Resources

Dear Readers,

Knowledge is power! I have read or viewed in-whole or in-part every one of these books, magazines, and videos. Additionally, my family owns many of them. Use this listing to empower your family. Happy reading, happy learning, and happy changing.

Please note, I'm continuously adding to this list---so come back often!

The underlined section is the title from one of my book chapters, and the resources that follow touch on the subject underlined. 

:) Rachel

Choosing Transracial Adoption:    Getting Started

Resources for Parents

Adoptive Families magazine

Adoption Nation (Adam Pertman)

Black Baby White Hands:  A View From the Crib (Jaiya John)

The Brotherhood of Joseph (Brooks Hansen)

Brown Babies, Pink Parents (Amy Ford)

Choosing to SEE (Mary Beth Chapman)

The Color of Water:  A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother (James McBride)

Inside Transracial Adoption (Gail Steinberg and Beth Hall)

I Will Carry You (Angie Smith)

Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother (Jana Wolff)

 

Nesting Without an Egg:  Announcing, Waiting for, and Preparing to Adopt Transracially

Resources for Parents

Adopted For Life (Russell Moore)

Adoption is a Family Affair!:  What Relatives and Friends Must Know (Patricia Irwin Johnston)

Bringing In Finn:   An Extraordinary Surrogacy Story (Sara Connell)

In On It:  What Adoptive Parents Would Like You To Know About Adoption (Elisabeth O’Toole)

The Call:  Ready, Set, Parent!

Resources for Parents

Attachmenttrauma.com

ATTACh.org

Adopting the Hurt Child:  Hope for Families With Special Needs Kids (Gregory C. Keck and Regina M. Kupecky)

Attaching in Adoption (Deborah Gray)

Breastfeeding an Adopted Baby and Relactation (Elizabeth Hormann)

Damaged (Cathy Glass)

Our Own:  Adopting and Parenting the Older Child (Trish Maskew)

Parenting Adopted Adolescents:  Understanding and Appreciating Their Journeys (Gregory C. Keck)

The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers (Jack Newman, M.D., and Teresa Pitman)

The Attachment Parenting Book:  A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby (Dr. William and Martha Sears)

The Post-Adoption Blues (Karen J. Foli and John R. Thompson)

Theraplay:  Helping Parents and Children Build Better Relationships Through Attachment-Based Play (Ann M. Jernberg and Phyllis B. Booth)

Toddler Adoption:  The Weaver’s Craft (Mary Hopkins-Best)

Resources for Kids

A Family Like Yours (Rebecca Kai Dotlich)

All Families Are Special (Norma Simon)


Finding Joy (Marian Coste)

God Found Us You (Lisa Tawn Bergren)

Happy Adoption Day! (John McCutcheon)

I’m Adopted! (Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly)

I Wished For You:  An Adoption Story (Marianne Richmond)

Max and the Adoption Day Party (Adria F. Klein)

Moses and the Princess (Sophie Piper)

My Adopted Child, There’s No One Like You (Dr. Kevin Leman and Kevin Leman II)

My Family (Debbie Bailey)

My New Family:  A First Look at Adoption (Pat Thomas)

On The Night You Were Born (Nancy Tillman)

Over the Moon:  An Adoption Tale (Karen Katz)

Rebecca's Journey Home (Brynn Olenberg Sugarman)

Sweet Moon Baby:  An Adoption Tale (Karen Henry Clark)

Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (Jamie Lee Curtis)

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (Mem Fox)

The Best Family in the World (Susana Lopez)

The Day We Met You (Phoebe Koehler)

The Red Thread:  An Adoption Fairy Tale (Grace Lin)

Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies (Ann Turner)

We Belong Together:  A Book About Adoption and Families (Todd Parr)

Welcome Home Little Baby (Lisa Harper)

What Kind of Family Do You Have? (Gretchen Super)

Whos Who In My Family? (Loreen Leedy)

Are You Really the Parents?:  Raising a Black, Adopted Child in a White, Biological World

Resources for Parents:

I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla:  Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World: A Guide for Parents and Teachers  (Marguerite Wright)

In Their Own Voices:  Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories (Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda)

Love in Black and White:   A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Romance (William S. Cohen and Janet Langhart Cohen)

White Parents, Black Children: Experiencing Transracial Adoption (Darron Smith, Cardell K. Jacobson, Brenda G. Juárez)

Resources for Kids:

A Mama for Owen (Marion Dane Bauer)

