Books

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Download a copy of the reading list (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Books by topic:

Talking With Children about Adoption
Children's Books About Adoption
Open Adoption
Understanding Adopted Persons
Understanding Birthparents
Understanding Adoptive Parents
Reunions

Talking With Children About Adoption

Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self by David Brodzinsky, Ph.D., Marshal Schechter, MD., and Robin Henig
Making Sense of Adoption by Lois Ruskai Melina
Why Didn't She Keep Me? by Barbara Burlingham-Brown
Talking with Young Children about Adoption by Mary Watkins, Susan Fisher
Dear Birthmother by Kathleen Silber
Talking to Your Child About Adoption by Patricia Martinez Dorner

Children’s Books About Adoption

How It Feels to Be Adopted by Jill Kremnetz
The Mulberry Bird: An Adoption Story by Anne Braff Brodzinsky
How I Was Adopted: Samantha's Story by Joanna Cole
Pugnose Has Two Special Families by Karis Kruzel
Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis
Families Are Different by Nina Pellegrini
A Mother for Choco by Keoko Kasza
Lucy's Feet by Stephanie Stein
Beginnings: How Families Come to Be by Virginia Kroll
Twice-Upon-A-Time: Born and Adopted by Eleanora Patterson
Susan & Grodon Adopt a Baby by Judy Freuber, Tony Geiss
Together Forever by Sara L. Barris

Open Adoption

How to Open an Adoption: A Guide for Parents and Birth Parents of Minors by Patricia Martinez Dorner
Openness in Adoption: Exploring Family Connections by Harold Grotevant, Ruth McRoy
Children of Open Adoption and Their Families by Kathleen Silber, Patricia Martinez Dorner
The Open Adoption Book by Bruce M. Rappaport
The Spirit of Open Adoption by James L. Gritter
A letter to Adoptive Parents on Open Adoption by Randolph W. Severson
The Open Adoption Experience by Lois Ruskai Melina, Sharon Kaplan Roszia

Understanding Adopted Persons

Lost & Found: The Adoption Experience by Betty Jean Lifton
Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness by Betty Jean Lifton
The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child by Nancy Newton Verrier
Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter by Betty Jean Lifton
Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self by David M. Brodzinsky, Marshall D. Schechter & Robin Marantz Henig
Children's Adjustment to Adoption: Developmental and Clinical Issues by David M. Brodzinsky, et al

Understanding Birthparents

The Girls Who Went Away: the Hidden History of Women who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe V. Wade By Ann Fessler
The Other Mother: A Woman’s Love for the Child She Gave Up for Adoption by Carol Schaefer
Out of the Shadows: Birthfathers' Stories by Mary Martin Mason
Waiting to Forget by Margaret Moorman
Saying Goodbye to a Baby: The Birth Parent’s Guide to Grief and Loss in Adoption by Patricia Roles
Birth Mothers: Women Who Have Relinquished Babies for Adoption Tell Their Stories by Merry Bloch Jones
Giving Away Simone: A Memoir by Jan L. Waldron
Without a Map by Meredith Hall

Understanding Adoptive Parents

Wanting a Child by Jill Bialosky, Helen Schulman
Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother by Jana Wolff
Adopting After Infertility by Patricia Irwin Johnson
The Limits of Hope: An Adoptive Mother's Story by Ann Kimble Loux
Courageous Blessing: Adoptive Parents and the Search by Carol L. Demuth

Reunions

The Search: A Memoir of an Adopted Woman by Titia Ellis, Ph.D.
Birthbond: Reunions Between Birthparents and Adoptees & What Happens After... by Judith S. Geidman, et al.
Ithaka: A Daughter’s Memoir of Being Found by Sarah Saffian
A Man and His Mother: An Adopted Son's Search by Tim Green
The Mistress' Daughter by A.M. Homes