from a neurological and behavioral standpoint. Yet, all the academic research coupled with the best diagnoses for children can still leave parents feeling completely powerless. In her book, Dare to Love, Heather Forbes, LCSW, describes in detail, through a series of questions and answers, how to merge science into everyday parenting.
Alexis and Ralph the Dragon by Bernard Kowalski and Dawn Phillips (Illustrator). This children’s book tells the story of a baby dragon left on a human couple’s doorstep. Raised as a little boy, Ralph doesn’t know he’s a Dragon until he meets other children. Befriended by a little girl Alexis, they discover acceptance, and learn to celebrate their differences and how much they have in common.
In a House Overlooking the Sea by John Graham. This is the autobiography of John Graham ... a nuclear scientist, a world traveler, a multi-marathon runner, a writer with over twenty books, and an art lover, and, more than all of these, a family man who has been blessed with two families, forty years apart.
Darkness on a Sunny Day by Heidi Cox. Imagine a one-year-old already understanding the meaning of anger and hatred. That was me. After being juggled around for the first six months of my life and then landing in a foster home where I felt safe, I already had abandonment issues. Then, by six, imagine remembering being taken away from a family that you thought would be forever. Even though a dream had come true, I never really came to terms with my new family because I thought I already had one. Years later, I figured it out. Their intentions were only good, loving, and caring to a child who didn’t have any love left to spare.
Tillmon County Fire by Pamela Ehrenberg. In tiny Tillmon County a mysterious fire rocks the lives of the teenagers who live there. Who set the fire that night, and more importantly, who owns the reasons behind it? This novel-in-stories is told in the voices of its disparate cast of characters: a frustrated adoptee, a gay teenager, a pregnant store clerk, and a boy with autism, who is more at the center of events than he imagines. Pamela Ehrenberg’s gift for compelling storytelling makes this a memorable and moving work of fiction for teenage readers.
Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw. Sixteen-year-old Adam is an orphan three times over. He and his older brother, Johan, were abandoned by their mother as children; then Adam watched as Johan was taken away by a wealthy couple; and now Karl, the artist who raised Adam, has been arrested by soldiers during Sukarno’s drive to purge 1960s Indonesia of its colonial past. All Adam has to guide him in his quest to find Karl are some old photos and letters—one of which sends him to the colourful, dangerous capital, Jakarta, and to Margaret, an American whose own past is bound up with Karl’s.
Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child. All good thriller writers know how to build suspense and keep the pages turning, but only better ones deliver tight plots as well, and only the best allow the reader to match wits with both the hero and the author. Bestseller Child does all of that in spades in his 13th Jack Reacher adventure (after Nothing to Lose). Early one morning on a nearly empty Manhattan subway car, the former army MP notices a woman passenger he suspects is a suicide bomber. The deadly result of his confronting her puts him on a trail leading back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and forward to the war on terrorism. — Publishers Weekly
Complete Adoption Guide by Karla Simon. This practical book Answers the basic adoption questions: How much does it cost? Who’s involved? How long does it take? What do I need to know that I don’t know to ask? And more. This guide book will help prospective parents consider key emotional and spiritual issues adoptive families face.
Exclusively Chloe by J.A. Yang. Chloe-Grace can’t help it—she’s spectacular. How could she not be with celebrity parents who have been the queen and king of Hollywood for years? And Chloe is a celebrity all unto herself as well—she’s the first celebrity-adopted kid in Hollywood. But now Chloe’s sixteen, and she is tired of every undesired moment of the world’s attention. She wonders what it would be like to be a “normal” kid in a regular school.
Adopted: Family in a Million by Barbara McMahon. When Zack Morgan discovers he’s a father, and that his little boy was given up for adoption, he decides to find him. He has to know his son is okay. Life is a struggle for single mom Susan Johnson, but she loves being Danny’s mother. When Zack unexpectedly comes into their lives, he lights up their world. Zack intended to keep his distance, but he’s found the family of his dreams. Only, Susan has no idea who he really is.
Ten Days and Nine Nights by Yumi Heo. Follow a little girl as she and her family prepare for the new baby that will soon be joining them. And simultaneously, watch the girl’s mother fly off to Korea, meet the new baby, and bring her home. Here is an utterly simple, sweet, and child-centric look at the adoption process through the eyes of a soon-to-be older sibling.
The Daughter of Dreams by Beverly Barna. A children’s picture book in which magic turtles bring a baby to her waiting mother.
Return to Sender by Zoë Barnes. Holly Bennett has always known she was adopted, and finding her real parents has never been a priority. But at age 29, two sudden events cause Holly change her mind: the loss of her beloved adopted mom, and a sudden desire to have a baby of her own. Her search brings her to Phil Hepworth’s dilapidated detective agency clutching the few clues she has to her birth: a tartan baby blanket, a silver necklace, and a faded newspaper clipping of a baby abandoned outside a local hospital. Holly’s roots turn out to be trickier than expected to follow, but she is increasingly content to spend long stretches of time speaking with the attractive and charming Phil.
Riding the Universe by Gaby Triana. Chloé Rodriguez values three things above all else—her family; her best friend, Rock; and Lolita, her Harley-Davidson 1200 Sportster. With a black body, blue airbrushed flames, and perfect sloping ape hangers, Lolita is Chloé’s last connection to her beloved uncle, Seth, who left her the bike when he died last summer. So when a failing chemistry grade threatens to separate Chloé from her motorcycle, she vows not to let that happen...no matter what.
The Middle Mom by Christie Erwin. Every foster parent knows how hard, yet rewarding, it can be to care for a child with a difficult past and an uncertain future. Christie Erwin has been a mom, in the middle, for countless children over nearly two decades. In this poignant and insightful book, she honestly shares the reality of making yourself vulnerable to the pain and indescribable delight of giving your heart away to a child.
Waifs, Foundlings, and Half-Orphans by Mary Ellen Johnson. During the Orphan Trains Era, from 1854 until 1929, an estimated 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children and families were relocated from major metropolitan east coast cities to new homes in the west traveling aboard trains. This slender volume helps preserve the life experiences of the Orphan Train Riders—information that has affected foster children today.
In Their Siblings’ Voices by Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda. In Their Siblings’ Voices shares the stories of 20 white non-adopted siblings who grew up with black or biracial brothers and sisters in the late 1960s and 1970s in the same families profiled in Simon and Roorda’s In Their Own Voices (2000) and In Their Parents’ Voices (2007), in which they offer their perspectives on the multiracial adoption experience.
Mr. and Miss Anonymous by Fern Michaels. Employing a plot line that stretches credulity, even for a romance novel, Michaels spins a tale of attraction rekindled twenty years after Lily Madison and Sam Parker donated their eggs and sperm to a fertility clinic, only to discover that their altruistic contribution of genetic material may have been abused when they hear of the diappearance of two teenaged boys, one of whom looks just like Sam.
Navigating the Land of IF by Melissa Ford. The Land of IF got its name not only because “IF” is the abbreviation for “infertility” in the online world, but also because there are so many “ifs” inherent in being here. No stranger to the Land of IF herself, Ford shares her hard-earned knowledge and insights, helping couples struggling with infertility understand the lingo, learn the details doctors tend to leave out, and keep their emotional sanity despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Call Me Okaasan by Suzanne Kamata, with 20 women writers from around the world. Whether through intercultural marriage, international adoption or peripatetic lifestyles, families these days are increasingly multicultural. In this collection, women around the world, such as Xujun Eberlein, Violet Garcia-Mendoza, Rose Kent, Sefi Atta, Christine Holhbaum, Saffia Farr, and others, ponder the unique joys and challenges of raising children across two or more cultures.
Delivering Hope by Pamela MacPhee. Delivering Hope tells the story about one woman’s extraordinary (often challenging, sometimes awkward) journey as a surrogate Mom. In this honest and engaging story, tender moments and humorous anecdotes punctuate the evolution of surrogacy relationship from a tentative beginning, as the surrogate and intended parents come together in mutual respect to share the life-changing joy of creating a family.

April

Children of Dreams by Lorilyn Roberts. The author relates a story of adoption, both as an adoptee and an adoptive parent of two internationally adopted children, with a Christian-oriented perspective.

In Our Mothers’ House by Patricia Polacco (Author and Illustrator). Marmee, Meema, and the kids are just like any other family on the block. In their beautiful house, they cook dinner together, they laugh together, and they dance together. But some of the other families don’t accept them. They say they are different. How can a family have two moms and no dad?

Lucky Girl by Mei-Ling Hopgood. In a true story of family ties, journalist Mei-Ling Hopgood, one of the first wave of Asian adoptees to arrive in America, comes face to face with her past when her Chinese birth family suddenly requests a reunion after more than two decades.

Planning Parenthood by Rebecca A. Clark, Michelle Murphy, Gloria Richard-Davis, Jill Hayes and Katherine Pucheu Theall. Planning to become a parent is a profound experience, at times agonizing, hopeful, stressful, and joyous. Not everyone is able to become pregnant, however. When the journey to parenthood proves challenging, Planning Parenthood will guide prospective parents through the complicated mazes of assisted reproduction and adoption.

Fifty Years in 13 Days by Katie DeCosse and Jackie Maher. In May 2007, Jackie found Katie, a daughter she had surrendered for adoption in 1957. Over the course of 13 days, Katie and Jackie communicated solely via email before meeting in person. Their messages tell the story of the intervening 50 years and how each prepared for their first face-to-face meeting.

Achieving Permanence for Older Children and Youth in Foster Care by Benjamin Kerman, Madelyn Freundlich and Anthony Maluccio, Eds. Through a novel integration of child welfare data, policy analysis, and evidence-informed youth permanency practice, the essays in this volume show how to achieve and sustain family permanence for older children and youth in foster care. Researchers examine what is known about permanency outcomes for youth in foster care, how the existing knowledge base can be applied to improve these outcomes, and the directions that future research should take to strengthen youth permanence practice and policy.

The Fourth Grace by Jimmy Goldfarb. A retired schoolteacher becomes her college lover’s literary executor twenty-five years after he published a novel about their affair—and then dropped out of her life and out of sight. His unfinished manuscripts force her to confront the child she gave up for adoption, her muse of poetry, the tangle of memory and fiction, the power of forgiveness, and the meaning of love.

My Three Sons by John Sonego. John Sonego and his partner, Michael, had always wanted to start a family. Little did they know they would become the fathers of not one, not two, but three precious boys. My Three Sons shares the heartwarming true story of this incredible family.

Circle of Empty Arms by LaShaundra Seale. Wanting your heart’s desire is natural. What can happen when these desires lead to deception and scandal? Jennifer has everything a rich, beautiful, happily married woman could ask for, with the exception of one thing. A baby.

Karli’s Kritters by Jan Cammarata. Karli feels lucky because she shares her life with the wonderful dogs and cats that her mother has rescued. Mom feels even luckier because she, in a very personal way, has been rescued by her daughter, Karli, whom she adopted from Guatemala. Karli’s real life photographs and experiences are revealed in this children’s book.

Stealing Margo by Chad Peery. When Margo Cappolini is abducted by a West Virginia fan who hears messages in song lyrics, she is drawn back into her unfinished life as an ’80s singer—a cascading storm of rock music, insatiable characters, and a daughter she has never known.

Smoking Jimi by Chad Peery. Brad Wilson’s ex-band manager shows up with fifty thousand dollars and an enticing but risky offer—reunite his 70’s rock band and play at a South American ranch for one million apiece. Once there, Brad finds their host to be a sadistic trickster whose dark perversions could cost his band their lives.

Fires of Edgarville, The by Craig Joseph Danner. Hank Davenport is a man in search of his life. Born just days after the first anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he is a Japanese-American raised in the Pacific Northwest by Caucasian parents. A respected and successful pediatrician, his reputation is destroyed when he is accused of mercy-killing a young patient. Seeking refuge on his adoptive mother’s remote and dilapidated orchard, Hank discovers that she is rapidly succumbing to Alzheimer’s.

First Family by David Baldacci. It began with what seemed like an ordinary children’s birthday party. Friends and family gathered to celebrate. There were balloons and cake, games and gifts. This party, however, was far from ordinary. It was held at Camp David, the presidential retreat. And it ended with a daring kidnapping ... which immediately turned into a national security nightmare.

The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow. Meet the Ames Girls: eleven childhood friends who formed a special bond growing up in Ames, IA. As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet managed to maintain an enduring friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce, a child’s illness and the mysterious death of one member of their group.

Orphaned, Fostered and Adopted by Marissa Kline-Gonzales. A true memoir of a child who had seen and experienced it all before age nine. Born in the Philippines, her birth mother died when she was seven and she was separated from her siblings when she was placed in two foster homes, one of which based their child-rearing in superstitions, blaming her for every bad thing that happened. She was also put in two orphanages, where she was later adopted by an American couple.

From Christmas to Christmas by Jacques Polisoe. Jacques started looking for his birth mother in March 1992, and fifteen years later, he completed the search. From Christmas to Christmas details the many relationships, some of them good, some bad.

The Metaphor of an Adopted Body by Catherine Lynch. For Lynch, an Australian closed-records adoptee caught up in the reunion processes sparked by the 1990 changes to the Adoption Act, critical readings of Peter Carey, Janette Turner Hospital and Luke Davies developed into the invention of the Adopted Body, the Subject Adoptee and a new way of seeing: ado/aptive reading and writing. Perhaps in the field of ado/aptive theory, the stolen generations, inter-country adoptees and the white closed-record adoptees of Australia can re-invent themselves, develop their identities and create a genre of academic theory unique to Australia.

Secrets of the Heart by Lorraine Rocco. Delia and Luke have a whirlwind love affair until Luke, a young widower, steps back to reconsider the relationship. Delia tries to find him, but his scheming mother purposely sabotages their reunion by telling her that Luke has married someone else. Five long years pass before Luke and Delia meet again. They marry within the month, but Delia is guarding a secret that explodes thirteen years later when Luke is recovering from a heart transplant.

Adoption—Double Identity by Chistopher Baines. The author of this self-published book wants to reach other adoptees who have not dealt with their adoption issues or don’t know how to get started in getting therapy or to just talk to someone who understands and won’t pass judgment, believing that he can make a difference in the life of whomever reads his book.

Brothers and Sisters in Adoption by Arleta James. Brothers and Sisters and Adoption offers insights and examples and sturdy, practical, proven tools for helping newly configured families prepare, accept, react, and mobilize to become a new and different family meeting the practical, physical and emotional needs of all its members, partiularly the new siblings of the newly adopted child.

Conceiving in the Heart by Deana Coreen Kastello. In Conceiving in the Heart you will meet families of all shapes and sizes. Their stories are different, but the feelings that bind them to each other are universal. Join them in their miraculous journeys to becoming forever families and be inspired by these accounts of ordinary people with an extraordinary ability to love.

Lost and Found by Kate St. Vincent Vogl. I swore I would never let my birthmother into my life, but then Mom died of ovarian cancer and my birthmother, Val, found me through the obituary. Hard to argue with fate. Harder still to let go of childhood promises. This memoir explores what it is to be a mom and what it is to lose one. And so Lost and Found: A Memoir of Mothers is for anyone who has ever loved and lost (or maybe even found) a mother.

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline. The blockbuster New York Times bestselling author joins St. Martin’s Press with a knock-out novel about a woman who comes to suspect that her adopted child is actually another couple’s kidnapped child.

A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth. Tony Award–winning singer-actress Chenoweth looks back at her multifaceted career. Beginning with the intriguing speculation that her unknown birth mother could be watching her career rise, she recalls her Oklahoma childhood and vocal training when she learned “[t]he music didn’t come from notes and lyrics; it came from life and mileage.” Personal revelations, such as her experiences with Ménière’s disease, are balanced with bubbling backstage anecdotes. To use her phrase, this book is “a hoot and a holler”—a fast-paced frolic that her fans will appreciate (Publishers Weekly).

Success as a Foster Parent by National Foster Parent Association, with Rachel Greene Baldino, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. Over 600,000 American children are in the foster care system each year—and the number is growing. So is the number of good-hearted people willing to become foster parents. But what does it take to become a foster parent? How does one begin? What about your own family? What does it cost?

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and with very little to go on, “Nell” sets out on a journey to England to try to trace her story, to find her real identity.

Both Ends Burning by Craig Juntunen. Craig Juntunen appeared to have it all. He sold his company at the age of 40, and set out to live the good life of retirement. But he soon began to feel something was lacking. When a friend told him the story of adopting two girls from Haiti, Craig’s emptiness gave way to a sense of adventure.

Water Steps by A. LaFaye. Kyna doesn’t like the water. Even the calm water in the bathtub reminds her of the torrential storm that took the lives of her sailing family when she was just a baby. But Kyna’s adopted parents love nothing more than to swim and splash about in lakes and streams, or even the local pool. When they decide to spend the summer at a beach house on Lake Champlain, Kyna is convinced that they’re trying to teach her something about water that she’s not ready to learn.

Tattered Letters by Meredith Kennon. An unknown casualty of World War II surfaces some thirty-three years later, when in 1979, Dale Johnson is forced to confess to his daughter, Beth, that she was the product of a wartime love affair. His wife was duped, he admits, into adopting his own child when her biological mother thought she was dying in England. Afraid to take her illegitimate daughter home to her rigid parents, Maggie Paxton makes the mistake of a lifetime and sends her baby girl to America and then lives to regret it.

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg. Two years after being airlifted out of war-torn Vietnam, Matt Pin is haunted: by bombs that fell like dead crows, by the family—and the terrible secret—he left behind. Now, inside a caring adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events force him to choose between silence and candor, blame and forgiveness, fear and freedom.

Elle, the Little Lost Wombat by Sharon Bracken and Joshua Nash (Illustrator). Elle the Little Lost Wombat is about international adoption. It is written from the perspective of an orphan and focuses on the adoption of an older child, dealing with Elle’s emotions as she comes to terms with trusting and loving a new set of parents.

The Reluctant Cowgirl by Christine Lynxwiler. When actress Crystal McCord leaves the stages of New York City for her parents’ Arkansas ranch, will she find love waiting in the wings? Jeremy Buchanan is looking for someone to share his simple ranch life, not a woman with hopes and dreams as plentiful as the stars in the night sky. What lies at the end of the road for the cattleman and the dreamer?

March

Finding Grace by Donna VanLiere. The author’s memoir of her journey from a childhood of sexual abuse, to marrigae, infertility and building a family through international adoption.

