Including More Than 450 Adoptee-Recommended Titles!

Adoptee Reading is a catalog of books written by adoptees along with other adoption-related books recommended by adoptees.

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  • Who’s Wally?: Adoption, Brian, and Me
    Who’s Wally?: Adoption, Brian, and Me
  • In Praise of Late Wonder
    In Praise of Late Wonder
  • Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion
    Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion

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  • A Duck – but Tall in the Water . . .

    A Duck – but Tall in the Water . . .

    Lesley was one of six children whose mother gave them all away. Fostered then adopted by people who were simply not fit for purpose she experienced a lot of pain… Read more

  • Adoption and Suicidality: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Resources for Adoptees, Families, Healthcare Professionals, and Allies

    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


  • Who’s Wally?: Adoption, Brian, and Me

    Who’s Wally?: Adoption, Brian, and Me

    Andy Wallis was born as David in 1973; he was surplus to requirements and given up for adoption. Growing up, his adoption was never something he really thought about. It… Read more

  • A Duck – but Tall in the Water . . .

    A Duck – but Tall in the Water . . .

    Lesley was one of six children whose mother gave them all away. Fostered then adopted by people who were simply not fit for purpose she experienced a lot of pain… Read more


  • Phantom Parents: Memoir of an Adoptee

    Phantom Parents: Memoir of an Adoptee

    An unusual adoption, a gruesome family discovery, a lonesome journey through North America, a miraculous death escape at the 7/7 bombings in the London Underground and a life-altering diagnosis are just… Read more

  • Sanctuaries

    Sanctuaries

    Gianni, a gay adoptee, comes of age in a time when adoption and same-sex love are not easily discussed or accepted. Sanctuaries is a tender story of love and healing, set… Read more


  • NoBODY Looks Like Me: An Adoptee Experience

    NoBODY Looks Like Me: An Adoptee Experience

    NoBODY Looks Like Me represents what it is like for an adoptee to grow up in a family where they are not genetically related to anyone. There is a longing to know where your eyes, nose and hands come from. When an adoptee decides to… Read more

  • What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee’s Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices

    What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee’s Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices

    If you’re the white parent of a transracially or internationally adopted child, you may have been told that if you try your best and work your hardest, good intentions and a whole lot of love will be enough to give your child the security, attachment,… Read more

  • Living in the Know: The Adoptee’s Quick-Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing

    Living in the Know: The Adoptee’s Quick-Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing

    Part memoir, part quick-start guide, Geraldine Berger, “The Genetic Genealogy Coach,” shares her own journey to living in the know. The search for her birth parents spanned a cumulative thirty-four years, due to sealed records, aliases and other erroneous information. Berger tells you which DNA tests… Read more


  • Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion

    Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion

    This book critically analyses the way in which traditional sociocultural and legal biases might be perpetuated against those with unknown – or unknowable – genetic ancestries. It looks to law and works of literature across differing eras and genres focussing upon such concepts as inherited… Read more

  • Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories

    Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories

    Adoption Memoirs tells inside stories of adoption that popular media miss. Marianne Novy shows how adoption memoirs and films recount not only happy moments, but also the lasting pain of relinquishing a child, the racism and trauma that adoptees such as Jackie Kay and Jane Jeong… Read more

  • Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants

    Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants

    Since the early 1950s, over 125,000 Korean children have been adopted in the United States, primarily by white families. Korean adoptees figure in twenty-five percent of US transnational adoptions and are the largest group of transracial adoptees currently in adulthood. Despite being legally adopted, Korean… Read more


  • Adoption and Suicidality: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Resources for Adoptees, Families, Healthcare Professionals, and Allies

    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

  • When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology

    When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology

    There is no universal adoption experience, and no two adoptees have the same story. This anthology for teens edited by Shannon Gibney and Nicole Chung contains a wide range of… Read more


  • A Moment in Time

    A Moment in Time

    Imagine, if you can, if you could trace your beginnings to a specific moment in time. If that specific moment had never happened, your existence–and everything and everybody you have… Read more

  • Landlock X: Poems

    Landlock X: Poems

    Sarah Audsley’s debut poetry collection, Landlock X, joins a growing body of adoptee poetics. By examining the consequences of the international transracial adoptee experience–her own–Audsley’s collection finds more questions than solid… Read more


  • When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology

    When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology

    There is no universal adoption experience, and no two adoptees have the same story. This anthology for teens edited by Shannon Gibney and Nicole Chung contains a wide range of… Read more

  • Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story

    Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story

    Sarah has always struggled to fit in. Born in South Korea and adopted at birth by a white couple, she grows up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors.… Read more