Category: Juvenile
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When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology
Edited by Shannon Gibney and Nicole Chung
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 powerful, poignant, and evocative stories in a variety of genres. These tales from fifteen bestselling,…
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Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story
by Sarah Myer
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. People whisper in the supermarket. Classmates bully her. She has trouble containing her anger in…
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The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption
by Shannon Gibney
Part memoir, part speculative fiction, this novel explores the often surreal experience of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee. Dream Country author Shannon Gibney returns with a new book woven from her true story of growing up as the adopted Black daughter of white parents…
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Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller
by Meredith Ireland
There’s no one Kelsie Miller hates more than Eric Mulvaney Ortiz—the homecoming king, captain of the football team, and academic archrival in her hyper-competitive prep school. But after Kelsie’s best friend, Briana, moves across the country and stops speaking to her, she’ll do anything, even…
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Where We Come From
by Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney, John Coy; Illustrated by Dion MBD
In this unique collaboration, four authors lyrically explore where they each come from―literally and metaphorically―as well as what unites all of us as humans. Richly layered illustrations connect past and present, making for an accessible and visually striking look at history, family, and identity. We…
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Lyncoya: Andrew Jackson’s Adopted Indian Son
by Mary S. Payne
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 up with Andrew Jackson, Jr. A lifelong conflict erupts between the two brothers. Isolated from…
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Seoul Story: Adoption Picture Book
by Susie Lawlor; illustrated by CJ Rooney
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 introduces to children, parents and even teachers about a multicultural, transracial adoption. The book is…
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What Is Adoption?
by Jeanette Yoffe; Illustrated by Devika Joglekar
A book appropriate for all children and families connected by adoption. Beautifully illustrated, this work provides a deeper understanding of how the adoption process works and the feelings that many children have about being adopted. Written in simple terms it aims to inspire an honest…
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The Jasmine Project
by Meredith Ireland
Jenny Han meets The Bachelorette in this effervescent romantic comedy about a teen Korean American adoptee who unwittingly finds herself at the center of a competition for her heart, as orchestrated by her overbearing, loving family. Jasmine Yap’s life is great. Well, it’s okay. She’s about to…
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Rose’s Locket
by Shannon Quist
Adopted teenager Izzie grew up with an incomplete story about her past. That is, until her eighteenth birthday, when her parents reveal a set of documents that give Izzie more answers about her origin than she had ever anticipated. Intent on discovering who her birthmother…
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The How and the Why
by Cynthia Hand
Cassandra McMurtrey has the best parents a girl could ask for; they’ve given Cass a life she wouldn’t trade for the world. She has everything she needs—but she has questions, too. Like, to know who she is. Where she came from. Questions her adoptive parents…
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Hey, Kiddo
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka’s teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett’s family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett’s life. His father…
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For Black Girls Like Me
by Mariama J. Lockington
Makeda June Kirkland is eleven-years-old, adopted, and black. Her parents and big sister are white, and even though she loves her family very much, Makeda often feels left out. When Makeda’s family moves from Maryland to New Mexico, she leaves behind her best friend, Lena―…
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Frankie and Friends Talk Adoption
by Pam Kroskie and Marcie Keithley
Frankie and Friends will help the youngest of adopted children and their parents navigate through the feelings often experienced but difficult to articulate. The narrator is Frankie, a lovable character who warmly validates what an adopted child may be feeling and that they are all okay!…
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Adoption Is a Lifelong Journey
by Kelly DiBenedetto, Katie Gorczyca, and Jennifer Eckert
Meet Charlie, an adoptee who opens his heart and shares what’s on his mind through various phases as he grows up in his adoptive home. As the narrator of Adoption Is a Lifelong Journey, Charlie invites readers to see the adoption journey from the perspective…
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The Girl and the Grove
by Eric Smith
Teenager Leila’s life is full of challenges. From bouncing around the foster care system to living with seasonal affective disorder, she’s never had an easy road. Leila keeps herself busy with her passion for environmental advocacy, monitoring the Urban Ecovists message board and joining a…
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Kimchi & Calamari
by Rose Kent
There are worse things in the world than being adopted. But right now Joseph can’t think of one. Joseph Calderaro has a serious problem. His social studies teacher has given him an impossible assignment: an essay about ancestors. Ancestors, as in dead people you’re related…
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What Is a Part of Me?