The Guardian by Joyce Sweeney. Hunter has never had anyone to look out for him. His mother gave him away when he was young, he’s never known his father, and his foster mother leaves a lot to be desired in the mothering department. So when a mysterious, benevolent force suddenly starts coming to his aid, Hunter doesn’t know what to believe. Could he really have a guardian angel?

Family Day by Chistine Mitchell (Author and Illustrator). As 5-year-old Ethan and his family commemorate the first anniversary of his adoption, they reminisce about the joy and excitement of that special event. As the day progresses they pause to think about Ethan’s birth family and to look through his Lifebook. Along the way, Ethan’s curiosity leads to discussions which help him conclude that adoption is a wonderful way to build families.

International Advances in Adoption Research for Practice by Gretchen Miller Wrobel and Elsbeth Neil, Editors. This is a unique compilation of cross-cultural and international attitudes towards adoption research and outcomes.

Adoption and Assisted Reproduction by Susan Frelich Appleton and D. Kelly Weisberg. Adoption and Assisted Reproduction: Families Under Construction provides an in-depth exploration of the fascinating and controversial issues emerging out of biotechnology and society’s expanding understanding of family identity. In this ideal supplement to any Family Law curriculum, authors Appleton and Weisberg combine solid treatment of the law and carefully crafted additional content to elicit analysis and fuel class discussion.

China Baby Doll by Mary Anne Miceli. Author Mary Anne Miceli explores the issue of China’s One-Child and Son-Preference Policy in this story about a rural family. After a daughter is born to a Chinese couple, the child’s grandfathers put their new-born granddaughter into a wheelbarrow surrounded with fragrant flowers and abandon her in the center of town on market day, knowing that government officials will take her to a local orphanage and hoping an American family will adopt their “China Baby Doll.”

From Ashes to Africa by Josh and Amy Bottomly. For Josh and Amy Bottomly, Africa opened a door to a new life, the life they had dreamed of. Through a little baby named Silas Tesfarmariam, the Bottomlys found their dreams of a family realized.

Reunion by Therese Fowler. Celebrity talk show host Blue Reynolds is the queen of daytime television—she is smart, funny, and as down-to-earth as her adoring fans. In the eyes of the world, she has it all. But no one knows about the secret she has harbored for the last twenty years—a secret that could destroy her image, her reputation, and her career. Twenty years ago, she gave birth to a son and put him up for adoption through illegal channels.

My Life Adopted by Nicholas Szara. My Life Adopted is a recollection by Nick of his thoughts and feelings growing up without biological family. From an early age, Nicholas vowed to help kids who face the same challenges he faced. His role model, the adopted father he lost at nine years of age, has inspired him in all of his journeys.

Life Story Books for Adoptive Children by Joy Rees. A Life Story Book provides a detailed account of a child’s early history and a chronology of his or her life. This clear and concise book describes a new, family-friendly way to compile a Life Story Book that promotes a sense of permanency for an adopted child, encouraging attachments within the adoptive family.

The Anglo by Jo Moore. The Anglo is the stirring story of loss and renewal, deeply rooted in the windswept landscape of the High Desert Mesa of Northern New Mexico. A random act of violence has a rippling effect on a family and a community.

Jesse’s Girl by Gary Morgenstein. Anchored around a floundering father-son relationship, finding roots and re-uniting vanished bonds, the novel about teen addiction and adoption follows a desperate father’s search for his son, who has run away from a drug program to find his biological sister in Kentucky. Jesse’s Girl opens as a jarring phone wakes lifelong Brooklynite Teddy Mentor well after midnight. It’s the Montana wilderness program saying that his 16-year-old adopted son has vanished—and they haven’t a clue where he’s gone.

Diagnosis, Assessment and Treatment of Foster and Adopted Children: A Guide for Parents and Practitioners by Christopher J. Alexander, Ph.D. Child psychologist, Christopher J. Alexander, Ph.D., acquaints the reader with how mental health diagnoses are determined and given to foster and adopted children. He identifies the risk factors for developing a mental health condition and spells out the different treatment options currently being used with these children and their families. Foster and adoptive parents will gain a better understanding of what the different diagnostic terms mean, as well as options for helping their child.

When You Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win by Carol Leifer. Leifer uses her background in stand-up comedy to good effect in her collection of easy-to-read, column-length pieces that range from her finding her lesbian sexual identity at 40 (“If I don’t sleep with a woman soon, I think I’ll kill myself”) to her childhood disappointment at her dad’s “bargain” gift of a cheap Babblin’ Barbara doll instead of the A-list Chatty Cathy she yearned for. Babblin’ Babs was “a train wreck reeking of cheap Taiwanese sweatshop child-labor plastic ... a speech-impaired whore ... you didn’t want to play with as much as rush her to the emergency room.”

Lily by Keri Campbell. Lily is the story of a young girl, adopted from China as a baby. The book tells about Lily’s adoption experience and that of her new family, who travel to China all the way from America to adopt her. Lily not only gets a family of her very own, but inherits a group of very special friends in the process. These friends are referred to as her China sisters; other babies adopted at the same time as Lily, from the same orphanage.

The Cradle by Patrick Somerville. Matthew Bishop’s wife, Marissa, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Marissa does not know—does not want to know—where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline’s sister nearby and, with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner. As hours turn into days and Caroline’s trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa’s life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known.

Adoption is Forever by Rhonda Pollero and Traci Hall. Adoption doesn’t end when the papers are signed—not for the birth mother, not for the adoptive mother and not for the adopted child. It is a decision with consequences that last a lifetime. While there are many wonderful books on how to adopt, when to adopt, making an adoption plan, and the like, ADOPTION IS FOREVER is at times humorous, sometimes gut-wrenching, but always honest.

Roastbeef’s Promise by David Jerome. When Jim Roastbeef Hume embarks on a quest to sprinkle his father’s ashes in each of the forty-eight contiguous states, he has no idea that a series of bizarre and ridiculous adventures await. But nothing will deter him from fulfilling the promise he made to his dying father—not a brief incarceration in Iowa or a punctured lung in South Dakota.

February

The Adoption Club by Barbara Scott. Bernice was only six the night she and her brother were brought to the Depression-era State School for Dependent Children. They had been taken away from their mother before and placed in foster homes, but somehow this felt different. Bernice did not know that her mother had signed away custody of her, and she wouldn’t leave that orphanage for two years.

Billy Had to Move by Theresa Ann Fraser and Alex Walton (Illustrator). Child Protection Services have been involved with Billy and his mother for some time now. He has been happily settled in a kinship placement with his grandmother and enjoys his pet cat, interacting with neighbors and even taking piano lessons. As the story unfolds, Billy’s grandmother has unexpectedly passed away and so the story of Billy Had To Move begins. Unfortunately, Billy’s mother cannot be located.

Sleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth Flock. Once defined by her career and independence, stay-at-home mom Samantha Friedman realizes her life has become a routine of errands, car pools and suburban gossip. Since finding out she was adopted, seventeen-year-old Cammy Friedman has felt like an outsider. Unwilling to reach out to the parents she once adored, she shields herself behind black clothing and begins to drift into dangerous territory with questionable friends and risky behavior. Mother and daughter indulge in their own respective escapism until a pivotal moment in an otherwise average day alters their relationships forever.

The Buryat Journey Continues Overland by Suzanne L. Popke. Follow the challenges of the author and her family in this sequel to Siberian Pearls: A Buryat Journey. Starting life in a Siberian orphanage presents difficulties for all the children and for their first-time mom, who hopes that her experience as a psychologist will help her cope with each child’s special needs.

One Big Happy Family by Rebecca Walker, Editor. Edited by bestselling writer Rebecca Walker, this fascinating exploration of today’s American family features essays by prominent voices such as Z.Z. Packer, Dan Savage, Min Jin Lee, Asha Bandele, Neal Pollack, and others, on subjects such as: Open marriage • Gay Marriage • Green-card marriage • Interclass Marriage • Prison marriage • Househusbands • Open adoption • Transracial adoption • Sperm donation • Single motherhood • Polyamory • Living with in-laws • Parenting a disabled child • Bisexual marriage • Divorce Blended Families • Bicultural families • Relationships with child-care providers • Multiracial families • Home schooling • Equal parenting • Expatriate families.

The Great Call of China by Cynthea Liu. Chinese-born Cece was adopted when she was two years old by her American parents. Living in Texas, she’s bored of her ho-hum high school and dull job. So when she learns about the S.A.S.S. program to Xi’an, China, she jumps at the chance. She’ll be able to learn about her passion—anthropology—and it will give her the opportunity to explore her roots. But when she arrives, she receives quite a culture shock. And the closer she comes to finding out about her birth parents, the more apprehensive she gets.

For Want of a Child by Lily Starbright. They have tried their best to make it happen, yet they could not have a child of their own. How will they cope with the pain and the distressing feeling of being unable to have one? Author Lily Starbright shares her wonderful book, For Want Of A Child, to let you feel the misery of being unable to have a child of your own.

My Mother Never Dies by Claire Castillon. The French author’s first English-language collection of short stories, includes “Liar,” which reflects the musings of a little girl speaking to her dog, Lulu, who has lately discovered that she was adopted.

My Mother Doesn’t Look Like Me by S.L. Jones and Linnette Tompkins-Johnson (Illustrator). After the relationship to her Caucasian mother is questioned, a young African-American girl learns the truth about her birth and that unconditional love transcends race.

The Découpage Album by Salvatore Pistoia Jr. In this action-packed, high-stakes adventure, Tessa Reeves fights for her life after hiring a private investigator to find her biological parents. Tessa had no clue what the P.I. was going to uncover. Now those involved want to make sure their secret stays just that—a secret.

Breach of Trust by DiAnn Mills. Paige Rogers is a former CIA agent who lost all she treasured seven years ago when her entire team was killed in a covert mission. She blames their leader—Daniel Keary—whom Paige believes betrayed them. Disillusioned and afraid for her life, she disappeared and started a new life as a small-town librarian. But when Keary announces his candidacy for governor of her state, he comes after Paige to ensure that she won’t ruin his bid for office. He threatens everything she holds dear, and Paige must choose between the life of hiding that has become her refuge ... or risking everything in one last, desperate attempt to right old wrongs.

Bloodprint by Kitty Sewell. Madeleine Frank knows all too well that it’s impossible to recover from some losses. She herself has escaped devastating heartbreak, fleeing her native Key West to begin life anew in the ancient city of Bath. But Madeleine’s demons have never left her and may, in fact, be closer than ever—in the mad visions of her mother, formerly a priestess of Santeria, the mysterious Afro-Cuban religion. Rachel Locklear appears in her office seeking therapy, but Madeleine becomes increasingly troubled by the history of this hostile, damaged young woman.

Cry in the Night by Colleen Coble. A mysterious crying in the night leads search-and-rescue worker Bree Matthews and her dog Samson to an abandoned baby in the woods outside of Rock Harbor, Michigan. Against objections from her husband, Bree takes the baby girl in. Quickly she begins a search for the mother—presumably the woman reported missing just days earlier. Where is she and why did she leave the child behind? And how does that connect to Bree’s first husband’s mysterious death yars ago in the Upper Peninsula?

Why Am I Brown by Jacqueline Meissner. This book is a look at multi-cultural adoption from a child’s viewpoint written by the adoptive mother of a black five-year-old girl. The idea for this book came from an actual conversation that she had with her daughter when she started to recognize that their skin colors were not the same.

Scrapping Plans by Rebeca Seitz. Scrapping Plans is the third book in the Sisters, Ink series of books. At the center of each are four unlikely young adult sisters, each separately adopted during early childhood into the loving home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair. The focus moves now to youngest sister Joy who was adopted from China as an infant.

Wicked Game by Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush. Twenty years ago, wild child Jessie Brentwood vanished from St. Elizabeth’s high school. Most in Jessie’s tight circle of friends believed she simply ran away. Few suspected that Jessie was hiding a shocking secret—one that brought her into the crosshairs of a vicious killer. Two decades pass before a body is unearthed on school grounds and Jessie’s old friends reunite to talk. Most are sure that the body is Jessie’s, that the mystery of what happened to her has finally been solved. But soon, Jessie’s friends each begin to die in horrible, freak accidents that defy explanation.

Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee. Meet Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, named for two Miss Americas and her mother Chessy’s favorite brand of mascara. Chessy teaches the students in her charm school her Seven Select Rules for Young Ladies, but she won’t tell Maybe who her real father is—or protect her from her latest scuzzball boyfriend. So Maybe hitches a ride to California with her friends Hollywood and Thammasat Tantipinichwong Schneider (a/k/a Ted)—and what she finds there is funny, sad, true, and inspiring.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley. Terra Cooper is tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably “flawed” face. Terra secretly plans to leave her stifling small town in the Northwest and escape to an East Coast college, but gets pushed off-course by her controlling father. When an unexpected collision puts Terra directly in Jacob’s path, the handsome but quirky Goth boy immediately challenges her assumptions about herself and her life, and she is forced in yet another direction. With her carefully laid plans disrupted, will Terra be able to find her true path?

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey. Down-to-earth mathlete Jessica Packwood is completely horrified when, a few months shy of her 18th birthday, a Romanian named Lucius Vladescu shows up on her doorstep, claiming that he and she are vampire royalty betrothed to each other since infancy—what’s worse, her adoptive parents verify the betrothal story and explain that her birth parents identified themselves as vampires, too.

January

Ocultando No Mas / Hiding No More by Denise M. Hoffman. Amid the bright lights and thunderous applause, a masked performer will finally reveal herself to her birthmother and four half-sisters for the very first time-and behind closed curtains will finally, after years of wondering, reveal herself to the person in the mirror. Creatively crafted in a series of stage plays and commentaries, Ocultando No Mas / Hiding No More: Unmasking Adoption and Reunion is more than a first-person account of being solely an adoptee; it is ultimately an evolutionary journey toward connectedness and authenticity.

Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins. On Bernadine Brown’s 52nd birthday she received an unexpected gift—she caught her husband, Leo, cheating with his secretary. She was hurt—angry, too—but she didn’t cry woe is me. Nope, she hired herself a top-notch lawyer and ended up with a cool $275 million. Having been raised in the church, she knew that when much is given much is expected, so she asked God to send her a purpose. The purpose turned out to be a town: Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War.

Something Like Beautiful by Asha Bandele. From the author of The Prisoner’s Wife, a poetic, passionate, and powerful memoir about the hard realities of single motherhood.

Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson. Twelve-year-old Lonnie is finally feeling at home with his foster family. But because he’s living apart from his little sister, Lili, he decides it’s his job to be the “rememberer”—and write down everything that happens while they’re growing up. Lonnie’s musings are bittersweet; he’s happy that he and Lili have new families, but though his new family brings him joy, it also brings new worries.

Room for One More by Donna B. Mavrides and Ann Pilicer (Illustrator). Room For One More focuses on a little girl’s reaction to the news that her family is adopting a baby. The child observes her parents as they happily make preparations for the newborn. As she watches their activies, she seems fearful and worries that her mommy and daddy will stop loving her after the baby’s arrival.

Kennison’s Gifts by W. David Tibbs. Ken Kennison is not his real name. His drug-addicted parents sell him to an unscrupulous lawyer while he is still an infant. But cruel fate intervenes, and Kenny spends the next seventeen years of his life being shuffled from one foster home to the next. With every new home and family, Kenny seeks the care and love that every child needs-and that most take for granted. But instead, he receives only variations of physical and mental abuse.

Beauty and the Boy by Laurene von Klan and Stella von Klan (Illustrator). The story of the adoption of a little boy told from the perspective of the family dog.

“Stuck in the Middle... But Never Alone” by Tonya DeNise. This book is centered around adoption and the realistic aspect of the “dysfuctional family syndrome.” These very real and ackward situations can be the cause of severe consequences within the family. At some point, “family” must realize that the “big cover-up,” is not always for the “best”...but in most cases it happens to, “save face,” from the opinion of the community, at large. All things happen for a reason...in the end, it depends on how we handle the reality of it all.

Maggie Can’t Wait by Frieda Wishinsky and Dean Griffiths (Illustrator). Maggie is so excited to show her friends the picture of her soon-to-be-adopted sister. But when Maggie brings a picture of the baby to show-and-tell, she doesn’t get the reaction she expected. Kimberly says the baby is ugly. Even Maggie’s best friend, Sam, admits that the baby has a squished nose, a wrinkly face, and big ears. When her parents pick the baby up at the adoption agency, Maggie’s worst fears are realized. The baby is just like her picture. Maggie wants nothing to do with her. Not even when everyone else is making such a fuss over her. Not even when she is all alone in her crib and crying.

Questions Adoptees Are Asking by Sherrie Eldridge. Sherrie Eldridge interviews more than seventy adoptees to bring your questions to light, find the answers, and create connection among adult adoptees. For five years, Twenty Life-Transforming Choices Adoptees Need to Make has affected the lives of adoptees and their families. This updated edition goes deeper with study questions for support groups or personal use.

Little Giant by Tiffany Baker. When Truly Plaice’s mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother’s death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated—Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

My Fathers’ Daughter by Hannah Pool. Hannah Pool loved her white, English adoptive relatives, whom she considered to be all the family she needed. In 2004, when she was contacted by relatives she didn’t know she had, she decided to visit Eritrea, the war-torn African country of her birth, and answer for herself the daunting questions every adopted child asks.

Three Weeks to Say Goodbye by C.J. Box. For as long as Jack and Melissa can remember, their deepest wish has been to have a baby. After years of futile trying, their dream seemed to be fulfilled with the adoption of little Angelina. The next nine months were blissful as the couple cherished every moment they spent with their adorable prodigy. Then a single phone call slashes through all that happiness: The teenage birth father wants her back and his father, a powerful Denver judge, will do everything he can to enforce that decision. The stakes suddenly become high—and before long, it becomes a matter of self-defense or murder.

A Child for Keeps by Jenny Keating. A Child for Keeps considers the background to the growth in popularity of adoption in Britain in the early twentieth century and analyzes the campaign for adoption legislation. It discusses the wholesale growth of unregulated adoption after the first law was passed and the gradual pressure for safeguards and secrecy in adoption.

I Called Him Jeremy by Julie Posey and Eric Blumanhourst. What could a Cyber Crime Fighter from Kansas and an up and coming rock star from Iowa possibly have in common? Its nothing to do with music or computer crime but rather something much more basic. In 1982, Julie Posey was faced with the difficult decision of placing her newborn baby for adoption. Julie Posey and Eric Blumanhourst share their dramatic story of an emotional reunion in their new book, I Called Him Jeremy.

