RAR #87: Books to Celebrate Your Adopted Child, Brooke Cooney
In today’s episode of the podcast, we’re sharing books about adoption.
Some are picture books, some are YA–and we’ve got a little something for everyone in between. These are books that will help your family celebrate the adopted children in your life.
Brooke Cooney has made it her mission to share books about orphaned children, fostering and adoption.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- about books for families who are waiting to bring their child home
- books that help adopted kids to feel understood and see themselves reflected in the pages
- tons of suggestions from picture books, to books for teens, to books for parents
Click the play button below:
Listener Guide
Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast:
- 2:08 Meet Brooke
- 5:10 Books for the adoption/fostering journey
- 8:44 Celebrating Adoption
- 11:04 Helping adopted children feel understood
- 13:51 Brooke’s book recommendations
- 20:36 Middle grade and chapter book recommendations
- 27:42 Book suggestions for teens
- 31:02 Encouragement for families who hope to adopt
- 33:45 Let the kids speak
A couple takeaways …
- “This idea came from Rudine Sims Bishops– she wrote an article about how children need books that are windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. Windows, in that they allow you to peek into the life of someone else that lives very differently than you do … And then also mirrors, in that you need to see your own life reflected back at you. A child feels deep kinship with the character in a book who they can relate with, and they see their lives reflected back at them. And, also sliding glass doors, which is more like the idea of going through fantasy or seeing a whole new world, or seeing things from a completely different paradigm.” -Sarah Mackenzie
- “For children like myself who had that passion (for adoption) we can fan that flame for them and guide them in that direction from an early age, that they can even be doing things now that change the world by just helping their kids that they know of at church who’ve been adopted, or they go to school—those at school, befriending them and loving them for who they are not because of their situation but just the person that they are.” -Brooke Cooney
Books from this episode:
(All links are affiliate links.)
Links from this episode:
- Brooke’s booklist: 50+ books that highlight orphans and celebrate adoption
- Brooke’s post at iBelieve: A Letter to My Younger Self Concerning Adoption
- Brooke’s website: This Temporary Home
- RAR #53: Can a Children’s Book Change the World, Linda Sue Park
- Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors, Rudine Sims Bishop
- Grace Lin’s TEDx talk: The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf
- RAR #52: Bonding Through Books, Tricia Goyer
- Order The Read-Aloud Family
You can download Brooke’s new book for FREE, or check out the Kickstarter for physical copies:
We are just reading “The Singing Tree” by Kate Seredy and while it it not strictly a book about adoption, though the family “adopts” in more than one way. It is just about the most amazing book of choosing life over despair, giving home to those who are without, and sharing life with people who are in difficulties. I recommended very highly!!
Thanks for this list..We have adopted twice & are currently hoping to adopt again. We lost our 2nd son to complications from heart surgery 18 months ago and just had a failed adoption. Trying to explain all of this to our 9 yr old who doesn’t understand all this is hard. Both boys were adopted as infants. I am looking forward to diving into some of these books with him.
Lori,
I am heartbroken by your son’s death. I am truly sorry for the loss of your son, and for the failed adoption. If there is anyway that I can additionally help point you to books that may best suit your 9-year-old son, I would love to help. Thank you for listening to this episode and for telling part of your story. I hope that you find several books that will be the right fit for your young man.
Great podcast and great list. One book that I can think of, that wasn’t mentioned, is the classic Oliver Twist. Thank you again for such an inspirational discussion!
I am so glad you did this episode! We have 2 biological children and adopted our third. I am always looking for good books to add to our library. I can’t wait to check out the ones suggested.
My favorite picture books is A Mother for Choco. It is similar to Where’s My Mother but Choco learns that a mother is defined by what she does and not what she looks like.
Hi Christin,
That is one of my favorite picture books to recommend and is on my list of over 50 books that Sarah linked to in the show notes! I love this book because it is general enough it can cover so many different adoption scenarios. Thanks for highlighting it here. Wonderful suggestion!
Sarah Mackenzie and Brooke Cooney…. Thank you so much for this episode! What wonderful recommendations you made to make ‘lasting connections’ with our adopted children. I love books that inspire discussions and expressions of feelings… and provide opportunities for our kids to talk about hard and sensitive topics. You are both inspiring to me and my family. Brooke, I totally understood what you meant about Plan A and Plan B. Thank you for your heartfelt and informative podcast!! Loved every minute of it.
Also… Another book that my adopted daughter and I loved was “Because of Winn Dixie.” The main character wasn’t adopted, but her mom chose to leave her and her dad. She always wanted to know more about her mom and had questions about why she left. This story also had such a good ending. It created many opportunities for my daughter and I to talk about life, choices, the redeeming quality of love, and how other people (not blood related) can become very special and instrumental in your life.
