RECENTLY ADDED
Including Nearly 500 Adoptee-Recommended Titles!
Welcome!
Adoptee Reading helps adopted people discover books and other writing about adoption from the adoptee perspective.
Check out the Overview and How To Use This Site to learn more.
NEWS FOR ADOPTEE READERS
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Let Us Know What We Missed
We need your help! These past several months, we were focused on technical issues with the Adoptee Reading website and likely overlooked some books that adoptees should know about. Please…
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Adoptee Reading Is Back!
Hello again, adoptee readers! Some of you may have noticed that Adoptee Reading has been inaccessible for many months. In late 2025, I realized that the site was being inundated…
NEWLY PUBLISHED
RECENT MEMOIRS
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Heart Eater: A Memoir of Immigration, Belonging, and How We Find Ourselves in Language
Heart Eater traces the author’s childhood and how she went from being a nameless, abandoned nine-month-old baby in Seoul, South Korea to, as an adult, becoming an award-winning Asian American author… Read more
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Torn from the Root: A Memoir of a Black Transracial Adoptee
As a Black child adopted out of the New York foster care system as a toddler and raised by white evangelical parents, Rhonda Roorda had to learn how to walk… Read more
RECENT FICTION
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Love and Happiness
England, 1971. Harriet Bush is eight years old, cross-legged on her brother’s bed, reading Swallows and Amazons and scratching at the wallpaper. Love and Happiness follows Harriet across two decades; from… Read more
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Through The Iron Gate: The Rosemere Records
The Silverton Estate Duology Book 2 For over a century, Silverton University has stewarded the Tudor manor, herb quadrants, and ancient cedar groves bequeathed by Elizabeth Silverton, the Estate’s enigmatic… Read more
RECENT PSYCHOLOGY/SELF-HELP
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45 Days of Pushing Through: A Guided Journal
Are you ready for a change? Like really ready? Have you battled low self-esteem, poor internal dialogue, remnants of a traumatic childhood, abusive relationship, or simply feeling a bit… lost? You have the key to unlocking a better you… right inside yourself. In your heart, your mind,… Read more
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Let Us Be Greater: A Gentle, Guided Path to Healing for Adoptees
Adoption is a lifeline of support and opportunity for countless people, but it can bring challenges and emotional conditions that are often silenced or left unaddressed, including PTSD, risk of suicide, and fear of abandonment. Author Michelle Madrid has experienced these challenges as a foster… Read more
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Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal: Migrating Toward Wholeness
We live in a world where conversations about trauma are becoming commonplace and adopted people are using their voices to educate the general public about the effects of maternal separation and genealogical bewilderment. But for many adult adoptees the act of speaking truth to power… Read more
RECENT JOURNALISM & RESEARCH
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On Human Adoption: and the Manufacture of Identity
What is adoption, really? On Human Adoption begins where most adoption narratives end: not with the social idea of rescue, but with what follows. Using New Zealand as a case study, a country whose adoption legislation both mirrors and illuminates the intent of adoption law across… Read more
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What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption
In 1955, following the devastation of the Korean War, Bertha and Harry Holt made headlines for adopting eight Korean children. Driven by evangelical convictions and emboldened by a special act of Congress, the couple founded the Holt Adoption Program, which would facilitate the migration of… Read more
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The Adoption Paradox: Putting Adoption in Perspective
Adoption impacts countless families worldwide, yet the voices of those directly involved—especially adoptees, the central focus of the process—are rarely highlighted. In The Adoption Paradox, nearly one hundred individuals are interviewed, from domestic, international, and transracial adoptions, as well as foster care, along with adoptive… Read more
RECENT ANTHOLOGIES
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Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship
What’s it like when a complete unknown is actually close family? In Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship—a provocative anthology curated by B.K. Jackson, with a foreword by… Read more
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Adoption and Suicidality: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Resources for Adoptees, Families, Healthcare Professionals, and Allies
This book is a wake-up call to those impacted by adoption and to those who interact with them. According to preliminary results of a groundbreaking study out of Winston-Salem State… Read more
RECENT POETRY
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Almost Loved: Poems
“What if you spend the rest of your life chasing love, only to find her cowering in the pit of your stomach? What then?” Almost Loved follows a former foster child’s… Read more
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In Praise of Late Wonder
In his most personal collection of poems to date, California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick writes with openness about his adoption from Korea in more than 25 new memoir-like prose poems.… Read more
RECENT CHILDREN/TEENS
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Casey Conquers Bedtime
Casey doesn’t like bedtime. His parents introduce him to Dr. Chaitra, a transracial adoptee just like Casey, who explains how going to sleep and even waking up can bring up scary… Read more
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Marie Discovers Her Superpowers
Marie doesn’t want to go to the park anymore. Mom introduces her to Dr. Chaitra, a transracial adoptee just like Marie, who helps kids talk about tough feelings. In therapy, Marie… Read more