Journey with these characters through both foster care and adoption as they experience love, acceptance, and sometimes curiosity about the past. Even with its challenges, family is always something to cherish and celebrate.
YOUTH
These picture books will show your little ones that it’s love that makes a family.
Home for a While by Lauren H. Kerstein
Both heartwarming and heartbreaking, this story follows tiny Calvin as he faces a new foster home with kind, calm Maggie. After a temper explosion that caused an accidental broken vase, Maggie stays calm, and Calvin starts to believe this could really be his home for a while.
Nearly Exactly Almost Like Me by Jennifer Bradbury
When challenged by a bully in line for ice cream, a big brother defends his little brother, who doesn’t look like him, by listing all the ways they are the same. Told from a big brother’s perspective, this sweet book about interracial adoption acknowledges the visible differences between siblings while bringing attention to how little they matter compared to all of the fun and meaningful life similarities there are between siblings.
Eyes That Weave the World’s Wonders by Joanna Ho and Liz Kleinrock
A young Korean-adoptee finds herself wondering about who she might look like, if not her loving family, in this beautifully illustrated story. With love shining on every page, this book normalizes the questions adoptees have about the events in the past which brought them to the loving families in their present.
These chapter books offer a look into the lives of adopted children who are trying to make sense of how their past and their present come together.
Safe At Home by Mike Lupica
Nick doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere. The only place he feels okay is on the baseball team. When he’s bumped up to varsity to cover for the injured catcher, he even loses that small respite; none of the varsity players want a 12-year-old on the team! Will Nick be able to find his courage and prove that he belongs, both in his new family and on his new team?
Family Recipe by Coco Simon
When Molly is assigned a family tree for a school project, her secure understanding of just who is her family is shaken. She’s always considered her adoptive family as “her” family, but is the project asking for her birth family? Would it be weird to include both? When everything is uncertain, the only certain thing is that her friends, and her family, love her and are always glad to help sweeten any recipe that’s gone sour!
Kids can get a realistic look of adoption and foster care in these non-fiction titles.
My Life with a Foster Family by Mari C. Schuh
Told from the perspective of a child growing up in foster care, this book offers a gentle explanation of foster care for young children who may have met someone in care or may be curious about it.
We Belong Together by Todd Parr
This sweet book highlights the benefits of adoption. The blocky artwork and simple text cut to the heart of adoption in a clear, concise manner.
Adoptive Families by H. W. Poole
For older kids with more in-depth questions about adoption, H. W. Poole’s book is a thorough resource. While the general text does a spectacular job covering topics from different types of adoptions, it also offers a kid-friendly glossary, suggested reading, and help line information.
TWEENS AND TEENS
With a little help along the way, these teen characters find the beauty in their own unique stories and discover their place in the world.
Dara Palmer’s Major Drama by Emma Shevah
Eleven-year-old Dara is a born actress, or so she thinks, but when she doesn’t get any role at all in the school production, she begins to think it may be because she doesn’t look like the other girls in her class. So irrepressible Dara comes up with a plan and is determined to change not just the school, but the world, too.
The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman
Imani is adopted, and she’s ready to search for her birthparents. But when she discovers the diary her Jewish great-grandmother wrote chronicling her escape from Holocaust-era Europe, Imani begins to see family in a new way.
When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin
Ben Coffin has never felt like he fits in. A former foster kid, he keeps his head down at school to avoid bullies and spends his afternoons reading sci-fi books at the library. But that all changes when he finds a scruffy abandoned dog named Flip and befriends the librarian’s daughter, Halley. For the first time, Ben starts to feel like he belongs in his own life. Then, everything changes, and suddenly, Ben is more alone than ever. But with a little help from Halley’s magician father, Ben discovers his place in the world and learns to see his own magic through others’ eyes.
