Reading about adoption topics is important for everyone involved in the adoption process. Books about adoption are important tools for you throughout your adoption journey, but there are so many out there, so many good ones end up falling through the cracks. Here are a few helpful books about adoption for current and hopeful adoptive parents that you may have not heard of before.
1. Raising Adopted Children, Revised Edition: Practical Reassuring Advice for Every Adoptive Parent is written by Lois Ruskai Melina, a mother of two adopted children. This great adoption book provides an overview of all important issues adoptive parents usually cope with. It also provides an excellent guide through all stages of your child’s development. Some of the topics are attachment, contact with biological parents, and open adoption.
2. Melina is also the author of Making Sense of Adoption: A Parent’s Guide. In her books, there’s something for everyone: for parents who don’t know how or when to tell their children about the adoption, for parents whose children want to search for their birthparents, for parents who are overwhelmed by acting out teenagers, and more.
3. The Connected Child: Bring hope and healing to your adoptive family by Karyn Purvis, David Cross, and Wendy Lyons Sunshine is an excellent book for parents with children who have attachment difficulties. The authors are all experts on various aspects of child development and they offer a lot of detailed and practical techniques that parents can use regarding affection and trust, learning or behavioral disorders, discipline, and more.
4. Truly Yours: Wise Words on the Miracle of Adoption by Laura Dail is a collection of stories and thoughts about adoption. Besides unique stories, this book is full of inspirational thoughts from people who have experienced the miracle of adoption.
5. Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew is a book written by Sherrie Eldridge who is an adoptee and an adoptive grandmother. Some feelings are often too hard to express, so this wonderful book will open your eyes to different points of view. Every adoptive family has the same concerns about the future that awaits them and their child, and this book is full of practical advice that can help you deal with your worries and fears.
6. Labor of The Heart: A Parent’s Guide to Decisions and Emotions in Adoption is by Kathleen L. Whitten, a developmental psychologist who combines her expertise with her experience as an adoptive mother to guide parents throughout the challenges of adoption decisions.
7. Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents, written by Deborah D. Gray, is a comprehensive guide for current and hopeful adoptive parents on healthy attachment. The book covers a wide range of issues and includes practical techniques based on children’s specific needs.