Silence by Christopher Brickhouse. Days before her high school graduation, Nicki Groh runs away from the New Hampshire town where she has grown up. In the months that follow, Nicki will find her way back home, a young woman much changed from her earlier self. Harriet Groh, Nicki’s adoptive mother, is the person most affected by Nicki’s absence. Much of the story is told by her, and much of the story is about her, how she “disappears,” too, from an earlier self and discovers her own voice, even if silence is the language in which she finds it.

Hard to Place by Marion Goldstein. Hard to Place is a memoir about a family. Loss is the catalyst that sets all the action of the book in motion—but this is not a book about loss. It is a narrative that weaves together the lives of seven people—five original members of a family and the two “hard to place” adopted children who eventually became part of it.

Adoption: Choosing It, Living It, Loving It by Dr. Ray Guarendi. Ray Guarendi, psychologist, husband and father of ten adopted children, considers the most commonly asked adoption questions with insight, humor and a heart for the adoptive family. His aim is to dispel unsettling misperceptions about adoption, to encourage others to think about and act on adoption, and to guide adoptive parents to a more relaxed, rewarding family life for all involved.

New Titles (2008 and Prior Years)

Mixed-Up Kids by Tina G. Patel. Drawing upon the reflective narratives of individuals who were transracially adopted as children, and upon the relevant literature and research, this book will challenge and help anyone in social work, adoption and fostering, education, youth work and youth justice.

A Guide to Russian Adoption by Alisa W. Karwowski. This work is a straightforward guide to the Russian adoption journey, up to and beyond adoption day, including emotional and developmental issues parents may face with their adopted child. Author Karwowski draws upon her educational background in sociology and psychology, as well as her personal experience as the adoptive mother of two Russian-born boys.

Siblings in Adoption and Foster Care by Deborah N. Silverstein and Susan Livingston Smith, Editors. Siblings who are surrendered by parents—or taken by the government—and placed in the foster care system are often separated by being sent to different foster families, or adopted by different couples. In this work, a team of internationally known researchers—some of whom are themselves adoptees—shares with us hard, poignant, and personal insights, as well as ways we might act to solve the problems inherent in this added separation that futher traumatizes foster and adopted children.

Dear Bobby by Laura Roybal. When he was ten, Billy was kidnapped from his adoptive family by his father, a professional rodeo rider from New Mexico. Five and a half years later, just as suddenly, he was returned. A little over a year after this second upheaval, Billy seems to be adjusting to his new life, until his best freind from New Mexico kills himself. Traveling back for the funeral, Billy finds himself in a situation much like that of his freind: two fathers face to face, two sets of hopes and ambitions for his own future. And Billy must now cope not just with the death of his freind, but also with the realization that his own life is spiralling into the same abyss that took Bobby’s life.

A Girl Named Maria by Valerie S. Kreutzer. She was found abandoned in the lavatory of a cafeteria in Bogota, Colombia, christened Maria Consuelo by the police who found here, and placed with the author’s family. A Girl Named Maria chronicles an adopted daughter’s struggle with identity and her yearning for a birth family that may have included a twin brother.

When I Am Adopted by E. Moore. When I Am Adopted, a book in the author’s “Mya Series,” was designed to help adopted children cope with doubts and fears associated with adoption.

Maria’s Gift by L.C. Santiago. For as long as Maria could remember she had lived with the sisters. Maria was happy there but as she got older she felt that there was something missing is her life. This Christmas Maria decided that she would leave the warmth and comfort of her home to search for her one true desire. She would leave the place she has always felt protected and go on a long journey that would bring her right back to the place she had always called home.

Odyssey of an Unknown Father by David Archuletta. In this self-published memoir, Archuletta chronicles his multi-year battle against the New Jersey adoption system which, he argues, is responsible for the wrongful adoption of his son, having placed the newborn baby in an adoptive family without his consent as the child’s birth father (which is mandated by New Jersey law). Despite his efforts, Archuletta has never been able to see his son face to face. Acknowledging how much time has passed since his ordeal began, he notes that his intent is no longer to obtain custody but rather just to have a chance to communicate with his son.

Culture Keeping by Heather Jacobson. Since the early 1990s, close to 250,000 children born abroad have been adopted into the United States. Nearly half of these children have come from China or Russia. Culture Keeping: White Mothers, International Adoption, and the Negotiation of Family Difference offers the first comparative analysis of these two popular adoption programs.

Red in the Flower Bed by Andrea Nepa (Author and Illustrator). The journey of adoption is beautifully depicted with the comforting imagery of a poppy flower who is welcomed into a garden family in this charming story of seeds being planted in the perfect place—exactly where they belong.

Our Blessings From China by D.L. Fuller, Editor. This book tells the stories of nine families’ journeys to adopt Chinese children. Each absorbing account describes the unique hills and valleys involved in the process and how it has forever changed and enriched their lives. Ride along with each family as they traverse the emotional spectrum from fear and frustration to bliss and joy as they meet their children and begin the miracle of forming a forever-family through adoption.

Family Secrets by Gail Jones. When 15-year-old Rachel moves, she has no idea how much her whole life will change. Within weeks, she discovers she is adopted and her parents are keeping other secrets from her. Can Rachel find out the truth? Will her relationship with her parentsever be the same again?

A Fortunate Child by Elizabeth Wix. Set in England and Germany between 1936 and the present, A Fortunate Child tells the story of the two mothers of the same child. Based on a true story, the novel explores adoption from three viewpoints—the “fortunate child” of the title, the birth mother and the adoptive one.

The Sound of Hope by Anne Bauer. When children are kept in the dark regarding their origins, nobody wins. Much of Anne Bauer’s childhood was spent wondering about her other mother. She desperately wanted to know where she was, what she looked like and most importantly, why she placed her for adoption. Living in the closed-adoption system, her questions were met with a wall of silence. This aura of secrecy only intensified Anne’s quest to eventually discover her own story.

The Adoptive Parenting Process by Nili Luo. In 2003, there were 39,500 Chinese children living in the US who were adopted from China. While 113 were adopted from 1989-1991, in 2002, 5,900 Chinese children were adopted by US parents. Little is known about the scientific, psychological, or social issues surrounding the adopted children and their parents. The study used a qualitative approach to assess experiences of US parents who had adopted Chinese children.

Disguise by Hugo Hamilton. In simple prose, this gripping novel sets the elemental adoption story against the weight of a country’s shame and rage across generations. When a young German Catholic mother loses her only child, Gregor, 3, in the bombing of Nuremberg at the end of World War II, her father brings her an orphan from the Holocaust transports and begs her to tell everyone the boy is Gregor, even her husband when he returns from the Russian front. But later someone does tell the child that he is a Jewish survivor. Is it true? Now 60 years later, Gregor Liedmann is a musician living with a community of aging anarchists and punks in Berlin, where his granddaughter is a rebellious environmental activist. His grandfather was haunted by the man he killed in World War I. And Gregor is still driven by the family cover-up: Who is he?

Courting Change by Kimberly Richman. In Courting Change, Kimberly D. Richman zeros in on the nebulous realm of family law, one of the most indeterminate and discretionary areas of American law, focusing on judicial decisions—both the outcomes and the rationales—and what they say about family, rights, sexual orientation, and who qualifies as a parent.

Embraced by Love by Dolores Mize and Angela Talentino (Photographer). A lovely keepsake gift book celebrating adoption! Beautiful black-and-white photography of children from all over the world and their adoptive families accompany tender prose. Pages in the back of the book for families to personalize, add photos, and capture precious memories make this a wonderful, cherished memento!

So I Was Thinking About Adoption... by Mardie Caldwell. Whether you just found out about an unplanned pregnancy or have been considering adoption as an option for some time, you are not alone. Take the time to explore your options and come to the best decision for you, your child and your situation. Women from all backgrounds, in many different situations have chosen adoption. This book has compassionate answers to all your questions.

Conspiracy of Silence by Martha Powers. When Clare Prentice, a Chicago journalist, discovers she’s adopted in this cozy romantic thriller from Powers (Death Angel), she’s disturbed enough to call off her impending wedding. The high school ring of her adoptive mother, who died two years earlier and was careful to keep Clare’s true origin a secret, provides a clue that takes Clare to Grand Rapids, MN, where she conveniently has an assignment to interview a reclusive novelist, Nate Hanssen. The pace picks up after Clare discovers that her birth mother, Lily Gundersen, was murdered in Grand Rapids.

The Sweet In-Between by Sheri Reynolds. Kenny Lugo has grown up in a family that’s not really hers. Her mother died of cancer when Kenny was very young, and Aunt Glo—who is, in fact, her daddy’s girlfriend—took her in when her father was sent to jail for drug trafficking. Now, as Kenny approaches her eighteenth birthday and the end of the government checks Glo has been receiving looms, she is desperate to prove that this house and these people really do belong to her.

Surviving High Society by Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland. To the outside world, Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland had it all. Adopted into a wealthy New England family, the young Elizabeth was afforded the luxury many people only realize in their dreams. She joined her family on lavish European vacations, lived in a finely decorated home, grew up in a world heavily infiltrated by power and money, and hob-knobbed with celebrities. Her real life, however, was not the fantasy it seemed to others.

Hearts Journey Home by Ashley Elisabeth Crook. A patchwork family... A tragic accident... And amidst all that life carries, the Trestles strive to find peace and healing for their souls amongst the small population of the joyless town in Texas they have just moved to. No one in town understands these eccentric newcomers and they wish the new family would just leave them to their dull, strict life. Yet the Trestles stay on... but for how long?

Without Conscience by David Stuart Davies. Set in 1942, Without Conscience finds Rachel Howells in London for the first time, trapped in a web of violence. Her companion, army deserter Harryboy Jenkins, will stop at nothing—not even murder—to enjoy his illicit freedom. Meanwhile, private detective Johnny Hawke is involved in the bizarre murder of one of his clients. At the same time he is trying to find Peter, the runaway boy he had befriended in an earlier case. Inexorably the paths of Harryboy and Johnny grow closer together until they collide with frightening consequences.

Taking Down the Wall by Christine Murphy. Christine was adopted by a loving family in 1969 in a closed adoption. In 1992, she received an unexpected phone call from her birth mother. Shaken by the situation, Christine chose not to meet. In 2007, after a health scare and some words from God, Christine contacted and met her birth mother and half-brothers. Their reunion continues to evolve.

Gumbo for the Soul by Beverly Black Johnson, Editor. An anthology of inspirational essays and poetry by adoptees, adoptive parents, professionals, and some of America’s most prolific writiers to heighten awareness of adoption worldwide.

Searching for Ann Marie by Denise McKaig. How could she really have a sister she has gone her entire childhood without knowing? In Searching for Ann Marie, a life changing secret begins to control Edies every waking moment until she spends endless hours on the internet, making friends, meeting new people, and exploring until she can find the one person she never knew existed. New author Denise McKaig reveals the strength and faith of women within the most complex relationships of families in society. Searching for Ann Marie will keep the reader in suspense while providing a soft sense of humor that can be appreciated by any reader.

Teardrops Down the Nile by Deb Finney. Years of addiction, failed relationships and destroyed lives had taken their toll on Deb. None of these had affected her so deeply as the loss of Ryan. Teardrops Down The Nile is Deb Finneys amazing true account of how, in the midst of extraordinary hardships, she found strength in the most unexpected places. It began with the author’s encouragement to an adoptive couple. A surprising, anonymous reply from Jennifer, the adoptive mom, ignites an ongoing exchange of letters no one is fully prepared for.

A Mother’s Love Contunues by Angela E. Caligone. A Mother’s Love Continues is a true story emphasizing God’s enduring love to an adopted young girl, Angela, who grew to know Him intimately after a troubled childhood. The book deals with the spiritual challenges of rejection, disappointment, and lack of purpose, as well as God’s path to restoration. Picking up where A Mothers Love left off, A Mothers Love Continues follows Angela through more heartache and, amazingly, a strengthening of character that will inspire all.

How Alyssa and Arianna Became a Family by Alyssa Danzig and Arianna Danzig (Illustrator). Alyssa Danzig and her adopted daughter, Arianna, collaborate to tell the story of how they came to become a family.

Kinship by Design by Ellen Herman. Kinship by Design provides the fullest account to date of the history of modern adoption in America. Beginning in the early 1900s, when children were still transferred between households by a variety of unregulated private arrangements, Ellen Herman details efforts by the U.S. Children’s Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America to establish adoption standards in law and practice. She goes on to trace Americans’ shifting ideas about matching children with physically or intellectually similar parents, revealing how research in developmental science and technology shaped adoption as it navigated the nature-nurture debate. Concluding with an insightful analysis of the revolution that ushered in special needs, transracial, and international adoptions.

The Magical Friendship Garden by Rebekah Barlow Rounce and Carla Golembe (Illustrator). The joyous and mystical adoption of a precious baby from Ethiopia is the theme of this story, played out in a magical garden. It explores the wonder and beauty of families coming together with all their differences through the incredible gift of adoption and how beautiful those differences can be when founded in love.

Rules of Illegacy by Victoria Lynne. Born in San Diego County in the 1950s; raised in an upper middle class residential coastal paradise, known as Point Loma. Victoria Lynne’s childhood memories found her always the outcast; never understanding why. Adopted from birth to a loving family, apparently so frightened of losing this chance at parenting; choosing to uphold this vow of secrecy, at all costs; ultimately taking it to their graves.

When You Come Home by Matthew Dee Meadors. A baby is left on an orphanage doorstep in Chongqing, China. Born with a heart defect and no chance of survival without surgery, her only hope is an elderly caregiver named Chien, a God of love and his son Yesu. A world away, in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, a woman named Katie Phelps has dreamed of becoming a mother her whole life but there are two problems: she can’t get pregnant and her husband Aaron isn’t convinced he wants to be a father.

Sashenka by Simon Montefiore. In the bestselling tradition of Doctor Zhivago and Sophie’s Choice, a sweeping epic of Russia from the last days of the Tsars to today’s age of oligarchs. In 1916, 16-year-old would-be communist Sashenka Zeitlin is arrested by the Tsarist secret police. Twenty years on, following the overthrow of Tsarist rule, Sashenka is married to a powerful, rising Red leader with whom she has two children. Around her people are disappearing, while in the secret world of the elite her own family is safe. But she’s about to embark on a forbidden love affair that will have devastating consequences.

Take Two by Laurel Ashton. This honest and heartfelt memoir focuses on the unusual adoption of not one, but two, baby girls. When Laurel and David finally become the adoptive parents of one baby girl they soon discover that a little sister is on the way and must decide if they want to “take two.”

Bringing Him Home by Aaron Cooper. In which the author tells the story of his and his partner’s adoption of a five-year-old boy with a background of severe emotional deprivation. In a m memoir that reads like fiction, Bringing Him Home traces the gay couple’s fifteen-year ordeal parenting a youngster with extraordinary disabilities: the psychological fallout of early emotional neglect, plus Attention Deficit Disorder more severe than doctors had ever seen. The story follows Aaron’s journey from the joy of bringing home one beautiful boy, to the disheartening frustration coping with the child’s intractable defiance, to the ultimate devastation when they could no longer co-exist under one roof.

Adoption Edited by Noel Merino. The “Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints” series, like its parent series, “Opposing Viewpoints” series, explores a specific issue by precenting opinions from a wide range of sources in a unique pro/con format, including thought-provoking questions that focus on vocabulary and reading comprehension, annotated bibliographies and information for further research.

Once Upon a Wishing Well by Lynda J. Straker. In Once Upon A Wishing Well, Lynda J. Straker tackles the issue of adoption in this contemporary fairy tale written and designed for very young readers. Ms. Straker’s book tells the story of King Jeremy and Queen Ella, a young couple who dreams of adopting a child and Queen Angela, a birth mother, who dreams of becoming a ballerina Queen. They all ask for help from the Fairy of the Wishing Well.

Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive Family: Real-Life Solutions to Common Challenges by David Sanford. Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive Family is the one parenting resource that provides comprehensive, topical, Bible-based solutions for the inevitable challenges after adoption.

Midnight Revelations by Karen M. Bence. When Sara, her husband David and their young son Jack move into an old horse farm, they don’t know that the farm is haunted by tragedies that befell its previous owners. Soon chilling events begin take place. Sara discovers a locked diary, has strange dreams of people she doesn’t know, and sees the ethereal reflection of a tormented woman in an antique mirror. Resolved to find out what lies behind the strange events at the farm, Sara stumbles across the key to the diary...as well as the key to her own past.

Adoption Records Handbook by Teresa Brown. The Adoption Records Handbook is a road map to help birth families discover the past and the future with step-by-step directions to lead the way down their path. This book will have a profound impact on currently available adoption search methods.

Be Careful What You Wish For... by Stef. Ten-year-old Gwen lives in Idleburg, Pennsylvania where she spends her days lost in a world of fantasy. One rainy afternoon, bored and wishing for excitement, she reads an article in Universal Scandals Magazine about the Queen of Idlebury in Dimension XIII, who is searching for her long-lost adopted daughter. To prove she is the princess, Gwen endures a series of harrowing events. Will she emerge as Gwendolyn the Great, Savior of Idlebury, Protector of the Universe? Or will she return home as a nobody?

Indian Child Welfare Act Handbook by B.J. Jones, Mark Tilden and Kelly Gaines-Stoner. This is a revised and updated edition of a one-of-a-kind guide to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, enacted to ameliorate the problem of the removal of Native American children from their homes by state welfare agencies and private agencies and to ensure that those children would be placed in homes that reflect their cultures and traditions.

My So-Called Family by Courtney Sheinmel Leah Hoffman-Ross, a 13-year-old girl who is the product of donor insemination, discovrs that she has a 13-year-old half sister whom she will do anything to meet.

Labours of Love by Deborah A. Brennan. Labours of Love chronicles the journeys of Canadians who have overcome heartbreaking obstacles to become parents. Their stories are as diverse as our country, and span the borders of our world. While each account is unique in its own way, the stories are connected by the overwhelmingly commonality of the power of human connection.

Drifting In and Out of Sleep by Sarah Hanks. Eve is a bold supporter of the rights of unborn children. She prays that God will wake the Church up and give believers a spirit of adoption, but she’s never had an opportunity to live out these prayers. When Eve meets Lisa, who is contemplating abortion, she offers to adopt Lisa’s unborn baby, in addition to raising her own yet-to-be son.

Just Chris by Christopher Shiveley Welch. Just Chris is more than a boy telling of his life. It is a story that surely will bring encouragement to many who face challenges, feel worthless due to some physical handicap, or face rejection in anyway. It is a story of hope, courage and steadfast love.

