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Adoptee Reading is a catalog of books written by adoptees along with other adoption-related books recommended by adoptees.
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News
Adoptee-Authored Books Published in 2021
We’ve added twenty-three thirty-four books published in 2021 and written by adoptees to the Adoptee Reading catalog!
Recently Published & Forthcoming Books
Healing Tree: An Adoptee’s Story about Hurting, Healing, and Letting the Light Shine Through
“Our adopted angel”–that’s what Danielle’s adoptive parents called her. She grew up adored, doted on, unconditionally loved. It wasn’t until she was in college that she first felt a gnawing
Probably Ruby
This is the story of a woman in search of herself, in every sense. When we first meet Ruby, a Métis woman in her thirties, her life is spinning out
Rooted in Adoption Journal: Adoptee Writing Prompts for Self-Reflection, Discovery, and Healing
This journal consists of over 50 writing prompts specially created for adoptees. The journal is divided into seven sections: Love and Relationships, Childhood Memories, Difficult Emotions, Listen to Adoptees, Adoption
The Gathering Place: An Adoptee’s Story
When Emma learns her birth mother wrote and signed a letter about her to the adoption agency, she knew she had to have that letter if she were to ever
Search & Reunion
Healing Tree: An Adoptee’s Story about Hurting, Healing, and Letting the Light Shine Through
“Our adopted angel”–that’s what Danielle’s adoptive parents called her. She grew up adored, doted on, unconditionally loved. It wasn’t until she was in college that she first felt a gnawing
The Gathering Place: An Adoptee’s Story
When Emma learns her birth mother wrote and signed a letter about her to the adoption agency, she knew she had to have that letter if she were to ever
Love & Genetics: A True Story of Adoption, Surrogacy, and the Meaning of Family
When a family secret comes to light, lives are changed forever in this honest, beautiful, and sometimes painful memoir. When Mark, adopted at birth, set out to find his genetic
Psychology/Self-help
Healing Tree: An Adoptee’s Story about Hurting, Healing, and Letting the Light Shine Through
“Our adopted angel”–that’s what Danielle’s adoptive parents called her. She grew up adored, doted on, unconditionally loved. It wasn’t until she was in college that she first felt a gnawing
Rooted in Adoption Journal: Adoptee Writing Prompts for Self-Reflection, Discovery, and Healing
This journal consists of over 50 writing prompts specially created for adoptees. The journal is divided into seven sections: Love and Relationships, Childhood Memories, Difficult Emotions, Listen to Adoptees, Adoption
Already Enough: A Path to Self-Acceptance
When Lisa Olivera was just a few hours old, her birth mother abandoned her behind a rock near Muir Woods in Northern California. She was found and later adopted. Growing
Anthologies
Dear Me….: Letters to Our Younger Adoptee Selves
This is a book of words and pictures. The images are important because they reflect the people we are now and the children we were growing up. We can see
Together At Last: Stories of Adoption and Reunion in the Age of DNA
Together At Last is a collection of first-person stories that explores the intersection of multiple histories: the Korean War, military camptowns, immigration, and transnational adoption. Taken together, they challenge us
Mixed Korean: Our Stories
From the struggles of the Korean War, to the modern dilemmas faced by those who are mixed race, comes an assortment of stories that capture the essence of what it
Journalism/Research
Growing in the Dark: Adoption Secrecy and Its Consequences
Generations of adults who were adopted as children have been kept in the dark about their original identities. The law sealing birth records forever, even to the adopted person, passed in 1935 in California, sweeping adoption´s emotional complexities under the rug and making it possible to keep an adoption itself a secret. Growing in the Dark: Adoption Secrecy and Its Consequences takes you through California´s early adoption laws, highlighting the passage of the original law that sealed
Ripped at the Root: An Adoption Story
“With searing detail and lean, crisp prose, in Ripped at the Root Mary Cardaras tells the story of Dena Polites, a woman born to a young unwed Greek couple who was adopted by married Greek Americans in Ohio. Polites’s tale serves as a focal point for the some 4,000 Greek infants and children who, in the years after World War II, were torn from their families, country, culture and dispatched to live with distant strangers
A Timeline of the Injustice of Adoption Law
A Timeline of the Injustice of Adoption Law traces Australian laws affecting thousands, back to the US theories of eugenics, then back to Britain. It highlights the various notions of ‘the best interests of the child’ in law, over time, and shows how the poor treatment of single mothers came about. How this still affects families today. It is invaluable for those wanting to understand their place in history, and how small ideas over time
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Children/Teens
Lyncoya: Andrew Jackson’s Adopted Indian Son
When an American soldier plucks two-year-old Lyncoya from an Indian battlefield in 1813, General Andrew Jackson adopts him. He sends the youngster to his plantation home, where he can grow
Seoul Story: Adoption Picture Book
Seoul Story is a bilingual (English and Korean) children’s book, and loosely based autobiographical sketch of the author’s adoption from South Korea to the United States in 1970. The story
Poetry
All Morning the Crows
Kearney draws on her acute powers of observation, a lively curiosity, and her gift for gorgeous imagery to take us on a journey of personal exploration, discovery, and reconciliation. Surprising
Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs
This remarkable book illuminates Schwabacher’s adopted Korean experience: trauma, discovery, reassemblage. She is brave enough to not flinch at the dark parts and talented enough to render them into a
Fiction
Probably Ruby
This is the story of a woman in search of herself, in every sense. When we first meet Ruby, a Métis woman in her thirties, her life is spinning out
In My Heart: The Adoption Story Project
BACKGROUND: In My Heart: The Adoption Story Project began in 2014 in collaboration with 200+ people in the adoption community sharing their true stories with Wonderlust Productions. In 2016, the play, written