Adoption can be a very special time in your life. But it can also be frustrating, confusing and scary. Do you understand the process? Will your family be supportive? Will you be able to handle everything that will come your way? Some great books out there that will help you go through the process and give you the parenting advice needed to make it work! These are some of my favorites. It’s a long list, so I’ve bolded what I consider the MUST-HAVES. (Affiliate links)
For Adoptive/Foster Parents
In On It: What Adoptive Parents Would Like You To Know About Adoption. A Guide for Relatives and Friends by Elisabeth O’Toole
The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family
by Karyn B. Purvis (Author), David R. Cross (Author), Wendy Lyons Sunshine (Author)
The Connected Parent: Real-Life Strategies for Building Trust and Attachment by Karyn Purvis PhD and Lisa Qualls
Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents by Deborah Gray
The Adoptive Parents’ Handbook: A Guide to Healing Trauma and Thriving with Your Foster or Adopted Child by Barbara Tantrum
20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed..Discover the Unique Need of Your Adopted Child and Become the Best Parent You Can by Sherrie Eldridge
Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens by Debbie Riley
Adoption Through the Rearview Mirror: Learning from Stories of Heartache and Hope by Karen Springs
The Primal Wound by Nancy Newton Verrier
Dancing with a Porcupine: Parenting wounded children without losing your self by Jennie Lynn Owens
A Love-Stretched Life: Stories on Wrangling Hope, Embracing the Unexpected, and Discovering the Meaning of Family by Jillana Goble
Parenting Children of Trauma: The Foster-Adoption Guide to Understanding Attachment Disorder by Marcy Pusey
Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience after Neglect and Trauma by Debora D. Gray
Confessions of an Adoptive Parent: Hope and Help from the Trenches of Foster Care and Adoption by Mike Berry
Honestly Adoption: Answers to 101 Questions About Adoption and Foster Care by Mike Berry
Securely Attached: How Understanding Childhood Trauma Will Transform Your Parenting by Kristin and Mike Berry
For Extended Family
In On It: What Adoptive Parents Would Like You To Know About Adoption. A Guide for Relatives and Friends by Elisabeth O’Toole
From Adoptees
In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption by Rhonda M. Roorda
Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew by Sherrie Eldridge
What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee’s Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices by Melissa Guida-Richards
Fostered: One Woman’s Powerful Story of Finding Faith and Family through Foster Care by Tori Hope Petersen
We’re Adopted, So What?: Teens Tell It Like It Is by Gayle H. Swift
For Kids
Some Babies Are Adopted by Cindy Walker
What Makes A Family? by Hanna Bruner
Surrounded by Love: An Open Adoption Story by Allison Olson
I’ve Loved You Since Forever by Hoda Kotb
I’m Yours: An adoption story from a mother’s heart by Ashley Cameron