Sociology of Adoption by Elfreeda Momin. Though there is a substantial and growing literature on adoption in Western countries, there is a virtual dearth of systematic, comprehensive and empirically-based studies on the subject in India. Much of the existing literature on adoption in the country remains sketchy and fragmentary. This book, which is the first full-length, empirical sociological study of adoption in India, fulfils this vacuum. It considers adoption as a processual and dynamic phenomenon and views the complexities, challenges and problems associated with it in a holistic perspective.

Escape From Fear by Alane Ferguson and Gloria Skurzynski. The Landons are in the Caribbean, in Virgin Islands National Park, to figure out what is destroying the coral reefs and causing the hawksbill sea turtle to disappear. Jack and Ashley find themselves hopelessly entangled in the mysterious life of Forrest Winthrop IV, the adopted son of a U.S. diplomat. Why is he so anxious to save an island woman named Cimmaron? What secret do they share? Follow the action to Jumbie Bay and see what the full moon reveals.

Refuge Ranch by Bonnie Walker. To Bonnie Walker, it was a dream birthed in the heart of a little country girl from Georgia. Her burning desire was to raise a big happy family of her own. But no one guessed just how big, how unique, and how far-reaching that family would be. After giving birth to three daughters, she she adopted 18 more hard-to-place children who had been abused, abandoned and neglected.

Annie Clark and the Pearls of Wisdom by Laura C. Browne. Thirteen-year-old Annie Clark spends the summer in a magical land after unexpectedly learning she has special powers. She rides flying horses at her aunt and uncle’s ranch and attends school where she meets new friends including a rebellious tooth fairy who hates to touch teeth and a centaur with a broken leg. An oracle, called the Pearls of Wisdom, indicates she must help with a complex spell. She attends a Royal Ball where her magic dancing shoes run away with her. Annie must find out who is trying to kidnap her while she helps her new friends and learns the truth about her family.

Honor Thy Daughters by Carlos Pineda. This book chronicles the story of an international adoption through an ordinary and simple man’s view.

Infertility, Adoption and...Say, How’s The Weather? by Gracie Longshore. In which the author details the story of her journey from infertility to international adoption and the heartbreak of a son suffering from Ractive Attachment Disorder.

Instead of Medicating and Punishing by Laurie A. Couture. In this easy-to-read book, filled with illustrations and resources, Couture guides readers through such topics as how to change our child-unfriendly culture and ways to overcome the negative aspects of industrialization. She explains how to develop and maintain the “Human Attachment Cycle,” and how school and day care can harm children and be destructive to parent-child attachment. There are chapters on child trauma and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), foster care, institutional care, and adoption, with excellent guidance on how to heal these traumas.

Stained by Joanne Hichins. In a poor district on the outskirts of Cape Town, Grace lives with her adoptive mother. Of mixed race, Grace dreams about what her birth mother is like and is plagued by a deep sense of not belonging. She turns to close friend Shardonnay and her sister, Crystal, a teenage mom. Through Grace as observer, Stained explores themes of incest, child abuse, and post-natal depression, culminating in Crystal’s murder of her own baby.

Moments of Clarity by Michele Cameron. Sasha Diamond, fresh out of a relationship with a cheating boyfriend, is ready to give up on love when she meets Sexton, an NBA star. Although she is immediately attracted to the handsome athlete, she is haunted by her doubts about men...doubts that are reinforced when her best friend, Tiara, finds out that her own husband has been frequenting prostitutes. Sexton persists, eventually wearing down Sasha’s resistance, but then she’s confronted with incontrovertible evidence that he’s betrayed her. Now Sasha must choose between trusting Sexton and giving him up for good.

Slant by Laura E. Williams. Thirteen-year-old Lauren, a Korean American adoptee, is best friends with the prettiest—and tallest—girl in the school, Julie, who has an endless amount of confidence. Lauren, on the other hand, has been saving for years to pay for a special eye surgery that will deepen the crease of her eyelids. It’s not that she wants to look like everyone else in her suburban Connecticut school; she’d just be happy if kids stopped calling her “slant”; and “gook.”

The Circulation of Children by Jessaca B. Leinawear. In this vivid ethnography, Jessaca B. Leinaweaver explores “child circulation,” informal arrangements in which indigenous Andean children are sent by their parents to live in other households.

If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late by Pseudonymous Bosch. Beware! Dangerous secrets lie between the pages of this book. OK, I warned you. But if you think I’ll give anything away, or tell you that this is the sequel to my first literary endeavor, The Name of This Book is Secret, you’re wrong.

The Mom with the Red Lipstick by Lydia Kordalewski. The Mom with the Red Lipstick is an emotional and moving story told by a little adopted boy’s memories of his earlier life in an Bulgarian orphanage on the way home to the United States with his new mom. His mom shares her emotions, struggles and unconditional love of a little boy who became her beautiful son on a wonderful spring day in Bulgaria.

Legendary by Jaiya John. A poetic tribute to those who honorably serve devalued children: Legendary is Jaiya John’s celebration of teachers, social service professionals, advocates, counselors, mentors, and the like. Here are poems and poetic stories to awaken your spirit, massage your heart, and remind you of the reasons you do this work. Your service touches lives and miracles are born. Your grace endures forever.

Flight of a Lifetime by Philip Watling. The author takes us on a flight into a dangerous world—a world where death overtook him and yet, somehow, he cheated it. This is the amazing and miraculous story of a young man who went up against the odds to claw his way back to normality. From A levels to a party in celebration of his continuing life, through his work with horses and time spent in three hospitals—straight across the brink of his own existence—Philip Watling’s true account takes us down paths we wouldn’t normally wish to follow and into places we never knew existed.

97 Pictures of Kids on My Wall by Nancy DiGirolamo. This is a true account of one woman’s twelve years as a foster mother to ninety seven foster children. It chronicles the experiences of an emergency foster home, the different foster children and the reasons they came into care. Some of the accounts are tragic, some are uplifting and some are funny, but all of them are heartwarming and memorable. Some children spent only one night, some remained for months and some never left.

Touched by an Angel’s Tear by L. Steven Santora and Lisa J. Fargo (Illustrator). Facilitating perfect matches through adoption is what this story explains. The book transforms what is typically understood as a bureaucratic process, into one driven by human kindness and a bit of magic. Based on the real processes experienced by adoptive families, the story follows the events starting with a womans desire to adopt, and ending with a perfect match made between an adoptive family and an infant.

The Everything Parent’s Guide to Raising the Adopted Child by Corrie Lynn Player, M.Ed., with Brette McWhorter Sember, and Mary C. Owen. This essential guidebook is packed with reassuring advice on how to handle the most common issues faced by would-be adoptive parents: questions to ask before adopting; bonding techniques—from newborn to teenager; adopting children with special needs; navigating international adoptions; helping the adopted child understand and cope with feelings of loss and abandonment; and navigating blended families, single parenting, or same-sex partnerships.

The Essential Link by Susan M. Ward. Where do adoptive parents and prospective adoptive parents find a comprehensive, yet short and easy-to-read summary of attachment and bonding? The Essential Link: Attachment Information for Adoptive Parents is the answer. The book provides information and explanations about attachment and bonding between adoptive parents and their new child; answers questions about what attachment is and how it might be compromised in children who were adopted; and provides practical tips for ways to improve the attachment and connection between parents and adopted children.

The Shiniest Jewel by Marian Henley. Nationally published comic strip artist Henley offers a warm, funny memoir of adopting her son, William.

A Tale Out of Luck by Willie Nelson, with Mike Blakely. Retired Texas Ranger Captain Hank Tomlinson intends to spend the rest of his days raising cattle on his Broken Arrow Ranch, and nurturing his frontier town of Luck, Texas. But when the brutal murder and scalping of a mysterious drifter leads to a clash between cavalry soldiers and a band of Comanche Indians suspected of the killing, a full-scale Indian uprising seems likely. Worse yet, the murder of the drifter bears a disturbing resemblance to a string of killings Hank remembers from his distant and violent past as a Texas Ranger.

I Am Adopted by Mark Dicken-Bradshaw. As can only be seen through the eyes of an adoptive child, this faith-filled book shows how, through trust in God, adoptive families can overcome fears and differences to bond as members of both an earthly family and God’s heavenly family. I Am Adopted is a testimony that God has a purpose for all. If you are adopted, or ever considered adopting, join author Mark Dicken-Bradshaw on his journey from birth family to foster family and finally to loving Forever Family in I Am Adopted.

A Family for Madison by Melanie Shimokawa. Madison is up for adoption, again. She can talk with her best friend, Emily in her mind. When she and Emily find out that they are twins, separated at birth, they find a way to be together again, forever.

Adoption & Special Guardianship by John Mitchell. courts are often faced with one key question: should a child remain in care as a foster child or be made the subject of a special guardianship order or be adopted? Adoption and Special Guardianship: A Handbook brings together, for the first time in a single volume, the law and procedure relating to adoption with that of special guardianship. This unique work examines recent case-law, alongside the policy that underpins the legislation, including socio-legal research on how the law operates and social research on the needs of children.

The Search for the Tiny Princess by Susie McWherter and Tom Tarpey Jr. (Illustrator). The struggles and triumphs of modern adoptions are explored through this classic fairy tale version of a real family’s journey. This charming story is sure to delight any reader, especially anyone who has experienced the joy of helping create a family.

Once They Hear My Name by Ellen Lee, Marilyn Lammert and Mary Anne Hess. This collection of oral histories features the stories of nine Korean Americans who were adopted as children and the struggles they’ve shared as foreigners in their native lands.

Rhythms of Grace by Marilynn Griffith. Grace Okoye was a promising young dancer when her career was cut short by a brutal assault that left her scarred for life. Twenty years later, when her past gets in the way of her happiness, she heeds the invitation of her dance instructor and returns home to help hurting children and rediscover the rhythms of grace. What she doesn’t expect is to meet a man who already seems to know her beat.

Adoption Help for Military Families by Mardie Caldwell (Producer). Audio CD that offers advice and information about adoption for military families.

Busted! Avoiding Scams and Fraud in Adoption by Mardie Caldwell (Producer). Audio CD that offers advice and information about avoiding scams and fraud in adoption.

Emotional Impact of Adoption by Mardie Caldwell (Producer). Audio CD that the addresses the issues and emotional vulnerabilities distinctive to adoptees, how adoptees can improve their outlook, and the resources available for adoptive parents and adoptees.

Ellen’s Book of Life by Joan Givner. After her mother, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, dies, Ellen Fremedon, who has always known she was adopted, receives a letter from her that enables her to search for her birth mother.

Child’s Play by Carmen Posadas. This classy murder mystery's rushing narrative is stained by a deceit perpetrated before the story begins. Luisa, 52, is a successful writer living in Madrid. Although single, Luisa enjoys having a Man in Her Life; but far more important to Luisa is her pre-pubescent daughter, Elba, who is starting at a new school—the one Luisa attended as a child as an outsider recently arrived from South America. Elba, too, feels like an outsider. Told from infancy that she was adopted, she struggles to discover where she’s really from; until Luisa confesses to her that she lied about her origins, a revelation that has lasting consequences. — Elizabeth Nash, The Independent (London)

Second Beginning by Sharon Lyman Quinn. As Mia stood in the parking lot next to her shop, she and a customer discussed what it was like to be pregnant with your first child. Little did Mia know that this woman was her birth mother, and Mia the daughter she gave up for adoption 33 years ago.

Love Our Way by Julia Rollings. Managing a household of eight children takes a lot of love and patience—and amazing parents. When six of your children are adopted from overseas, learning to adapt to any situation becomes a survival skill. Having created a riotously happy family, Julia and Barry Rollings thought they could handle anything life threw at them. That was until they received the devastating news that two of their children had not been willingly adopted out by both their parents in India.

The First Escape by G.P. Taylor. At Isambard Dunstan’s School for Wayward Children, life is trouble for 14-year-old identical twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple and their friend, former thief Erik Morrisey Ganger. But what starts out as a perfectly normal day of food fights, rioting classmates, fires, and (yawn) threats of expulsion goes suddenly and horribly wrong when a mysterious, wealthy woman appears at the school and adopts Saskia ... without her sister.

Child of Promise by Debbi Migit. Child of Promise is the true account of one couple’s journey from barrenness to the blessing of transracial adoption.

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi. A return to the bestselling Old Man’s War universe, by science fiction’s fastest-rising new star, told from the point of view of Zoë, adopted daughter of previous protagonists Jane Sagan and John Perry.

Adoption Is For a Lifetime by Nancy McCullough. The author, who was Canada’s first foreign adoptee, shares her fascinating story of how God orchestrated her adoption from Hong Kong, blessed her with wonderful parents, a loving husband, and in His faithfulness and healing presence, brought them through every struggle, especially the loss of their first daughter, Rebecca Joy. Despite the grief, Nancy shares how God turned their pain into joy and sorrow into victory.

Texas Whirlwind by Bonnie Blythe. A summer storm in Galveston mirrors the whirlwind of problems Emma Hayes encounters after she adopts Haitian twin girls and runs into her old high school love—ending in a battle for custody when strangers contest the adoption. Is it true that she bought love with her ready-made family or can she trust the One that the even wind and waves obey?

Adoption for Singles 2008-2009 by Victoria Solsberry. Adoption for Singles 2008-2009 was written to walk single men and women through the process of adoption, whether domestic—private adoption of newborns or children in foster care—or international. This book helps you decide if you’re emotionally ready to be a parent, tells you what it costs to adopt and how others have managed it financially, and how to decide what age child is best for you.

Safe at Home by Mike Pupica. Nick Crandall feels like he doesn’t fit in with his new foster family, and fears that it is only a matter of time before his foster parents, both of whom are professors who don’t know the first thing about sports, realize he’s not the right kid for them. And 12-year-old Nick certainly doesn’t belong playing varsity baseball. But Nick needs to prove that he belongs to his parents, to his team, and to himself.

Pathologies by Susan Olding. In these fifteen searingly honest personal essays, debut author Susan Olding takes us on an unforgettable journey into the complex heart of being human. Each essay dissects an aspect of Olding’s life experience. In a suite of essays forming the emotional climax of the book, Olding bravely recounts the adoption of her daughter, Maia, from an orphanage in China.

Running From the Inside Out by Jessica James. Running from the Inside Outhe author’s first novel, expresses the complexity of the adolescence world through a journey of misfortune, leading to the discovery of one’s identity, inner strength and truth.

Bond of Love by Carla Bach and Nick Graziano (Illustrator). A child is precious and whether biological or adopted they are miracles. This book aims to reach out and express the true way a child is born ... from love. Written for little ones as an introduction to adoption and how they are a gift that blossomed from the heart.

Trophy Kid by Steve Atinsky. Thirteen-year-old Joe is the ultimate trophy kid. His adoptive parents are Hollywood’s favorite power couple, Academy Award-winning actress Greta Powell and actor/director/political candidate Robert Francis. Life with them has been one big photo-op since Joe became a war orphan at the ripe old age of three. And what better way for Greta and Robert to celebrate how far Joe’s come—and how much they’ve helped him—than for Joe to describe his experiences in a moving autobiography?

Runaway by Dandi Daley Mackall. Meet 16-year-old Dakota Brown. She used to love all things “horse” until she lost everything, including hope. The minute she sets foot on her foster parents’ farm—Starlight Animal Rescue—she plans her escape. But can an “impossible” horse named Blackfire and this quirky collection of animal lovers be the home she’s always dreamed of?

Cut by Cathy Glass. In her new book, the No. 1 bestselling author of Damaged tells the story of Dawn, the first child the author ever fostered. Dawn is a sweet and seemingly well-balanced girl whose outward appearance masks a traumatic childhood of suffering at the hands of the very people who should have cared for her. Glass’s book details her struggles to care for a child whose unknown background and self-destructive behavior makes that task all the more difficult.

Loving and Losing by Pamela Oldfield. After her husband dies in the great influenza epidemic of 1918, Eve Randall adopts two neighborhood children orphaned by the virus. At the same time, James Ferber, an army pathologist who lost his wife to the pandemic, fatefully enters Eve’s life, delivering a letter written by her husband during his final days.

A Mother’s Wish by Karen Templeton. Winnie Porter just couldn’t forget the child she’d given up for adoption all those years ago…or the wonderful family that had taken him in. Now it was finally time to see her son one last time.

Helping Your Adopted Child by Paul David Tripp. One of a number of booklets published by Paul Tripp Ministries under the aegis of the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation (CCEF) that offer advice on various parenting issues with a Christian slant.

The Ins and Outs of Adopting a Child by Pamela Norton. For many adoptive couples or singles, the dream of the end result is what will keep them motivated through the process—which is how it should be. But if they are not prepared for the ways in which adoption works, those dreams could become tainted with frustration and disappointment. None of the information here should dissuade you from pursuing your goal of adoption. But it should help to inform you so that you can maintain the positive attitude and forward motion that will eventually bring you the child or children that are right for you and your family.

The Other Face of the Moon by Asha Miró. Adopted at the age of seven from an Indian orphanage into a family from Barcelona, the author returned to the country of her birth 20 twenty years later. This as no ordinary trip, it was to learn about her past and meet the nuns who took care of her as a child.

The Desert Prophecy by H.D. Rogers. The Desert Prophecy is the story of Paul Swanson, a young American adoptee of unknown parentage whose life seems to have been directed and protected by powerful, unseen forces, who accurately predicts the shocking destruction of a famous Islamic shrine and the inexplicable deaths of over two thousand Islamic terrorists. Are they divine forces, as Paul Swanson claims, or are they evil?

Sara Elizabeth, an Adoption Story by Fran Ballengee. Sara Elizabeth, an Adoption Story explores how one young girl met her adoptive family with the help of her social worker. Adoption is described as being part of two families. The one that helps you to be born and one that takes care of you every day. Sara Elizabeth describes how she is similar and different to each family. She is also encouraged by her parents to think and talk about her birth family as she desires. The story ends with a family portrait, Sara standing with her parents, each with a loving picture of Sara’s birth mom in their hearts.

Outback Baby by Barbara Hannay. Nell Ruthven thought she’d missed her chance to be a mom when, at age nineteen, she was forced to give up her baby for adoption. Now Nell’s discovered she has a tiny grandson in need of care. And her teenage sweetheart, cattleman Jacob Tucker, is in town.

The Mercy Rule by Perri Klass. A trenchant, funny, and timely novel about what makes a good parent and who should judge that issue, The Mercy Rule takes as its main subject the all-important job of taking care of children. Dr. Lucy Weiss, a pediatrician and survivor of the foster care system, whose work takes her back into the world of families living on the edge, must judge herself as a parent, critique other parents, and also deal with the echoes of her childhood.