by Ola Zuri
This is the story of a young girl adopted transracially who has some struggles with finding answers to some difficult questions. Follow along with her as she learns some things about her past and finds out where her true strength is. Adoptee Author: Ola Zuri Publication…
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Where Do I Belong?
by Ola Zuri
The story is about a young boy who was adopted transracially and feels that something in his family isn’t quite right. He wonders and worries about where he fits and where he belongs. Follow him as he soon discovers the answers. Adoptee Author: Ola Zuri Publication…
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Why Can’t You Look Like Me?
by Ola Zuri
Follow along on a young girl’s journey as she wonders Why Can’t You Look Like Me of those around her. She is an African American girl adopted transracially and feels like she doesn’t fit in, even within her own family. This tender book shows how…
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When You Never Said Goodbye: An Adoptee’s Search for Her Birth Mother: A Novel in Poems and Journal Entries
by Meg Kearney
A student at NYU in Greenwich Village, Liz McLane is pursuing her dream of becoming a poet and, at the same time, determined to find her birth mother, no matter what the results may be. Through her journals, Liz records her struggle to navigate adoption…
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Umbilicus
by Paula Gruben
Charlotte van Katwijk guards herself like a secret. Kids are cruel, and she knows if they find out she’s adopted, she’ll be a bully’s easy target. When they are fourteen, Charlotte’s best friend’s mom commits suicide. It triggers in Charlotte a sense of urgency to…
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GreenBean: True Blue Family
by Elizabeth Blake
More than anything, GreenBean wants to feel like she belongs in her family. She does not look like them. She does not like the same things as them. So she feels like an outsider. How can she possibly belong? An Early Reader for ages 4-8,…
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Borya and the Burps: An Eastern European Adoption Story
by Joan McNamara, illustrated by Dawn Majewski
In recent years more children have been adopted from Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Bloc countries than from any other region of the world. Yet until now, there have been no picture books designed to tell their stories of finding a forever family…
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Cooper’s Lesson
by Sun Yung Shin, illustrated by Kim Cogan
Cooper caught his reflection in the window. Brown hair, fair skin, and some freckles. Grandmother Park always said, “Such white skin!” and Grandmother Daly always said, “What brown skin!” One cousin always teased him about being “half and half.” Cooper has had about enough of…
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Three More Words
by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent a harrowing nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes. Her memoir, Three Little Words, captivated audiences everywhere and went on to become a New York Times bestseller. Now Ashley reveals the nuances of life after foster care: College and…
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Three Little Words: A Memoir
by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
An inspiring true story of the tumultuous nine years Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent in the foster care system, and how she triumphed over painful memories and real-life horrors to ultimately find her own voice. “Sunshine, you’re my baby and I’m your only mother. You must mind…
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When You Were Born in China: A Memory Book for Children Adopted from China
by Sara Dorow
This book utilizes photographs to educate about life in China and includes information about Chinese social policies, orphanages, and the journey of an adopted child to the United States. Author: Sara Dorow Publication Year: 1997 Critical Reviews Adoptee Reviews: Other Reviews: All Bookshop and Amazon links on…
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Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles
by Darlene Friedman
It’s Cassidy-Li’s turn to be Star of the Week at school! So she’s making brownies and collecting photos for her poster. She has pictures of all the important people in her life—with one big exception. Cassidy-Li, adopted from China when she was a baby, doesn’t…
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Kids Like Me in China
by Ying Ying Fry (with Amy Klatzkin)
In this first view of China adoption from a child’s perspective, eight-year-old Ying Ying Fry returns to her orphanage to remember what it is like and to write a story so that other adopted children will understand where they came from. Kids Like Me in…