25 (Helpful!) Kids Books About Adoption
Looking for the right words when …
talking to your child about adoption?
Sometimes reading books with our kids allows us to say things in unique or helpful ways.
Here are 25 adoption-centered books. Hint: If you want to preview the book before you buy or borrow it, search for it on YouTube. Often, the book has been read by someone there.
1. A Blessing from Above: Little Golden Book (Patti Henderson)
Every night before she goes to sleep, a kangaroo prays under the stars for a baby to love and hold. One day, as she rests under a tree, a baby bird falls out of its crowded nest—plop!—right into her pouch!
2. A Mother for Choco (Keiko Kasza)
Choco wishes he had a mother, but who could she be? He sets off to find her, asking all kinds of animals, but he doesn’t meet anyone who looks just like him. He doesn’t even think of asking Mrs. Bear if she’s his mother—but then she starts to do just the things a mommy might do. And when she brings him home, he meets her other children-a piglet, a hippo, and an alligator-and learns that families can come in all shapes and sizes and still fit together.
3. Adoption Is For Always (Linda Walvoord Girard)
Although Celia reacts to having been adopted with anger and insecurity, her parents help her accept her feelings and celebrate their love for her by making her adoption a family holiday.
4. God Found Us You (Lisa Tawn Bergren)
This picture book celebrates adoption in a way that children can understand and enjoy. As little fox gets ready for bed, Mama Fox tells him the miraculous story of his special arrival. This heartwarming and tender tale captures the immensity of looking at God through a young child’s eyes and the profoundness of the blessings that adoption brings to both parent and child.
5. Happy Adoption Day! (John McCutcheon)
This adaptation of McCutcheon’s song commemorates the day when a child joins an adoptive family. Complete with musical notation, these verses reassure adopted children they are special.
6. I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Rose A. Lewis)
This story of a single mom who travels to China to adopt a baby girl is based on the author’s own experiences. It is a celebration of the love and joy a baby brings into the home.
7. I Will Love You (Alyssa Satin Capucilli)
In the very first moment, when you came to be,
I looked at you, and you looked at me.
I whispered these words as I held you near,
for all time, for all space, for the world to hear
“I will love you.”
8. I Wished for You (Marianne Richmond)
An Adoption Story follows a conversation between a little bear named Barley and his Mama as they curl up in their favorite cuddle spot and talk about how they became a family. Barley asks Mama the kinds of questions many adopted children have, and Mama lovingly answers them all.
9. Kids Like Me in China (Ying Ying Fry)
In this first-person account 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.
10. Mommy’s Heart Went Pop (Christina Kyllonen)
This book brings the beauty of international adoption to the entire family through a simple story of love for a child. It includes rich illustrations depicting a universal journey and resources for families exploring their own adoption journey.
11. My Adopted Child, There’s No One Like You (Dr. Kevin Leman)
Every child is special. And every child deserves to be recognized for what makes him or her unique. Now birth order guru, Dr. Kevin Leman, and his artist son, Kevin Leman II, offer parents the perfect way to tell their adopted child just how wonderful he or she is.
Grace is 1 of over 7,000 children who have been adopted with the help of Lifesong fundraising assistance, made possible by people like you.
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12. My Family Is Forever (Nancy Carlson)
Some families look alike, some don’t. Some families are formed through birth, and some families are formed by adoption. But as the little girl in this heartwarming book makes clear, being a family isn’t about who you look like or where you were born—it’s about the love that binds you together.
13. Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale (Karen Katz)
An affirming story about international adoption, based on the author’s own experience with her daughter. A magical, reassuring story of one adoptive family’s beginnings, told in words and pictures that are just right for the youngest child.
14. Rosie’s Family: An Adoption Story (Lori Rosove)
Rosie’s Family is a story about belonging in a family regardless of differences. Rosie is a beagle who was adopted by schnauzers. She feels different from the rest of her family, including her brother, who is the biological child of her parents, and sets forth many questions that children who were adopted may have.
15. Sisters (Judith Caseley)
Melissa has a new sister — and she’s excited. There’s so much to share with Kika: trips to the playground, afternoons at the library, and birthday parties. Through each new experience, Kika and Melissa discover that sisterhood can be fun, challenging, and sometimes unpredictable, but always rewarding. Best of all, a sister is a friend for life.
16. Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (Jamie Lee Curtis)
In asking her parents to tell her again about the night of her birth, a young girl relives a cherished tale she knows by heart. Focusing on the significance of family and love, this a unique and beautiful story about adoption and the importance of a loving family.
17. Ten Days and Nine Nights: An Adoption Story (Yumi Heo)
This book would be ideal to read to a child who is waiting for the arrival of an adopted sibling.
18. The Day We Met You (Phoebe Koehler)
Step by loving step, a couple prepares their home for the arrival of their adopted baby.
19. The Red Blanket (Eliza Thomas)
This is a journey about the forming of a family. It is as lyrical as a love letter from a mother to her daughter, as honest as the struggles they encounter, and as comforting as a cozy red blanket.
20. The Story I’ll Tell (Nancy Tupper Ling)
A young child asks his mother to tell the story of where he came from. Each lyrical and fantastic tale contains a small kernel of truth that pieces together the baby’s journey across a wide ocean into his new mother’s arms.
21. Waiting for May (Janet Morgan Stoeke)
Hearing the good news that he will be getting a new sister from China, a young boy eagerly anticipates her arrival with his American family and gets the joy of his life when he finally gets to hold her in his arms for the first time in her new home.
22. We Belong Together (Todd Parr)
In a kid-friendly, accessible way, this book explores the ways that people can choose to come together to make a family. It’s about sharing your home and sharing your heart to make a family that belongs together.
23. Welcome Home, Forever Child (Christine Mitchell)
This book genuinely celebrates a young child joining their forever family past infancy. With its touching message of love and reassurance and whimsical illustrations, Welcome Home, Forever Child is sure to be cherished by children and parents alike.
24. Welcome Home Little Baby (Lisa Harper)
Based on a poem the author wrote immediately after the arrival of her first adopted child, this story is perfect for anyone who has adopted or is going to adopt.
25. Yes, I’m Adopted! (Sharlie Zinniger)
Written from a child’s point of view, the rhyming verse takes you through an adoption journey from start to finish. It is perfect for anyone, young or old, whose life has been blessed by adoption.