Complete Surrender by Dave Sharp. Dave Sharp grew up with foster parents with no information about his actual parents. He lived his life happily as a bricklayer and grew up and honest man who loved soccer. In his 60s, he set about the long and arduous process of trying to find out who his real parents were. After much searching he discovered the family who had given him up for adoption and met up with them. He also scheduled to meet with the man he believed to be his half-brother. This is the amazing and heartwarming story of a son’s wish to find his family, and two men gaining the brother that they had always wished for.

Somebody Else’s Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage. At the center of Elizabeth Brundage’s new novel lies an adoption under stressed and tragic circumstances, culminating in the collision of two very different fathers—biological and adoptive—and a villain whose ends and means slowly unfold with the help, witting and unwitting, of all around him.

Silent Tears by Kay Bratt. An American volunteer in a Chinese orphanage learns to pull from the hidden strength within her to improve conditions for the children. If you have ever wondered what day to day life is like in a Chinese orphanage, this will tell it. If you have ever wondered what it is like to love a child so deeply, even though they aren’t yours, this will tell it. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to move to a different country, this will tell it.

Searching to be Found by Randy Lee Comfort. Searching To Be Found is about children who are adopted or looked after and who present with attention disorder and behavioral difficulties. It differentiates itself from other ADHD/ADD books because its premise is that understanding more about adoption/being in care, about attention deficits, and about brain development will help adults to become more attuned to why these children may be behaving the way they do.

Kinship Care by Elaine Farmer and Sue Moyers. Children are frequently cared for by relatives and friends when parents, for whatever reason, are unable to care for their children themselves. Yet there has been very little information about how well children do when placed with kin or how safe they are in these placements. This book compares formal kinship care to traditional foster placements in order to ascertain which children are placed with kin, in what circumstances, how well such children progress, and how often these placements disrupt.

Bringing the Boy Home by N.A. Nelson. In his debut novel, author Nelson tells the story of Tirio, a member of an imaginary Amazonian tribe, who is cast out due to a physical deformity and adopted by Sara, an anthropologist. Now approaching his 13th birthday, he is hearing voives calling him back to his tribal home for a ritual rite of passage. Coincidentally, Sara is taking him back to the Amazon basin as a birthday present.

Coming Unglued by Rebeca Seitz. Coming Unglued is the second book in the Sisters, Ink series of novels written for women. At the center of the creativity and humor are four unlikely young adult sisters, each separately adopted during early childhood into the loving home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair. Coming Unglued focuses on painter and musician Kendra who struggles with her sense of self-worth—a struggle that only intensifies when she realizes a “friendship” developed with a guy at a jazz club is actually an emotional affair. With her sisters’ help, Kendra strives to do what’s right, embracing the call to safeguard her heart and mind and hold fast to God’s truth and grace.

To My Child Concerning Your Birth Mother by Joanne Green. Adoption is not about not wanting a child. It is everything about wanting the best for a child to whom you cannot offer the best. It is a selfless realization that, while the baby is on its way, the parent is not in a position yet to be a parent. It is, beyond question, the most difficult choice a birth mother could ever make.

Things Happen for a Reason by Kimberly Snodgrass. On May 12, 1986, Amber was brought into a world in which she had no control. Amber was in and out of the foster care system and did not steadily go to school until the middle of her sixth-grade year. At age eleven she was placed with a new foster family, the Sanderses. Five years passed with her foster family as her birth mother slowly lost all of her parental rights. She was finally adopted her junior year in high school.

Ethiopian Voices: Tsion’s Life by Stacy Bellward and Erlend Berge (Photographs). Meet Tsion, an eleven year old Ethiopian girl as she talks about her life and her country. Stunning photographs bring the reader to Tsion s house, school, church, dinner table and more. Informative cultural facts are included.

The Mommy Orphanage by Cheryl Wilder Krass and Emily Krass, and Lauren Francis (Illustrator). When a little girl poses the question, “What if instead of an orphanage where kids without families live, there was an orphanage where all the moms who want kids live?” the mother asks, “If you went to the Mommy Orphanage today, would you still pick me to be your mom?”

The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler. She blisters after just moments in the sun, communicates with her dog, and has correctly predicted the weather every day for more than two years. But that’s not so weird, right? Then one day, Fern closes her eyes and opens them seconds later to find herself on a sandy beach, miles away from school. And when she disappears again—this time to someplace far more dangerous—Fern begins to realize just how different she is.

Great Answers to Difficult Questions About Adoption by Fanny Cohen Herlem. Children who find out they are adopted have many questions that are difficult for a parent to answer. This book explores children’s thoughts and feelings and provides parents with guidance on how to respond to difficult questions. The author covers all the common questions that children ask and provides sensitive, candid answers in a way that children will be able to understand and relate to.

Are Adoption Policies Fair? Edited by Amanda Hiber. The At Issue series includes a wide range of opinions on a single controversial subject. Each volume includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives—eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials and many others. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to future research.

Happy Family by Wendy Lee. Hua Wu, a recent immigrant from China, is hired by Jane Templeton and husband to be a nanny to their daughter, Lily, a two-year-old the couple adopted from China. They pull Hua into their circle of family and friends until she is deeply attached to Lily and their way of life. But when cracks show in the family’s perfect façade, what will Hua do to protect the little girl who reminds her so much of her own past?

The Sign for Drowning by Rachel Stolzman. Anna has grown up haunted by her younger sister’s death. In the life she constructs as a barrier against the emotional wreckage of her family tragedy, Anna settles comfortably into a career as a teacher of deaf children. But a challenge arrives—in the form of a young girl. Adrea’s disarming vulnerability and obvious need for love offer Anna the possibility of reconnecting with the world around her—if she has the courage to open her heart.

Made in China by Vanita Oelschlager and Kristin Blackwood (Illustrator). Made In China touches on two seemingly unrelated subjects—adoption and sibling relations. The story begins when a child is told by her older sister, in a teasing manner, that she is adopted from China, and “marked” just like the broom and their toys. Upset, she goes to her father who tells her the story of how she came to be their child but “you’re not made like a toy, you were made in China to give us joy.”

What Every Adoptive Parent Needs to Know by Kate Cremer-Vogel, M.S., LCPC, and Dan and Cassie Richards. As a young couple, Dan and Cassie Richards thought they had finally fulfilled their dream of having a family after adopting a beautiful little boy and girl. But they had unsuspectingly invited a Trojan horse into their hearts and home. While the children seemed happy on the outside, deep inside they were suffering from the hidden trauma that so many adopted children carry with them. This remarkable true-life story of raising two adopted children is a tale of hope and resilience, of two parents unprepared for their children’s psychological wounds that only time would reveal. Most importantly, it shows that profound healing is possible when adoptive families realize that traditional parenting is not enough.

Adoption in the United States by Martha J. Henry and Daniel Pollack. This is the only comprehensive book that includes information on both the medical and health aspects of adoption and the different laws and procedures regarding adoption for each state. The authors provide a consolidated picture of the regulations for intercountry adoptions in addition to those for adoption from public foster care and domestic infant adoption.

Motherless Child by Sarah Gordon Weathersby. Imagine you gave a baby up for adoption forty years ago, and after years of trying to find her, she finds you. Now come the hard questions. She’s healthy, beautiful, and successful, but she wants to know why you gave her away and why you didn’t marry her father. And there is also the unspoken question of “What kind of black woman gives her baby away?”

The Brotherhood of Joseph by Brooks Hansen. While miracles in reproductive technology have brought joy to millions, those very advances have plunged many couples into an unrelenting cycle of hope and heartbreak. One failed attempt may lead to another and another—but how do you give up when there is always another doctor, another procedure holding out the possibility of conception and the child you yearn for? The Brotherhood of Joseph brings to life the anger, frustration, humor, heartbreak, and sense of helplessness that come to dominate the husband’s role.

The Ethics of Embryo Adoption and the Catholic Tradition by Sarah-Vaughan Brakman and Darlene Fozard Weaver, Editors. A comprehensive collection of essays that examines and advances ethical evaluations of the controversial and increasingly popular practice of embryo adoption.

Special Skills In International Adoptive Parenting by Nina J. Talmén. The amount of international adoptions in Western countries is rising year by year. This book tries to answer the question: what kind of special skills these international adoptive parents feel they need in international adoptive parenting? This case study looks closely to the views and experiences of five Finnish international adoptive parents. It also presents many practical examples of the challenges these families have faced in their everyday life.

The Heartbeat I Heard at Conception by Elyse James Johnston. When does life begin? In this self-published, first-hand account, Johnston asserts that life begins at conception, exhorting readers to tune into their spirits and make the most of every heartbeat they have left.

The Colors of Grief by Janis A. Di Ciacco, Ph.D. Following a life shattering experience, a child enters upon a confusing emotional journey that can be likened to a prism of many colors of dark feelings like sadness and fear, but also warm feelings of love and courage. The way they deal with these feelings has a lasting impact on their life as they grow. The Colors of Grief explores strategies for supporting a grieving child to ensure a healthy growth into adulthood.

I’m Adopted, I’m Special by Beth Rice and Sharon Podgurski (Illustrator). Beth Ann is five years old and she is adopted. But what does being adopted really mean? Join Beth Ann as her colorful dream leads her to a better understanding of what adoption means in one simple message.

Milk and Tides by Margaret Hasse. Hasse is one of the Midwest’s most renowned poets, and her collection of poems in Milk and Tides is unforgettable! Read along as Margaret Hasse shares her inner thoughts and feelings in this amazing book.

Back to the Beginning by Ava Nell Friddle, Judy Carol Andrews & Kristen Elizabeth Hamilton, PIs, with Joe Bardin. Back to the Beginning is a compilation of true adoption search stories and offers a fascinating glimpse into the often secretive world of search and reunion from the viewpoints of triad members and the private investigators who worked on their cases. This book offers not only true stories that touch the heart, but invaluable experience in understanding the dynamics of adoption searches and reunions.

The Puzzle by Tracy Lynn Beal and Charles E. Cunningham (Illustrator). The Puzzle is a story about being adopted and fitting perfectly into your family, just like the missing piece of a puzzle.

Robbie’s Trail Through Adoption by Adam D. Robe and Nathalie Gavet (Illustrator). Designed for children ages 5-10 who become eligible for adoption, Robbie’s Trail through Adoption is part of an educational, dialogue-opening series for kids in out-of-home care. This full-color 76-page book contains an engaging story followed by activities covering issues such as control, grief and loss, feelings, communication and self-identity.

The Little Girl by Phil Wong and Fenlin Lee (Illustrator). One little girl can change your life forever. In The Little Girl, a Chinese bachelor adopts an abandoned baby. He raises her, experiencing the joys and trials of fatherhood. As the girl comes of age, the father realizes that he can’t take care of his daughter forever, so he arranges a marriage for her. He suffers through a deep time of loneliness but in the end is rewarded.

Fields of the Fatherless by Tom Davis. In Biblical times, God maintained a special provision for the less fortunate. As His people harvested their fields, they were instructed to always leave a portion of the crops for those in need. Today, God’s heart continues to beat for the poor, the widows, and the fatherless. Author Davis encourages us to move beyond words and become Christ to those in need.

The Belated Baby by Jill S. Browning and Kelly James-Enger. Approximately 7.3 million American women have struggled with infertility. Most of them, whether or not they use fertility treatments, do not realize that when they have their baby (or babies)—whether through birth or via adoption—the echoes of their infertility will be felt long after they are living out their dream of having their own baby. The Belated Baby supports the message these women need to hear and guides readers through the transition from being an infertile patient to parenthood, revealing how infertility shapes them as a parent.

Father and Son by Walter Wangerin, Jr. and Matthew Wangerin. Award-winning novelist Walter Wangerin Jr. and his adopted son, Matthew, share their deeply personal story. Each in his own words, father and son narrate the history of their relationship and how they found new meaning—and new identities—through times of brokenness, hope, and rediscovery. Father and Son is a profound meditation on fatherly love and a son’s independence—and one family’s search for reconciliation.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart and Diana Sudyka (Illustrator). The fabulous foursome readers embraced as The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search—a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids’ adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain. With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all—a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and will require them to fight for the very namesake that united them.

The Lily Poems by Liz Rosenberg. The Lily Poems are love poems for the author’s Chinese adopted daughter, a tribute to hope and to family.

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber. What do you want most in the world? Anne Marie Roche wants to find happiness again. At 38 her life’s not what she’d expected—she’s childless, a recent widow, alone. On Valentine’s Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebrate...what? Hope, possibility, the future. They each begin a list of twenty wishes, things they always wanted to do but never did.

Not Remembered Never Fogotten by Robert Hafetz. Not Remembered Never Forgotten is an examination of the resolution of an adoptee’s emotional memories and the search for the authentic self. Not knowing his name at birth, and barred by archaic secrecy laws that seal adoption records forever, the author searched back through fifty years of his past to find the truth that would redefine the essence of who he is.

Labor of the Heart by Kathleen Whitten, Ph.D. As would-be parents cycle through the adoption process, they balance anxiety and fear with the life-altering decision of adoption. The emotional toll of this dance can be completely overwhelming and can confuse parents while navigating the decisions of how to expand their families. Utilizing extensive research and the author’s own experience, Labor of the Heart does not gloss over the realties of the adoption process, but rather leads parents through the many stages and emotional impacts the process involves.

Help! My Family’s Messed Up by Emily Parke Chase. Help! My Family’s Messed Up is a compassionate guide for those living in a troubled household or recovering from broken homes, abuse, or other traumas in their families. Topics include: divorce, adoption, abuse, addiction, death.

Passport by Christopher Blunt. Passport is an engaging coming-of-age story about a young man’s discovery of self-sacrificial love. It is told through the eyes of Stan Eigenbauer, who is living a generally upright—but comfortable and self-satisfied—bachelor’s life with his dog and hobby cars. When a lapse in judgment brings consequences he hadn’t anticipated, Stan must make a series of agonizing decisions about how to move forward.

Adoption Time Bomb by Mark Tyler. Ken and Marne had been delighted to open their home to a beautiful baby boy in need of a loving family; little did they know that their adopted son had come with a hidden time bomb. Mark Tyler has known the heartbreaking loss of two members of his own family. Life with a child of severe behavior disorders was one of extreme challenges, but nothing could have prepared him for the way his own family story would tragically end.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he’s never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who’s also adoped, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, “You are one of the missing.” The second one says, “Beware! They’re coming back to get you.” Thereby they discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip’s lives.

Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child by Patty Cogan. In Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child, the author offers guidance to adoptive parents of children adopted from overseas, from preparations for a child’s arrival all the way through the teen years.

How I Became a Big Sister by Dave Moore. How I Became A Big Sister is a children’s book that explains adoption to young children. It is a simple story of how a little girl who doesn’t have any siblings all suddenly becomes a big sister to an adopted child. The story is told from the point of view of the toddler, and touches on many of the concerns and fears that a child might be experiencing when their family decides to adopt. This book is a must read for anyone who is considering adoption of another child when they already have young children.

Finding Helen by Rose Johnson-Tsosie. The year was 1950. A terrified Navajo girl, only thirteen years old, travels to a small Hopi hospital to give birth to premature twins. Unable to speak English, Helen signs a paper by marking her “X” and thumbprint, believing the hospital is asking for permission to leave her twin girls in their care until they are healthy enough to go home. When the young mother returns expecting to be reunited with her daughters, she finds that something has gone desperately wrong.

Big Steps for Little People by Celia Foster. Drawing on the hard-won wisdom gained in her own family life, Celia Foster offers a thoughtful account of life with adopted children and examines the issues that many adoptive families encounter, including the development of children with attachment problems and how to tackle behavioural difficulties, combining real-life anecdotes with suggestions and strategies that other parents can put to use.

Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 21: Adoption by Sylvain Vite and Herve Boechat. This volume constitutes a commentary on Article 21 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, dealing with adoption. It is part of the series, A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides an article-by-article analysis of all substantive, organizational and procedural provisions of the CRC and its two Optional Protocols.

The Emotional Experience of Adoption by Debbie Hindle and Graham Shulman. The Emotional Experience of Adoption explains and accounts for the emotional and psychological complexities involved for child, parents and professionals in adoption. It will be of interest and relevance to anyone involved at a personal level in the adoption process or professionals working in the fields of adoption, social work, child mental health, foster care and family support.

Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller. Within a book of wider scope, the story of Joni Mitchell’s adopted-out daughter’s search for her is also related.

The Life of a Lily by Lily L. Ratliff. Are you going through life s ups and downs alone? Are you a victim of the foster system or adopted and want to know, Why me? Can there ever be life after abuse or abandonment? If you have experienced opposition or neglect, this book is for you. In her autobiography, The Life of a Lily, author Lily L. Ratliff shows you that through all of your mess, God can bring you to a point of acceptance of what life has given you, with the vigor to carry on.

Because of Her Nephew by Fata Alic. Dina Zuhric is a young Bosnian native who is trying to adopt her ten-year-old nephew, Edin Nukic. Her family did not know the boy existed until they received a call from a young woman living in Kentucky. Dina’s oldest brother, Edin, the boy’s father, had been killed in the war in Bosnia. When Dina finds out about her brother’s child, she decides to find him.

The Lucky Ones edited by Anna Rauhala. This collection of personal stories reveals why parents who have adopted children from China feel truly lucky. The memoirs are organized by the experience: starting with infertility then realizing a unique destiny—turning bleak beginnings into happy endings. Despite this collection’s upbeat tone, it doesn’t sugarcoat adoption—contributors wonder about birth parents, worry about prejudice, and struggle to parent children of a different culture.

The Girl Who Saw Lions by Berlie Doherty. When Abela’s mother dies of AIDS in their African village, she is left to face the lions of the world. Lions like her Uncle Thomas who has plans to sell her in Europe. Lions like his bitter white wife, whom he abandons with Abela. Abela is forced to stay indoors in a sunless London apartment, cooking and cleaning, and hopelessly dreaming of her African homeland.

Niner by Theresa Martin Golding. Macey McCallister, “Niner” to her classmates, is missing a lot of things—her thumb, her birth parents, her history—and now her adoptive mother has disappeared as well. So one morning when Macey finds a locket on her front lawn, she is convinced that it is a sign, something placed there just for her. But when others seem to want the locket as well, Macey, her sister Deena, and their friends are unwittingly drawn into the middle of a frightening and dangerous game.

