Reading Lists
Books About Adoption
Picture Books & Easy Readers
Bloom, SuzanneA Family for Jamie: an Adoption Story (JE BLO)
Although Dan and Molly can make cookies and birdhouses, they cannot make a baby, so they adopt Jamie and share with him their life and love.
Bunting, Eve
Jin Woo (JE BUN)
Davey is dubious about having a new adopted brother from Korea,
but when he finds out that his parents still love him, he decides that
having a baby brother will be fine.
Cole, Joanna
How I Was Adopted:
Samantha’s Story (JE COL)
A young girl tells the story
of how she came to be her parents' child through adoption.
Curtis, Jamie Lee
Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (JE CUR)
A young girl asks her
parents to tell her again the cherished family story of her birth and
adoption.
Fowler, Susi Gregg
When Joel Comes Home (JE FOW)
A little girl describes all the things she and her parents are planning
to welcome home friends and their newly-adopted son.
Girard, Linda Walvoord
Adoption is for Always (JE GIR)
Although Celia reacts to having been adopted with anger and
insecurity, her parents help her accept her feelings and celebrate their
love for her by making her adoption day a family holiday. Includes factual
information about the adoption process.
Karvoskaia, Natacha
Dounia (JE KAR)
A gentle and powerful story
follows the experiences of Dounia, a young girl who is adopted by a
family from another country, in an exploration of how it feels to be
part of the interracial adoption process.
Kasza, Keiko
A Mother for Choco (JE KAS)
A lonely little bird named Choco goes in search of a mother.
Keller, Holly
Horace (JE KEL)
Horace, an adopted child, realizes that being part of a family
depends on how you feel and not how you look.
London, Jonathan
A Koala for Katie:
an Adoption Story (JE LON)
On a trip to the zoo, Katie
gets a special present that helps her realize how much her adoptive
parents love her.
Lewis, Rose A.
I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (JE LEW)
A woman describes how she went to China to adopt a special baby
girl. Based on the author's own experiences.
McCutcheon, John
Happy Adoption Day! (JE MCC)
Parents celebrate the day on which they adopted their child
and continue to reassure the new addition to their family that it is
wanted, loved, and very special.
Miller, Kathryn
Ann
Did My First Mother
Love Me? (JE MIL)
Morgan's adoptive mother
reassures her that she is loved by reading a letter written by her birthmother.
Includes a section: "Talking with your child about adoption."
Peacock, Carol
Antoinette
Mommy Far, Mommy Near : An Adoption Story (JE PEA)
Elizabeth, who was born in China, describes the family who has adopted
her and tries to sort out feelings for her unknown mother.
Reiser, Lynn
The Surprise Family (JE REI)
A baby chicken accepts a young boy as her mother and later becomes
a surrogate mother for some ducklings that she has hatched.
Schnitter, Jane
William Is My Brother (JE SCH)
Two young brothers are the same in many ways except that one
was born into the family and the other was adopted.
Stinson, Kathy
Steven’s Baseball
Mitt: a Book About Being Adopted (JE STI)
Steven’s search for
his baseball mitt mirrors his concern about something else that seems
to be missing in himself.
Wickstrom, Lois
Oliver : A Story About Adoption (JE WIC)
Oliver, a lizardlike animal who has been adopted, sulks after being
scolded and wonders what his "real" parents are like.
Juvenile Fiction
Angel, Ann
Real for Sure Sister
(JUV FIC ANGEL)
A racially mixed family of
adopted siblings prepares for the arrival of a biracial baby named Stevi.
Brodzinsky, Anne
Braff
The Mulberry Bird: Story of an Adoption (JUV FIC BRODZINSKY)
In the face of insurmountable problems, a young mother bird
finds the strength to make an adoption plan for her much loved baby,
giving him a stable home and two loving parents.
Campbell, Joanna
Cindy’s Glory (#14 of Thoroughbred series) (JUV FIC THORO)
Cindy Blake couldn't be happier now that she lives at Whitebrook
Farm. But suddenly Cindy's worst nightmares begin to come true. First
her adoption is not approved. Then Glory's real owner puts the colt
on the auction block. Will Whitebrook Farm and her beloved Glory soon
be just another memory for Cindy?
Christopher, Matt
Double Play at Short
(JUV FIC CHRISTOPHER)
Twelve-year-old Danny thinks
that there is something very familiar about the girl who plays shortstop
on the team he faces during the championship series, and his curiosity
leads him to a surprising discovery about his own adoption.
Howe, James
Pinky and Rex and the
New Baby (JUV FIC HOWE)
Determined to be a good big
sister, Rex starts spending all her time with the baby her family has
adopted, making her neighbor Pinky fear that he has lost her friendship.
Wallace, Barbara
Brooks
The Twin in the Tavern (JUV FIC WALLACE)
A young orphan, afraid of being sent to the workhouse, finds
himself at the mercy of the unsavory owner of a tavern in Alexandria,
Virginia, while he tries to solve the mystery surrounding his past and
a missing twin.
Young Adult Fiction
Bauer, Cat
Harley, Like a Person
(YA FIC BAUER)
Fourteen-year-old Harley,
an artistic teenager living with her alcoholic father and angry mother,
suspects that she is adopted and begins a search for her biological
parents.
Christiansen, C.B.
I See the Moon (YA FIC CHRISTIANSEN)
Twelve-year-old Bitte learns the answer to the question, "What
is love?" when her older sister decides to place her unborn child
for adoption.
Johnston, Julie
Adam and Eve and Pinch-me (YA FIC JOHNSTON)
Fifteen-year-old Sara Moone, abandoned at birth and shunted
from one foster home to another, finds that she cannot remain aloof
from her latest family.
Lantz, Francess
Someone to Love
(YA FIC LANTZ)
Although at odds with her
parents over their decision to adopt a baby, fifteen-year-old Sarah
finds herself drawn to the birth mother, who is having second thoughts
about giving up her child.
Sleater, William
Rewind (YA
FIC SLEATER)
Not long after learning that
he was adopted, eleven-year-old Peter is hit by a car and then given
several chances to alter events that could lead to his death.
Rogers, Fred
Adoption (JUV 362.73
ROGERS)
Discusses what it means to
be part of a family and examines some feelings that adopted children
may have.
Blomquist, Geraldine
M.
Zachary’s New
Home: a Story for Foster and Adopted Children (JUV 152.4 BLOMQUIST)
Zachary still remembers his
"real" parents and finds that adjusting to life as Marie and
Tom's adopted son is sometimes a painful reality.
Banish,
Roslyn
A Forever Family
(JUV 362.734 BANISH)
Eight-year-old Jennifer Jordan-Wong
describes her adoption by a family after four years of living as a foster
child with many different families.
Greenberg, Judith
Adopted (JUV 362.734
GREENBERG)
As both she and her new
little brother are adopted, Sarah's mother, father, and grandfather
explain what adoption and being part of a family are all about.
Livingston, Carole
“Why Was I Adopted?”( JUV 362.734 LIVINGSTON)
A simple explanation
of the facts of adoption.
Rosenberg, Maxine
B.
Being Adopted (JUV
362.734 ROSENBERG)
Several young children
recount their experiences as adopted members of their families.