Hi Amy,
Thank you!
What a great suggestion! I have not read that book yet, but am a huge fan of Kate DiCamillo. That’s a great avenue for discussion. Thanks for the recommendation.
Thank you for this podcast! I have a lot of books to add to our reading list now.
In the UK majority of adoptions happen because birth parents have neglected or abused the children so therefore they are removed (not given up) go into foster care first then onto adoption.
I have two adoptive children and always looking for good books but we have to be careful because their birth parents didn’t give them up at birth, they were removed to keep them safe from neglect or abuse.
Nichola,
Yes! That is the same for us here in the US in our foster care system as well. Many of the picture book suggestions don’t give any backstory as to why the children were orphaned. That makes for more choices to read to our families. That is additionally why in my book, Thirty Balloons, I simply say that the baby was born to a mom unable to care for him. It is a tricky subject to tackle with grace and age appropriate truthfulness. I agree, in the chapter books, most children are orphaned through death or through parents giving up their children for adoption. There are so many books out there; it is through wonderful resources like RAR that we can hope to find books that meet our families specific needs. As a friend says, “we are better together.” Thank you for your comment!
WOW! What a list. Thanks so much for bringing these books to us. It is also worth noting that kids that are NOT adopted should also be exposed to these books. We get tons of questions at drop off and pick up about our family and how it came to be. I’d love to see non-adoptive families discussing adoption in a healthy, positive way.
Great point, Valerie. I am often asked questions about our family by people that we don’t know. It is sometimes difficult to know how to respond in a way that is kind, but protects our children’s stories and our family. God bless.
I’m looking forward to sharing some of these books that are new to me with my adopted children! I just wanted to comment on one of Ms. Cooney’s comments, saying that in the best case scenario children should be raised by “their own parents.” Our adopted children ARE our own children. And this is the best case scenario, it’s exactly what God intended for all of us, from the moment they were born. I was quite surprised that she would state things in this way, and sincerely hope she never says anything in this vein to her own children.
I agree completely. I was disheartened to hear it phrased in that way. As a Christian, I do believe that any sort of brokenness (whether broken hearts, ruined buildings, or — in this case — broken families) only exist in our world because brokenness is rooted in the Fall, and we experience it in so many ways in our fallen world. However, I also look in Scripture and see God using adoption as a bold illustration of our relationship with Him. I read an article in Tabletalk magazine last week by author David B. Garner (who recently published a book called “Sons in the Son: the Riches and Reach of Adoption in Christ”) in which he parallels earthly adoption with our adoption in Christ. He said, “Surely at this point we can see how viewing adoption as merciful but mediocre crumbles. Adoption in Christ offers no second rate, its-the-best-we-can-get-considering-the-fall status. It is the greatest kind of human sonship there is. Adoption is a first-rate privilege. Adoption exceeds original sonship because the Beloved Son of God carried human sonship to its glorious, royal finale. [ . . . ] We are first-rate sons in Jesus the first-rate Son. No caveats. Nothing inferior. No disappointment, ever.” Russell Moore’s book (which she mentioned in the show notes) carries many of the same, Christ-exalting adoption-exalting themes. Honestly, when I saw this episode in my inbox, I was excitedly hoping to post this on my Facebook page — but I am not sure that I would any more. That’s such a denigrating way to look at God’s plan for someone’s life (“Plan B” because your “own parents” didn’t keep you). Any chance that could be edited out of the audio?
Hi Elizabeth and Kami,
I think I may have communicated my point in a way that was misunderstood. I believe we agree with one another.
I absolutely consider that all of our children are God’s plan for our family. Each of our children are our children. Period. My husband and I don’t differentiate between our kids: biological and adopted. We love them each as a gift from God. In fact, we worked much harder to add our youngest two to the family! I’ve been “in labor” for three years now.
However, I am simultaneously convinced that pre-Fall of man, God intended for children to be raised by their biological parents. So in light of sin entering the world, adoption is God’s plan to care for children from broken families or situations that led to their need of adoption. As you said, Kami, it is a picture of the gospel.
My work in orphan care and adoption the past six years has been in honor of James 1:27 and in the belief of Romans 8:28. I apologize for any offense that I may have caused. My intentions were pure even if my wording was muddled.
Thanks for listening and I hope that you find some new books to celebrate and encourage your families!
Thank you for this thoughtful response, Brooke.
What an amazing list of books!! Thank you! Have you read “The Star of Kazan” by Eva Ibbotson? It is a very interesting book which starts with an adopted girl who is happy but always dreaming of meeting her real mother one day. She arrives at contentment in the most unexpected way.
Hi Alina! I have not read that one, nor heard of it before. Thanks for recommending it! I’ll be sure and read it. I’m always on the lookout for more books in this category.