Foster Parenting by Howard and Geneva Coleman. Foster Parenting: A Road Less Traveled is an actual account of Howard and Geneva Coleman and their experience in fostering over 24 children in their home from 2000 to 2007. Foster Parenting: A Road Less Traveled is also a training book for perspective and adoptive parents who are interented in becoming foster parents or adopting a child.

Native American Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories by Rita J. Simon and Sarah Hernandez. This study focuses on the lives of Native American transracial adoptees and their struggle to establish a healthy sense of cultural identity, while being raised in non-Native homes. The twenty participants in this study focus on what methods their adoptive parents used or, in some cases, did not use to help them establish their own sense of cultural identity. In the end, most participants agreed that adoptive parents can help their adoptive child establish a healthy sense of cultural identity by nurturing a connection between their child and their child’s tribal community.

My Best Friend’s Girl by Dorothy Koomson. How far would you go for the best friend who broke your heart? This internationally bestselling novel tells an enchanting tale of life’s most unpredictable loves and heartaches, and the unforgettable bond between a single woman and an extraordinary five-year-old girl.

The Seer of Shadows by Avi. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen. Horace’s first real photographs reveal the frightful likeness of the Von Machts’ dead adopted daughter, Eleanora, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her.

The Travels of Annie T. Hastings by Michael Hastings, Editor. With a gun, a typewriter, and a wolf-hound, Annie fires up her junker and embarks on a journey across America seeking a long-lost daughter. At seventy years old, driven mad with guilt, alienated from her family, angry at the world, Annie has little time to make it right. It all happened so fast—the infant ripped from her arms at birth, then hustled away, the forcing of her signature on the adoption papers... Annie aches for her daughter’s understanding, forgiveness, and love.

Bittersweet by Gay Lewis. What happens to an eighteen-year-old who discovers she’s pregnant her first semester at Bible school? And what happens twenty-five years later when that baby reappears in the life of that young woman, now a wife and mother? The story is Bittersweet, its pain and despair overlaid by the grace and forgiveness of God and the miracle of restoration.

She Loves ME! by Karen Denise Wilkinson Pergerson. This book was written for Karen’s daughter, Kayleena, to let her know how very much she was wanted and loved before anyone ever knew that she existed! Written for children and adults, this book takes us on the journey of the adoptive parents search for a baby and the wondrous love that birth mothers have for the precious children that they so lovingly entrust to another family to raise.

Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor. Aggie isn’t expecting visitors at the Sleepy Time Motel in the Great Smoky Mountains. Since her husband died, she is all alone with her cat, Ugly, and keeping up with the bills and repairs has become next to impossible. When she reluctantly places a For Sale ad in the newspaper, Aggie doesn’t know that Kirby and his mom will need a room when their car breaks down on the way to Kirby’s new reform school. Or that Loretta and her parents will arrive in her dad’s plumbing company van on a trip meant to honor the memory of Loretta’s birth mother. Or that Clyde Dover will answer the For Sale ad in such a hurry and move in with his daughter, Willow, looking for a brand-new life to replace the one that was fractured when Willow’s mom left. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that Aggie and her guests find just the friends they need at the shabby motel in the middle of nowhere.

The Miracle Child by Calvin D. Atchison. Mark and Jasmine Hunter have been married for twelve wonderful years. She planned to give birth until her dream is shattered in a car accident that nearly takes her life. They look toward the possibility of adopting a child. Two social workers come together on their behalf along with two great missionaries in Africa to make their dream come true.

Oceans Apart by Mary Mustard Reed. Entrusted to an American couple by her young mother, who was desperate to pull her daughter from death’s door when she contract small pox, seven-year-old Mary bid her mother a traumatic farewell at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport and was taken to the United States. After almost three decades of tears and lost hope, during which Mary believed her mother to be dead, the Red Cross successfully reunited mother and daughter.

Forced Adoption by Ian Josephs. Forced Adoption exposes the secret family courts, the gagging of parents and worse still the forced adoption of their children for such trivial reasons as “risk of emotional abuse.” All conclusions are sourced from Parliamentary Questions, the BBC, ITV and reputable newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail

Drats! My Hair is a Rat’s Nest! by Susan Stevens. A young Asian girl, Kiran, is adopted into a Caucasian family and questions her differences, and how to fit in. Her world is further complicated through a divorced family, but her new extended family reaches out with advice and love to help her find acceptance. In this humorous tale of a hairdo gone wrong, Stevens tackles the topics of adoption and divorce, which are realities affecting families every day.

Why is My Name Sam? by Monica Canady and Maria Eugenia Papeo & Marina Saumell (Illustrators). Sam is a loving member of the Woodchuck family, but he suddenly discovers that he is very different from the rest of his family. This is an amazing story about what truly makes a family and Sam’s road to discovery.

The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem. In 2000, American Fantasy Press published an unassuming chapbook titled The Man on the Ceiling. Inside was a dark, surreal, discomfiting story of the horrors that can befall a family. Now, Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem have re-imagined the story, expanding on the ideas to create a compelling work that examines how people find a family, how they hold a family together despite incomprehensible tragedy, and how, in the end, they find love.

Swimming Up the Sun by Nicole J Burton. At age 22, the author set out to find her English birth parents, a Jewish father and a mother believed to be an artist. The adventure led to parents, grandparents, and siblings, a kaleidoscope of relationships with one dark secret at its center.

Mother Me by Zara H. Phillips. In this intensely personal and compelling memoir, Zara describes her feelings and explores her relationships with her adoptive and birth mothers, and invites the reader to join her in her own journey to becoming a mother. Mother Me is a frank and honest account which explores the far-reaching impact of adoption on childhood, adolescence, relationships and self-esteem. It also provides a unique insight into pregnancy and motherhood from the perspective of an adopted woman.

The English American by Alison Larkin. When Pippa Dunn, adopted as an infant and raised terribly British, discovers that her birth parents are from the American South, she finds that “culture clash” has layers of meaning she’d never imagined. Meet The English American, a fabulously funny, deeply poignant debut novel that sprang from Larkin’s autobiographical one-woman show of the same name. With an authentic adopted heroine at its center, Larkin’s compulsively readable first novel unearths universal truths about love, identity, and family with wit, warmth, and heart.

A Risky Affair by Maureen Smith. Following the deaths of her adoptive parents, Solange Washington is finally ready to move on. But after she has a run-in with magnificently bare-chested Dane Roarke, a private investigator hired to run a routine background check on her, Solange’s pulse goes wild—even as questions about her past surface. Dane knows there’s more to Solange’s story than meets the eye, and he suspects it has to do with secrets about her real parents. Torn by his desire for this vibrant lady and his growing suspicions, Dane walks a thin line between trust and truth ... because passion has made this case personal.

Your Forever Family by Amy Parker and Neal Wooten & Rosita Schandy (Illustrators). This book is about an adoptive Guatemalan girl who is adored by her forever family. She has a mom, dad, and two big brothers who cannot wait to be by her side enjoying all the firsts in her life. Although the family has missed some of those firsts such as first tooth as the adoption process has been quite long, they have grown to love her. They have constantly prayed for her and can hardly wait to be her forever family. Not just a family for a little while, but her family for the rest of her life.

The Smith Family’s New Puppy by Dana Smith-Mansell and Kathy Voerg (Illustrator). Meet the Smiths: a happy family composed of two dogs, one cat, and two humans. But when the humans decide to adopt a dog named Trevor from the humane society, the other pets become sad, clingy, jealous, and afraid. Will Trevor get all the humans’ time and attention? Who will play with the other pets, or snuggle them when they’re lonely and blue? This comforting story about the arrival of a new family member reassures soon-to-be big brothers and sisters that sharing love means more love for everyone, not less love for them.

The Law of Adoption by Margaret C. Jasper. According to the National Adoption Clearinghouse, more than 120,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. This almanac sets forth the various types and circumstances of adoption, the adoption process, and the state and federal laws governing adoption. Consent requirements and the rights of putative fathers are also examined, and the pros and cons of open adoptions, i.e., where contact with the birth family is maintained, are explored. More....

Just Desserts by Barbara Bretton. Hayley Goldstein has been offered the chance of a lifetime: to bake a cake for a world-famous rock star. But she’s shocked to discover that she’s actually the aging rocker’s long-lost daughter. With her world turned upside down, Hayley will need help letting down her guard and hanging onto the things that matter most. And the rocker’s lawyer, Finn Rafferty, may just be the man for the job.

Mississippi Mud by Maria Morgan. Lost to the world of illegal adoptions that took place in the 1950s after World War II, the Whitfield County Babies, as they call themselves, were sold on the black market to the State-rejected unfit parents who could pay. Born in the back of drugstore in a small Mississippi town on a cold table, delivered by an unethical doctor and the matron of a profitable unwed mother’s home, these illegitimate discarded babies were bound together by their beginnings. As grown adults, thanks to the computer age, they find each other and band together to search for their roots, the birth families who gave them away in shame so many years before.

Your Sacred Adoption by Kevin Quirk. This guided journal will help you capture and preserve everything about your adoption experience. Simple phrases will prompt you to remember, to record, and to savor your most important memories and experiences at every step along the way, leaving you with a treasured keepsake for you and your child. This book will serve as a perfect guide for any parent(s) adopting a child of any age, through a domestic or international adoption. It also serves as a valued gift for anyone at any stage of the adoption journey.

Have Womb, Will Travel by Renée van Oostveen. This is the true story of two women—Renée in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Jennefer in rural Montana—who get to know each other by writing emails, talking on the telephone and finally meeting in order to pursue a surrogacy arrangement in order to enable Renée to realize her dream of a family.

Beautiful by Jaiya John. Poetry celebrating children separated from original family: A poetic companion to Jaiya John’s Reflection Pond, Beautiful is the kind of treasure we polish repeatedly, its truth seeping into our compassion. Struggle and triumph. Solitude and belonging. A journey of sunflowers toward the sun of selfhood. In these pages we find Beauty born.

Hope’s Boy by Andrew Bridge. In this memoir of a decade spent in foster care, Bridge illuminates the horrors of a system that, in its clumsy attempts to save children, he argues, all too frequently condemns them to physical and emotional abuse. The child of a teenage mother, he watched helplessly as she disintegrated under the effects of isolation and poverty. At the age of seven, Bridge was literally dragged away from his mother by police and warehoused in an enormous California juvenile facility patrolled by armed guards. The state eventually transferred him to a foster family dominated by an obese, bullying Estonian woman who had survived imprisonment in Dachau as a child.

You Are My Baby, I Am Your Mommy by Kimberly Leclercq. Vibrantly illustrated, this book explores many questions that run through a woman’s mind about how her child would come into her life and what characteristics that child may have. Without having answers to the many difficult questions and whether adopted or biological, she always knew of one real truth—this child is her own. The simplicity of bright illustrations captures children’s attention as the powerful words hold much truth and meaning in every mother’s heart.

Sisters, Ink by Rebeca Seitz. Sisters, Ink marks the first in a series of novels written by, for, and about scrapbookers. At the center of the creativity and humor are four unlikely young adult sisters, each separately adopted during early childhood into the loving home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair. Ten years after their mother Marilyn has died, the multi-racial Sinclair sisters (Meg, Kendra, Tandy, and Joy) still return to her converted attic scrapping studio in the small town of Stars Hill, TN, to encourage each other through life’s highs and lows. Book one spotlights headstrong Tandy, a successful yet haunted attorney now living back in Orlando where she spent the first eight years of her life on the streets as a junkie’s kid.

My Friend... the Angel by Daniela Calvo. [No Description Available]

First Daughter: White House Rules by Mitali Perkins. In First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, Sameera showed the United States it was ready for a Pakistani-born First Daughter. In reality, it’s no fairy tale. The Secret Service and the paparazzi follow Sameera everywhere. She misses her friends—and even her school—back home. So Sameera decides to escape.

Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and LeAnn Thieman L.P.N. Another installment in the “Chicken Soup” series of books, Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul includes stories by adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents of finding and creating families, ranging from tales about international orphaned babies and children who spent years in the foster-care system to those who were adopted at birth.

Nappily Faithful by Trisha R. Thomas. Venus Johnson’s back in a brand new Nappily novel taking her into another misadventure in the joys and pains of love, motherhood and marriage. Hoping to get away from emotional baggage in Los Angeles, Venus and Jake move to Atlanta. And the timing couldn’t be worse since Airic, the biological father of Venus’ daughter Mya, suddenly demands parental rights with the child he hasn’t seen since her birth. A nasty custody battle ensues. Airic’s new wife, Trevelle Doval, a famous TV evangelist—may be behind his sudden interest. Venus is in for the biggest fight of her life.

My God Box by Margaret Iuculano. My God Box is Margaret’s memoir about her abusive childhood. She lived in a receiving home for battered children called Juvenile Hall, a carousel of foster care families, a mental health facility and on the streets of California—all before the Holy Ghost impregnated her heart with a love of God, planting in her mind an iron clad faith in the Divine Creator.

I Looked Out Tilt by Henry Wyath Gurley. Set in the fictional town of Portman, Texas, beginning in the 1920s, the novel reaches from the slave-trading days of Western Africa to South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana. The storyline comes together as a cohesive saga over a span of almost fifty years. The eventual protagonist, Finis Anderson, narrates the retrospective history of the community from notes and journals left to him by his parents and by his grandmother.

Adopting: Sound Choices, Strong Families by Patricia Irwin Johnston. Adopting: Sound Choices, Strong Families is a “must-read” for anyone considering adoption. With compassion and candor, it helps sort out the emotional, relational and practical aspects of the journey to family-building through adoption. Pat’s warm and direct style gives readers the courage to face the losses they have experienced so they can continue exploring adoption as a means to parenthood.

Indelible Ink by Mary Lenore Quigley. Mary Lenore Quigley was adopted by her mom and, as an adult, successfully searched for and found her birth family. She, with her husband, Patrick, are also the adoptive parents of their son, Tim, whom they adopted over 44 years ago. Mary wrote about this incredible journey in her memoir, Indelible Ink.

Gifts to Each Other by Andrea Stephens and Jessica Flores (Illustrator). What happens in the household when a family with three children adopts another child into their home? Gifts To Each Other is the tender and true story of one family’s tale before they adopted and the changes that occurred after, with the “gift” referring to the family members themselves.

How I Became a Big Brother by Dave Moore. How I Became A Big Brother is a children’s book that explains adoption to young children. It is a simple story of how a little boy who doesn’t have any siblings suddenly becomes a big brother to an adopted child. The story is told from the point of view of the toddler, and touches on many of the concerns and fears that a child might be experiencing when their family decides to adopt. This book is a must read for anyone who is considering adoption of another child when they already have young children.

Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter. In this engrossing memoir, college senior Rhodes-Courter chronicles her hardscrabble childhood in foster care, detailing glitches in the system and infringements of laws that led to a string of unsuitable-and sometimes nightmarish-placements for her and her younger half-brother, Luke.

Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunée. When Kim Sunée was three years old, her mother took her to a marketplace, deposited her on a bench with a fistful of food, and promised she’d be right back. Three days later a policeman took the little girl, clutching what was now only a fistful of crumbs, to a police station and told her that she’d been abandoned by her mother. Fast-forward almost 20 years and Kim’s life is unrecognizable. Adopted by a young New Orleans couple, she spends her youth as one of only two Asian children in her entire community. A love story at heart, this memoir is about the search for identity and a book that will appeal to anyone who is passionate about love, food, travel, and the ultimate search for self.

Pushing Up Bluebonnets by Leann Sweeney. When asked to help identify a young woman who may not survive an attempted murder, Abby Rose, the Texas P.I. who specializes in adoption cases, discovers a possible connection between the girl and a prominent Houston family—the questions about her past are getting stickier than pecan pie. Abby’s about to learn the hard way that when she crawls out on a limb, she’d better be certain there’s not someone behind her with a saw and a mean spirit.

Having a Baby... When the Old-Fashioned Way Isn’t Working by Cindy Margolis. Cindy Margolis may be known as the “most downloaded woman on the Internet,” but she was brought down to earth when she tried to conceive. Suddenly, she became another statistic: just one of the more than nine million women each year who are desperately trying to have a child. Now Cindy helps women navigate through the world of infertility treatments and procedures.

When the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright. Lahni Schuler is the only black student at her private prep school. She’s also the adopted child of two loving, but white, parents who are on the road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad, Lahni feels more and more alone. But when Lahni and her mother attend a local church one Sunday, Lahni hears the amazing gospel choir, and her life takes an unexpected turn.

I Wished for You by Marianne Richmond. A beautiful story for adoptive families, I Wished for You, follows a conversation between a little bear named Barley and his Mama, as they curl up in their favorite cuddle spot and talk about how they became a family. Barley asks Mama the kinds of questions many adopted children have, and Mama lovingly answers them all. With endearing prose and charming watercolor illustrations, I Wished for You, is a cozy read that affirms how love is what truly makes a family.

Flora’s Family by Annette Aubrey and Patrice Barton (Illustrator). Explore the issue of adoption as Flora’s mum and dad explain to her how she became part of their family.

Mamadona by Anthony Mary Mofunanya. Mamadona is the controversial story of a young boy’s adoption; a story that brings with it many other questions of human nature and social inequality and discrimination. David is adopted from Malawi when he is still only a baby and brought to live in England with a well-known, affluent family [pop-star Madonna and her husband]. When the story catches the attention of the world’s media, he is instantly catapulted into the public eye and, some may say, into the firing line.

If I Love My Kid Enough by Sara-Jane Hardman and Jean Roe Mauro, LCSW. The euphoria of adoption does not always lead to happily ever after. This important book offers fresh insights and strategies for parenting the adopted child.

Diapers on the Clothes Line by Hannah Stefanov. Diapers on the Clothes Line takes a unique look into the joys and challenges that occur through the journey of infertility. Written from a Christian point of view, Hannah unashamedly takes aim and smashes current views of how to deal with infertility. Laying claim that no woman by God’s design has to go through depression to heal and get through infertility, Hannah asserts her solid faith in a gentle, but honest way.

My Wish, Our Little Oat by Tamra Martin and Jason Tinker (Illustrator). Wishing on a falling star sends two frogs on a journey to find their new son in a pond very far away. These lovable frogs introduce the love behind adopting a child into a fun story for children.

Faces of Layla by Jennifer Armstrong; Melissa Faye Greene (Foreword); and Emma Dodge Hanson (Photograpy). Faces of Layla, a book of stunning photographs of children at Layla House orphanage in Ethiopia by Emma Dodge Hanson, with a Foreword by Melissa Fay Greene and text by Jennifer Armstrong. Emma Dodge Hanson captures the lives of the children at Layla House.

A Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith. A Connecticut heiress learns she’s adopted and travels to northern Florida “cracker” cattle ranch to find her birth parents. There she also finds unexpected romance with the ranch’s owner.

The Adopted Son by Nanci Brownlow. Can death be stalking the only remaining heir to the Carlson fortune? If the death of her brother was not a suicide and the death of her mother and father was not an accident, could her own death be the next step in a plot to eliminate her family? Megan Carlson is a young woman trying to solve a mystery that could threaten her life. Can she find the missing pieces to the puzzle before the stalker ends the game?

Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson. When she was a child, Frances Robinson’s birth mother smothered her three sisters. Through pure luck, Frances survived. Now her mother has just been released from prison ... and she wants to see Frances. A new boy at school called Nix charms Frances. Together, Nix and Frances embark on a clandestine journey to visit Frances’ mother: to confront the monster in its lair. This trip will help Frances at last find peace—or die trying. But no matter what, Frances will discover just what it means to finish.

Cradle of Secrets by Lisa Mondello. Tammie Gardner was never supposed to discover that she was adopted. But she had, and, with God as her guide, she headed to a sleepy New England town, determined to discover who she really was. Her arrival was met with odd double-takes and the dangerous attention of handsome stranger Dylan Montgomery, who insisted she was another woman entirely and the key to his brother’s mysterious disappearance. And now someone wanted to make Tammie disappear before either of them could ever learn the truth.

Hidden by Cathy Glass. A poignant and shocking memoir of foster carer Cathy Glass’s relationship with Tayo, a young boy whose good behavior and polite manners hide a terrible past. Tayo arrives at Cathy’s with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police, but he is calm, polite, and very well spoken, and not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo’s history, but apart from his name and age, it is blank. Tayo has no past.

Adopting Princess Anastasia by Louise Adam. A colorful illustrated book for children about the adoption of one little girl.

One Life by Nicole Holmquist. This is an autobiographical story of one woman’s journey of self discovery. The main character is an adoptee, having been adopted at birth; a theme that is woven throughout the story and follows the effect adoption has on a person throughout the course of a lifetime.

Will You Be Here When I Get Home? by Claire Cashin. Claire Cashin was adopted. In her youth, she experienced many personal challenges because her birth mother gave her away. This led her in search of her biological mother. This is a true and very honest account of adoption, search and reunion. It gives hope and advice to families who wish to help and understand the dynamics involved in adoption and reunion.

Guess Who’s Adopted by Laura Kowalczyk Richards, B.A., M.Ed. As an adoptive mother, author Richards created Guess Who’s Adopted? as a labor of love for the sole purpose of celebrating the world of adoption. What began as a verbal game of “guess who else is adopted” with Laura’s firstborn and adopted daughter, Jolie, Guess Who’s Adopted? evolved into a fun-filled, positive book for children and adults alike!

Slow Burn by Brenda Jackson. Everything in accountant Skye Barclay’s life is fitting smoothly into place until she makes the startling discovery that she was adopted. Not only does she learn that her birth mother has died, but now Skye finds out that she has a biological brother: Vincent. Skye wants to track him down, and her parents, as well as her fiance, Wayne refuse to support or accept her decision. And Wayne takes it a step further and abruptly ends their engagement.

Adoption: Stories of Lives Transformed by Dr. Dixie van de Flier Davis. In Adoption: Stories of Lives Transformed, Dr. Dixie van de Flier Davis, President and Executive Director of The Adoption Exchange, recounts stories of how, since the agency’s inception, she has seen love impact the future in extraordinarily powerful ways. Van de Flier Davis collected stories from over 75 families that have been touched by adoption. Each family shares, in their own words, some of the joys and heartbreaks they have experienced through adoption.

Roots of a Priest by Ken Bowers and John A. Frochio. A priest discovers at his mother’s death bed that he was adopted. He ultimately learns that he is Jewish and had survived the Holocaust. The novel relates the events of his life as he learns his true heritage.

Who Are My Real Parents by D.L. Fuller. Polly and Enchilada are best friends. They enjoy planning hide and seek and tag together. One day Enchilada notices something different about Polly. She is a panda bear, but her parents are brown bears. Enchilada asks the question that every adopted child will hear at some point: “who are your real parents?”

Cries in the Drizzle by Yu Hua. Yu Hua’s beautiful, heartbreaking novel Cries in the Drizzle follows a young Chinese boy, the middle son of three named Sun Guanglin who is sent away at age six to live with another family, and the events that follow when he returns to his parents’ house six years later on the same night that their home burns to the ground, set against the backdrop of communist China.

The Sorta Sisters by Adrian Fogelin. Anna Casey likes living in Florida with Miss Johnette, her foster mother. Best of all Miss Johnette wants to adopt Anna. Still, it is hard grow into a new life and a new school, when you’ve been rootless nearly all of your life. By chance, Anna starts up a correspondence with Mica, who lives on a sailboat with The Captain, her beloved but often absent father. But beneath the surface of Mica’s exotic, footloose lifestyle is a similar sense of longing to belong to some place and someone.

The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch. Warning: this description has not been authorized by Pseudonymous Bosch. As much as he’d love to sing the praises of his book (he is very vain), he wouldn’t want you to hear about his brave 11-year-old heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest. Or about how a mysterious box of vials, the Symphony of Smells, sends them on the trail of a magician who has vanished under strange (and stinky) circumstances.

The Orphans’ Nine Commandments by William Roger Holman. When Roger Bechan was six, his mother packed his suitcase and told him they were going to Oklahoma City to visit an uncle. Instead, she took him to the Oklahoma Society for the Friendless, where he began a long journey through three orphanages and several foster homes.

Adopted Son by Linda Warren. After answering a call asking for backup, Texas Ranger Jeremiah “Tuck” Tucker discovers an abandoned child at the crime scene. Little Brady has been neglected—and it turns out he has no living family. Tuck is determined to give the two-year-old boy a home, and starts the process of adoption. He’s furious when he learns Grace Whitten, a lawyer and family friend, is representing a couple who also want Brady. She and Tuck have never gotten along, and now she’s questioning his abilities as a parent. But once he finds out Grace’s true intentions for the child, he begins to see beyond the lawyer, to the woman. And to the potential wife and mother...

When the Roses Bloom by Alfred James Phillips. Could a white family living in the South in the 1940s honor their Negro friends’ last request by adopting their son after the child’s parents are killed in a fiery automobile accident? And was this the child that was promised to Eunice Miller or was her out-of-body experience not really a visit to heaven after all, but only a dream?

The Wishing Flower by Mosetta Penick Phillips-Cermak. In a magical kingdom of peace and joy, in a place where the people have so much, only one sadness remains. As sorrow creeps into the village, it will take a miracle to return the kingdom to its perfect happiness. A miracle, that is only made possible through a gentle nature, a kind heart, and a little extra special magic.

Fault Lines by Nancy Huston. Fault Lines begins with Sol, a gifted, terrifying child whose mother believes he is destined for greatness partly because he has a birthmark like his dad, his grandmother, and his great-grandmother. When Sol’s family makes an unexpected trip to Germany, secrets begin to emerge about their history during World War II. It seems birthmarks are not all that’s been passed down through the bloodlines.

Defect by Will Weaver. Maybe it was bad karma. Maybe it was just bad luck. Whatever the reason, fifteen-year-old David was born defective. His bug eyes, pinched face, and hearing aids are obvious, but there is a secret David keeps from everyone, even his foster parents. Because of a thin layer of skin hidden under each arm, David can fly—well, glide is more like it.

Lovebug by Elizabeth Elias. Jasmine the ladybug asks her momma frog why she is red and not green. This gentle and heartfelt book introduces the concept of adoption to young children.

Foster Kid by Paul Barber. After the death of his mother, Paul Barber and his brothers and sister spent the rest of their childhoods in a succession of children’s and foster homes where they found themselves at the mercy of adults more interested in their own welfare than providing a loving home. Paul left care at the age of sixteen, and three years later landed his first acting role, by accident, in the musical ’Hair’, which put him on the path to London and a successful career in show business. Foster Kid is an extraordinarily frank, funny and heartfelt account of a young boy’s life.

Joy Comes in the Morning by Angela Tipton. This book chronicles the story of one family’s journey together in the realm of special needs adoption. It will give you a clear look into the lives of a family with love for children as well as the lives of the unique individuals who live life with disabilities.

The Making of Isaac Hunt by Linda Leigh Hargrove. Isaac’s determined to uncover the truth about the birth mother he never knew. He’s tired of living a lie. His desperate search for the truth takes him to Pettigrew. This small town ruled by the powerful white Benson family is shrouded in secrets—secrets about Isaac that some townspeople are willing to kill for. Will he find his real identity—or just a whole lot of trouble?

Castaway Kid by R.B. Mitchell. Rob Mitchell is one of the last “lifers” raised in an American orphanage. Left by a dysfunctional family in an Illinois children’s home, he grew up with kids who were not friends but rather “co-survivors.” After becoming a Christian as a teenager, Rob found what he was looking for, home and family, in a relationship with God. Rob was able to overcome his past, forgiving his relatives and forging healthy family relationships of his own.

Jim Limber Davis by Rickey Pittman and Judith Hierstein (Illustrator). Jim Limber Davis was rescued from an abusive guardian by Varina Davis when he was only five years old. Jefferson and Varina Davis welcomed him into their home, the Confederate White House, as one of the family, and Jim lived with them until the fall of the Confederacy. This true story provides a glimpse of how Jim was accepted as one of the Davis’s children and reveals their family’s love and compassion for him.

The Baby Wait by Cynthia Reese. Sarah Tennyson has it all planned. In two months she’ll travel to China to adopt the beautiful baby girl she’s always wanted. Even after a mountain of setbacks, she has the faith that one day she’ll hold her daughter. But that’s before the man she loves starts to doubt. Joe is Mr. Fix-It. The only thing he can’t do is get Sarah her baby. Now, after all the disappointment they’ve faced, he’s begun to wonder if their little family was really meant to be. Sarah can’t give up her dream, but what if waiting for her baby means losing Joe?

Too Good to Be True by Trish Perry. Rennie Young, heroine of Too Good to Be True, meets the gallant Truman Sayers after she faints in the boys’ department of the local super store. Despite this unromantic introduction, Tru Sayers, a handsome young labor–and–delivery nurse, seems like a gift from God. But a recent divorce and other life disappointments cause Ren to question whether she can trust her heart and God. This clever novel encourages readers to lean on God’s leading and to be open to life after the hurt—even when it seems too good to be true.

Loved to Death by Rosa Elmore Ferguson. Adoption brings about a set of issues unknown to any other social group, not only to the adoptee but to the adoptive parents as well. Death shouldn’t be one of those issues. Read about Morosa Denise McKinley’s life as an adoptee and her adoptive parents; one who loved too much and one who could not love enough.

Breastfeeding an Adopted Baby and Relactation by Elizabeth Hormann. Not many people are aware of the fact that induced lactation and relactation are possible. La Leche League International, the world’s foremost authority on breastfeeding information, is proud to introduce a book that provides information on these amazing biological processes. In Breastfeeding An Adopted Baby and Relactation, author and translator Elizabeth Hormann, IBCLC, discusses: myths about breastfeeding an adopted baby; how lactation works; preparation for adoptive breastfeeding; substances that stimulate milk production; beginning breastfeeding with an adopted baby; supplements; and support for parents. This book is a must-read for adoptive and relactating mothers, as well as for the health professionals who assist them.

Say You Love Me by Marion Husband. Say You Love Me is a powerful, sensitive yet shocking, exploration of the long-lasting traumas caused by parental sexual abuse. Marion Husband’s superbly drawn characters, loving and hating freely, both fascinate and repel. Ben Walker sets out to trace his father and discover the truth about his adoption in 1968. But the past holds secrets that his brother Mark is desperate to keep.

Welcome Home, Forever Child by Christine Mitchell. When Christine Mitchell encoutered difficulty finding appropriate adoption books for her daughter, she was inspired to write Welcome Home, Forever Child for her daughter and for other families who adopted their children as toddlers or older.

Healing Parents by Michael Orlans and Terry M. Levy. Healing Parents gives parents and caregivers the information, skills, self-understanding, support, and hope they need to be therapeutic and healing parents. This book is a toolbox filled with practical ideas and strategies that will enable parents to understand their child, create healthy relationships, and help their child heal emotional wounds and improve behaviorally, socially, and morally.

Risk and Promise by Ira J. Chasnoff, M.D.; Linda D. Schwartz, Ph.D.; Cheryl L. Pratt, Ph.D.; and Gwendolyn J. Neuberger, M.D. The premise of Risk and Promise is that the success of any adoption, both international and domestic, is a function of not only the capabilities and needs of the child, but also the expectations, characteristics, and lifestyle of the adoptive family members. It is important that prospective adoptive families assess their tolerance for uncertainty, for the potential challenges that the child may bring, and the parents ability (financial and otherwise) to modify their lifestyle in order to accommodate the demands of a child who may be quite challenging.

Adopting a Daughter From China by Denise Harris Hoppenhauer. From the Author of Adopting a Toddler, Denise Hoppenhauer brings you Adopting a Daughter from China. Written for first-time parents, the practical advice offered here combines the challenging aspects of parenthood, with personal experience and the unique needs of adoptive families.

Kids by Christmas by Janice Kay Johnson. Adopting one child is challenge enough for a single woman like Suzanne Chauvin. Now that she has the chance to adopt a brother and sister who shouldn’t be separated, she has to keep her life as simple as possible. Which means she doesn’t have time for an added complication in the form of her neighbor Tom Stefanec. Tom knows too much about Suzanne’s past...and she knows nothing about his.

The Jade Dragon by Carolyn Marsden and Virginia Shin-Mui Loh. Ginny is sure the new girl in her second-grade class will be her best friend. After all, Stephanie is Chinese, just like Ginny. But Ginny soon discovers some puzzling things about Stephanie: she doesn’t like Chinese food, she hates her straight black hair, and even more surprisingly, her parents are not Chinese.

An Unlit Path by Deborah L. Hannah. What happens when love is not enough? The answer lies in this true story of one family’s journey through the world of foster care and adoption within the United States. It is a personal account, encompassing both heartbreak and joy, while realistically embracing the intrinsic challenges of parenting the “hard to place” child. The long-term effects of neglect and abandonment, along with the issues of Reactive Attachment Disorder, sexual abuse, mental illness, and false allegations, are discussed in the context of the family’s four biological, five adopted and nine foster children.

Kidnapped by Jan Burke. Unable to have children themselves, multimillionaire Graydon Fletcher and his wife opt to adopt—21 boys and girls in all. Though they are not bound by blood, there’s something incestuous about the Fletcher clan; nearly all of the offspring attend the elite Fletcher Academy, and even as they grow older, the siblings spend nearly every waking hour in one another’s company. After one Fletcher son is murdered and another is imprisoned for the crime, Burke’s resourceful and compassionate reporter heroine, Irene Kelly and her homicide-detective husband, Frank Harriman, unearth sinister truths about stolen identities and stolen lives.

Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans. The Christmas season is supposed to be full of joy, but not for Mark Smart. Life had dealt him one blow after another until one snowy November night, when he finds a beautiful young woman who will change his life forever. Macy Wood has little memory of her birth parents, and memories she’d rather forget of her adopted home. A Christmas ornament inscribed with the word “Noel” is the only clue to the little sister she only vaguely remembers, a clue that will send her and Mark on a journey to reclaim her past, and her family.

Back to Madeline Island by Jay Gilbertson. The sunny sequel to Gilbertson’s debut, Moon Over Madeline Island, finds gal pals Eve Moss and Ruby Prevost, and their crew of apron-making employees, enjoying the fruits of a flourishing small business on northern Wisconsin’s Madeline Island. Eve is “forty-seven, single and NOT looking” for a man. Instead, she’s found college professor Helen Williams, the now-grown daughter she gave up for adoption 30 years ago.

Running Toward Home by Betty Jane Hegerat. Transferred between foster homes for most of his life, twelve-year-old Corey Brinkman has developed a bad habit of running away. His new foster parents, Wilma and Ben Howard, are determined to make their home his for life, but old habits are hard to break. Wilma takes Corey to the Calgary Zoo for his annual visit with his birth mother, despite her discomfort about Tina Brinkman and the fever Corey is pretending not to have. When Corey goes missing at the zoo, his two mothers are forced into an uneasy truce in the search for their son.

There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene. There Is No Me Without You is the story of Haregewoin Tefarra, a middle-aged Ethiopian woman of modest means whose home has become a refuge for hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS. Today, Haregewoin runs a school, a daycare system, and a shelter for sick mothers. Increasingly, she also places them for adoption with families like that of journalist Melissa Fay Greene, who has two children adopted from Ethiopia. In Haregewoin Tefarra’s story, Greene gives us an astonishing portrait of a woman fighting a continent-wide epidemic.

Five of Us by Bettyjane Heller. Mrs. Heller, her two sisters, and her two brothers, unfortunately experienced the death of their young mother, followed then by heartbreaking turmoil after their father commits suicide. The children, although bonded by a strong love, are eventually separated; Betty and Shirley found their home at Bethany Orphan’s Home, their younger sister, Mae, was placed in foster care, and their brothers, Clark and Willard, were adopted to separate homes.

Dear Eliza by Esosa Daniel-Oniko. As the curtain is pulled back on twists of traditions and customs, it reveals a family torn apart by a series of events that include misplaced priorities, which eventually lead to a crime. Eliza is a warm, witty, and likeable twenty-something who comes from a shadowy background of a “limited information” adoption. Despite the obstacles this presents, she lives a happy, cosmopolitan life that is nevertheless occasionally influenced by very traditional values and beliefs.

A Corpsman’s Legacy by Stephanie Hansen. Adopted at birth, Stephanie Hanson begins a search for her biological parents and learns her father, Gary Norman Young, was killed in the Vietnam War before she was born. To unravel the mystery of his death, she hears first-hand from other veterans of her father’s world of courage and bravery as a helicopter crewmember in 1969. She learns of the remarkable relationship that exists between Marines and their Navy Corpsmen, and realizes she has now inherited the honor and respect given to her father.

Adopter’s Handbook by Amy Neil Salter. Third Edition of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering’s guide to help adopters help themselves through the adoption process and beyond.

Letter of Love From China by Bonnie Cuzzolino and Jax Bennett (Illustrator). Inspired when the author’s daughter asked her what she thought her birth mom might say to her if she could speak to her, the book is written from the perspective of a Chinese birth mother in the form of a letter that seeks to explain the child’s own story to her.

The Adventure by George Klein. Born from Professor George C. Klein’s adoption of two Romanian babies in 1990, this work is a personal and analytical autobiography. Compiling data from the 1989 Romanian revolution, the oppression that led to the overthrow of Communism, and his personal experiences in Romania, The Adventure is primarily a description of the torturous process he and his wife endured in order to adopt two babies from a Romanian orphanage.

Adopted Son by Christopher Dominic Peloso. The invasion has begun. An invasion not from the stars but from within our wombs. All over the world children are being born...different. Their features are alien, their DNA isn’t human, their loyalties are unknown. As scientists, spies, and regular citizens race to make sense of this new disease, they find themselves asking the same question: Is this the first wave of an alien assault on Earth?

Bye Bye Baby by Elyse Gasco. Bye Bye Baby is a dramatic comedy inspired by Elyse Gasco’s multi-award-winning book Can You Wave Bye Bye, Baby? and marks her debut as playwright. The play follows one woman’s journey to discover the truth about her birth mother as she struggles to make sense of her own life and identity.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Set in World War II Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a 10-year-old foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist—books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

The Baby Business by Debora L. Spar. In The Baby Business, Debora Spar argues that it is time to acknowledge the commercial truth about reproduction and to establish a standard that governs its transactions. In this fascinating behind-the-scenes account, she combines pioneering research and interviews with the industry’s top reproductive scientists and trailblazers to provide a first glimpse at how the industry works: who the baby-makers are, who makes money, how prices are set, and what defines the clientele.

Boy on a String by Joseph Jacoby. Joe Jacoby, who worked in the early days of live TV and went on to become a pioneering filmmaker, has never before revealed that his childhood was spent in foster homes and institutions. An NYU film school classmate of Martin Scorsese, Jacoby survived a childhood wrought with abuse and neglect: his mother’s unpredictable and sometimes dangerous behavior forced friends to commit her; he then grew up in seven foster homes in Brooklyn, and two institutions (one for emotionally disturbed children).

A Faraway Home by Janie Lynn Panagopoulos and Carolyn R. Stich (Illustrator). In this heartfelt story of Orphan Train Riders for young readers, you will experience the hope, fear and exciement of Jack, Sarah, little George, and 42 other orphans on their way to new faraway homes and better lives.

In My Heart by Molly Bang. In the gentle, reassuring and playful voice of a loving caregiver, Caldecott-honor winning author/artist Molly Bang—here at her very warmest and most endearing—addresses the insecurities of children who are separated from their parents during the day. Charmingly simple, conversational language and vibrant pictures overflowing with child-friendly details make a perfect lap-sharing book for parents to read aloud before leaving for work in the morning, or right before shutting the lights out at night.

A Texas Family Reunion by Judy Christenberry. David Buford/Barlow has finally found his long-lost family, but the joy he feels at being reunited with his brother and sisters is complicated by his growing feelings for his “cousin” Alexandra. Will Alex ever be able to look at David as more than a protector and start thinking of him as a man—even a potential husband?

From Here to Maternity by Sinéad Moriarty. This work is a delicious, funny and touching final installment of Emma Hamilton’s struggles to become a mother. Just as Emma and her husband James become parents of eight-month-old Russian baby, Yuri, they also find out that Emma is pregnant. Emma discovers that having her dreams come true brings a whole new set of problems as she is faced with well-meaning friends and family—and not-so-well-meaning maternity nazis—telling her how to be a mother.

Costs and Outcomes of Non-Infant Adoption by Julie Selwyn, Wendy Sturgess, David Quinton and Catherine Baxter. Adoption is now at the heart of government policy to secure permanent, stable family lives for children who are no longer able to remain with their own birth families. Most children are placed with their new adoptive families after infancy and following very poor early parenting experiences, but surprisingly little is known about the long-term outcomes of these adoptions. This book reports the findings of a Department of Health-funded study of a complete sample of 130 older children, from one geographical area in England, for whom an “adoption in best interests” decision was made during a defined period in the 1990s.

Understanding Attachment by Jean Mercer. Is maternal instinct fact or a myth? What special challenges do adoptive parents face? What kind of daycare is better, one with many caregivers or one with few? When is separation anxiety normal in a child, and when is it a sign of a developmental problem? Do the experiences of early childhood always influence our ability to build and maintain social relationships as adults? Understanding Attachment helps to answer these questions and many others.

Hard Candy by Charles A. Carroll. Charles Carroll and his brother, Bobby, had the misfortune of being hard-to-place foster children and New Jersey in the 1950s. So the “powers that be” simply reclassified them from “orphan” to “retarded” and exiled them to a state-mental institution. There they remained for nearly ten years, deprived of their civil liberties, devoid of their right to an education, and denied any semblance of a humane existence.

Christmas Jars by Jason Wright. Rising newspaper reporter Hope Jensen uncovers the secret behind the “Christmas Jars”—glass jars filled with coins and bills anonymously given to people in need. But Hope discovers much more than she bargained for when some unexpected news sets off a chain reaction of kindness and brings above a Christmas Eve wish come true.

Shar’s Story by Sharon Shaw Elrod. The touching story of a mother who loved her child so much, she gave her away, and their reunion thirty-six years later.

Russia’s Abandoned Children by Clementine K. Fujimura, with Sally W. Stoecker & Tatyana Sudakova. Researcher Fujimura takes us across history, into Russian society, its orphanages and shelters, and along the streets of the nation to see how abandoned children are stigmatized and shunned. We also come to understand how and why these children, left orphans by death or by choice, form their own culture to find power and to survive. This pioneering work on child abandonment looks at Russian society from a new angle: from the perspectives of abandoned youngsters and their caretakers.

Siberian Pearls by Suzanne L. Popke. Follow the author’s trips as a single Baha’i woman to Buryatia, a republic in Russian Siberia, to adopt three Buryat children growing up in orphanages there. Her journeys in 1998 and 2001 describe a little known post-Soviet country, the ancestral home of Genghis Khan, as it struggles with monumental change and poverty, but also experiences a resurgence of traditional Buryat culture needed to build new hope for the future. Join a modern day odyssey of the heart and spirit, mixed with a little luck and humor, and see how one family’s lives will never be the same.

The Boy at the Window by John Boyd Brandon. In his second novel, author Brandon tells the story of a gay couple who adopt a 14-year-old boy who subsequently goes through a frightening experience, which helps him finally realize what a real family is and how much his new family really loves him.

Welcome Home by Christopher J. Alexander. Welcome Home provides parents of foster and adopted children with practical skills for raising children of all ages, including information about attachment, behavior, counseling, education and practical strategies for day-to-day parenting.

What Matters Most by Kristin Carter. Keira has a problem. She does not have a “real” family. She believes a real family is supposed to have a mom and a dad. After spending time with a variety of families, Keira learns something: a real family is not supposed to have anything. A real family is a group of people that love each other. What Matters Most includes a variety of alternative family structures and demonstrates that great families can come in all shapes and sizes.

Secret Daughter by June Cross. In 1957, when June Cross was four years old, she was sent by her white mother to live with a black family in Atlantic City. Her mother, Norma, had left June’s abusive father, a comic in the well-known black vaudeville duo Stump and Stumpy, and gave June up when it became clear that her dark-skinned, kinky-haired child could no longer “pass.” Within her adopted family, June struggled with her identity as the black radicalism of the times collided head on with her family’s more traditional ideals.

I Never Got to Be His Brother by John Russell. John Russell was born to a large family in 1951. After facing many hardships, his mother made the heart-wrenching decision to place her seven children up for adoption. In their attempt to insure that he bonded to his new family, John’s adoptive parents never allowed him to mention his former life. Memories were suppressed, and only after 34 years passed were the siblings reunited.

Loving and Living with Traumatised Children by Megan Hirst. This is the story of a group of nine adoptive parents who came together for mutual support to look at the effects on themselves of living with traumatised children. They based their task on a form of research known as co-operative inquiry. The group describes their journey from setting up the inquiry through the process of exploring the effects of their children’s trauma on themselves and their families, to their development into a cohesive support group and the sense of empowerment this has brought to their lives.

Open Secret by Janice Kay Johnson. Carrie St. John: Wealthy, privileged and... adopted? The idea would be preposterous, except...Carrie has never truly felt she belonged. Now she has a sister who wants to meet her and a brother no one can find. Not to mention adoptive parents she doesn’t seem to know anymore. With all the changes going on, it seems the only stable presence in her life is P.J. who tracked her down. Mark Kinkaid has become a trusted confidant and counselor, a good friend. Could it be love she’s feeling for him—or just need? Will she discard him once she’s sorted things out? That’s what he’d like to know.

Raising a Sensory Smart Child by Lindsey Biel, M.A., OTR/L and Nancy Peske. For children with sensory integration issues—those who have difficulty processing everyday sensations and exhibit unusual behaviors such as avoiding or seeking out touch, movement, sounds, and sights—this groundbreaking book is an invaluable resource. Coauthored by a pediatric occupational therapist and a parent of a child with SI dysfunction, Raising a Sensory Smart Child is as warm and accessible as it is authoritative and detailed and is an indispensable guide for parents, therapists, and teachers who will turn to it again and again.

The Pale Indian by Robert Arthur Alexie. In 1972, John Daniel, an eleven-year-old Blue Indian from Aberdeen in Canada’s Northwest Territories, and his six-year-old sister, Eva, were brought to live with a white couple in Alberta, having been removed from their parents by the Powers that Be. John promised he’d never go back. But in October 1984, at twenty-two, he broke that promise. A job with a drilling company brought him back to the land of his people, and Tina Joseph, to whom he was deeply attracted, encouraged him to confront the sad truths of his parents’ lives.

I Was That Baby by Joseph Albert Tringali. “My life is the product of two indomitable women. In the half-light of my imagination I can picture them meeting once, very briefly, in the dreary room of a small hospital in Buffalo. There Mary Bradley would hand over her first-born child to Josephine Tringali. Mary would never see the boy again; never know the man he would become. In reality I know the meeting did not take place; there is no evidence for it, and I have no conscious memory of it. But if it had happened, I would have been the reason for it ... I was that baby.”

Matters of Hart by Marianne Ackerman. Set in Montreal, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, the novel tells the story of Hart Granger through the voices of five important women in his life, and through his journal. Middle-aged, divorced, privileged, ironic and arrogant, Hart is already suffering an identity crisis when an older half-brother, given up for adoption, appears at his 50th birthday party, shedding light on his family’s history and disrupting the way things have always been.

Sick as a Parrot by Liz Evans. Adopted at birth, Hanna Conti attempts to trace her family. She turns up a mother who, 20 years earlier, was convicted of murder. Convinced that her mother is innocent, Hannah hires PI Grace Smith to prove it.

Missing Pieces by Sherry Cochran. Missing Pieces is the compelling story of a woman’s search for her birth family. It is a searing autobiography about a child who survives neglect, abandonment, physical and sexual abuse, a failed adoption, the foster care system, and hereditary progressive hearing loss in her successful quest for reunification with her birth family.

Related by Adoption by Heidi Argent. If your son or daughter is planning to adopt a child (or children), this brief handbook gives grandparents-to-be and other relatives information about adoption today that will directly affect you. This includes the need today for a more open approach to adoption and information about the children who need to be adopted—rarely the babies of earlier times but children with pasts and families, and who may be damaged by earlier abuse and neglect.

And This Is My Adopted Daughter by Marie D. Berger. This emotional, turbulent and poignant book tells the story of Marie Berger’s dicovery that she was adopted. Marie only discovered this fact when her mother passed away and she cuaght a glimpse of hert birth certificate. The book decribes Marie’s childhood and chronicles how she felt in finding that she was adopted. This is an intensely moving and excellently written book.

Like Family by Paula McLain. In the tradition of Jo Ann Beard’s Boys of My Youth, and Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club, Paula McLain has written a powerful and haunting memoir about the years she and her two sisters spent as foster children. In the early 70s, after being abandoned by both parents, the girls were made wards of the Fresno County, CA, court and spent the next 14 years in a series of adoptive homes.

An Orphan’s Song by Jean Becker. Little Jean’s life shatters on Pearl Harbor Day, when her mother, just 35, dies of pneumonia. Seven-year-old Jean and her three sisters are thrust into an unknown orphanage life, when her father says, “I’ll be back soon.” So much for promises. Struggling through hardships, the resilient orphans look for sunshine in a world of darkness. Worries of separation and fears about the future cloud Jean’s childhood. But she never loses hope, wishing for things other children take for granted. Eventually her wishes are fulfilled.

One Small Thing by Jessica Barksdale Inclán. At 28, Avery Tacconi has the career of her dreams, a husband she adores, and a beautiful suburban California home. She has all she ever wanted except for one small thing: a baby. And after two years of unsuccessful fertility treatments, hope is running thin. Then her husband, Dan, discovers he has a ten-year-old son he never knew about.

The Privilege of Youth by David J. Pelzer. In The Privilege of Youth, Pelzer, the author of A Child Called “It,” The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave, supplies the missing chapter of his life: as a boy on the threshold of adulthood. With his usual sensitivity and insight, he recounts the relentless taunting he endured from bullies; but he also describes the joys of learning and the thrill of making his first real friends-some of whom he still shares close relationships with today. He writes about the simple pleasures of exploring a neighborhood he was just beginning to get to know while trying to forget the hell waiting for him at home.

A Ward of the State by Ron Huber. Living in a poverty-stricken area of Chicago and spending most of his days at home, alone on a dirty floor, was the existence he had come to know by the age of three. And then came the Covenant Children’s Home. As a ward of the state, Ronnie was shuffled from one house to the next, and greeted by couples that were ill-equipped to accommodate the emotional needs of a child. A Ward of the State chronicles the true experiences faced by Ron Huber as a little boy growing up in the foster care system of Chicago, Illinois in the late 1940s.

Memoirs of a Baby Stealer by Mary Callahan. Written from the unique perspective of a foster parent, Memoirs of a Baby Stealer chronicles Callahan’s experiences with five foster children, shedding light on the inadequacies of the Child Welfare System in this country. Mary Callahan never planned on writing a book about her experiences as a foster parent. She had only one goal as a parent, to help the children in her care. But as she learned their stories, it became painfully clear that the Child Welfare System had no sincere regard for the welfare of children. Callahan realized the only way to truly help the children was to tell their stories.

Spirit Rider by Cotton Smith. Vin Lockhart is a successful Denver City saloon owner. He has money, a girl and great plans for the future. But his past isn’t through with him yet. When he was a boy, Vin was adopted by a band of Oglala Sioux after they found him wandering alone, the only survivor of a cholera epidemic that took his family. And now, Vin is the only man who can help his adopted father.

One Woman’s Choice by Karen Whitaker. In which the author writes anout her choice to give up her child for adoption.

Children at Health Riask by Michael S. Clement. The face of the child seen by heath care providers today is changing. Children at Health Risk provides a unique resource for clinicians and residents to learn of these new health care challenges. Due to increased diversity in the population, international adoptions and immigration, there are now several groups of children in the United States that have access to healthcare with problems different from those of the usual group of children seen on a regular basis by practitioners.

Foster Care Odyssey by Theresa Cameron. Without signing the documents that would permit adoption, young Theresa Cameron’s mother placed her little daughter under the aegis of Catholic Charities, and then the mother vanished forever. During the 1960s and 1970s this abandoned, unadoptable child was shuttled through foster homes in the vicinity of Buffalo, NY. Her coming-of-age narrative voices plainspoken criticism of the pernicious system which engulfed her and other helpless abandoned children.

What Happened to Johnnie Jordan? by Jennifer Toth. In January 1996, just outside Toledo, 14-year-old Johnnie Jordan killed Jeanette Johnson, his elderly foster mother. In What Happened to Johnnie Jordan? acclaimed journalist Jennifer Toth examines a child welfare system so corrupted by bureaucracy and overwhelmed with cases that many children entrusted to its care receive none at all.

Finding Fish by Antoine Quenton Fisher. Born in prison to a single mother, Antwone Fisher was a ward of Cleveland’s foster care system until he was taken in by a family who subjected him to verbal and sexual abuse throughout his adolescence. At 17, Fish escaped, only to suffer the hardships of life on the streets. Enlisting in the U.S. Navy, he found a “family” of his own. But before he could make peace with his past, he had to discover who he really was and where he came from—an inspiring, fascinating journey that lead from the mean streets of Cleveland to the highest echelons in Hollywood.

A Love for Life by Penny Hancock. Award-winning original fiction for learners of English. At seven levels, from Starter to Advanced, this impressive selection of carefully graded readers offers exciting reading for every student’s ability. In Cambridge, Fanella bravely faces the challenge of adopting a child alone after her partner leaves her. Fanella and five-year-old Ellie get off to a rocky start, but Fanella patiently steers their relationship on to more solid ground. Meanwhile, her relationship with Rod, Ellie’s teacher and a married man, is a little more complicated.

Ghost Moon by Karen Robards. Nine years after leaving in disgrace, Olivia Morrison is coming home again with her eight-year-old, Sara, to put things right with the Archer clan. But there is no welcome for the prodigal daughter at the lavish Louisiana estate. When danger threatens her and her daughter, Olivia must find the courage to confront her old demons ... and uncover a shocking secret buried in the long-forgotten past.

The Shoe Box by Francine Rivers. Six-year-old Timmy O’Neil comes to live with Mary and David Holmes on a cloudy day in September. When Timmy arrives, he has very few things with him. As he slowly makes new friends, he finds a chance to offer his small treasures to a very special someone. A tender and moving story from beloved author Francine Rivers, retold especially for children ages 6-10. And the bright, engaging art by Linda Dockey Graves will keep them coming back to this story of redemption over and over again.

I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla by Marguerite A. Wright. 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.

Let’s Talk About Foster Homes by Elizabeth Weitzman. Explains why one goes to a foster home, who foster parents are, what to do if things don’t work out, and other matters regarding foster care.

The Colors of Us by Karen Katz (Author and Illustrator). Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when Lena and her mother take a walk through their neighborhood, Lena sees that there are many different shades and tones of brown. Seen from an artist’s point of view, skin colors are subtle, varied—and cause for celebration! Karen Katz created this book for her daughter, Lena, whom she and her husband adopted from Guatemala six years ago.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson. In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie Collins Motion (a/k/a “Locomotion”) writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.

The God Squad by Paddy Doyle. The author’s first-person account of his experiences at the hands of the Irish religious institutions into whose care he was placed at the age of four following the deaths of his mother, from cancer in 1955, and father, by his own hand shortly thereafter.