A Mother for Choco (Keiko Kasza)

All Families Are Special (Norma Simon)

Families Are Different (Nina Pellegrini)

Horace (Holly Keller)

It’s Okay to Be Different (Todd Parr)

Little Pink Pup (Johanna Kerby)

Quackenstein Hatches a Family (Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen)

The Cow That Laid an Egg (Andy Cutbill)

The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers (Lisa Campbell Ernst)

The Little Green Goose (Adele Sansone)

The Thunderstruck Stork (David J. Olson)

Crown of Glory:  Hair (and Skin) Care

Resources for Parents:

Good Hair (DVD)

Hair Story:  Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps)

It’s All Good Hair:  The Guide to Styling and Grooming Black Children’s Hair (Michele N-K Collision)

Textured Tresses:  The Ultimate Guide to Maintaining and Styling Natural Hair (Diane Da Costa and Blair Underwood)

Blog:  www.chocolatehairvanillacare.com

Resources for Kids:

All Kinds of Children (Norma Simon)

All the Colors of the Earth (Sheila Hamanaka)

The Barber’s Cutting Edge (Gwendolyn Battle-Lavert)

Bintou’s Braids (Sylviane A. Diout)

Bippity Bop Barber Shop (Natasha Anastasia Tarpley)

Chocolate Me! (Taye Diggs)

Cornrows (Camille Yarbrough)

Corn Silk and Black Braids (Vincent L. Johnson, M.D.)

Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair (Lee Fox and Jennifer Plecas)

Fancy Nancy:  Hair Dos and Hair Don’ts (Jane O’Connor)

Haircut at Sleepy Sam’s (Michael R. Strickland)

Hair Dance! (Dinah Johnson)

Happy to be Nappy (bell hooks)

I Like Me! (Nancy Carlson)

I Love My Cotton Candy Hair (Nicole Updegraff)

I Love My Hair (Natasha Anastasia Tarpley)

I Won’t Comb My Hair! (Annette Langen)

Mirror, Mirror, Who do YOU see?  (Norma J. McCandless)

Nappy Hair (Carolivia Herron)

Nina Bonita (Ana Maria Machado)

Saturday at the New You (Barbara E. Barber)

Shades of People (Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly)

Something Beautiful (Sharon Dennis Wyeth)

The Hair Book (Graham Tether)

The Skin You Live In (Michael Tyler and David Lee Csicsko)

Utterly Lovely One (Mary Murphy)

What Color is Caesar?  (Maxine Kumin)

Whose Knees Are These? (Jabari Asim)

Whose Toes Are Those? (Jabari Asim)

Wild, Wild Hair (Nikki Grimes)

“I Love My Hair” Sesame Street Video Clip from YouTube

 

Two Mommies, Two Daddies:  Navigating Open Adoption

Resources for Parents

And Then I Found You (Patti Callhan Henry)


Antwone Fisher (DVD)

August Rush (DVD)

Beverly Lewis’ The Shunning (DVD)

Dear Birthmother (Kathleen Silber)

Jessica Lost:  A Story of Birth, Adoption, & The Meaning of Motherhood (Bunny Crumpacker and J.S. Picariello)

Like Dandelion Dust (DVD)

The Duchess (DVD)

The Girls Who Went Away (Ann Fessler)

The Language of Flowers (Vanessa Diffenbaugh)

The Light Between Oceans (M.L. Stedman)

The Shunning, The Confession, and The Reckoning (Beverly Lewis)

The Open Adoption Experience (Lois Ruskai Melina and Sharon Kaplan Roszia)


Secret Daughter (Shilpi Somaya Gowda)


Secret Daughter:  A Mixed Race Daguther and the Mother Who Gave Her Away (June Cross)

Where We Belong (Emily Giffin)

Without a Map (Meredith Hall)

Resources for Kids

Megan’s Birthday Tree (Laurie Lears)

Mommy Far, Mommy Near:  An Adoption Story (Carol Antoinette Peacock)

Motherbridge of Love (Xinran)

The Tummy Mummy (Michelle Madrid-Branch)

Processing, Talking About, and Confronting Racism:   From the N-Word to Watermelon

Resources for Parents

Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School  (Mica Pollock)

Letters Across the Divide: Two Friends Explore Racism, Friendship, and Faith (David Anderson and Brent Zuercher)

Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (Lisa Delpit)

Racism:  A Short History (George M. Frederickson)

Racism Explained to My Daughter (Tahar Ben Jelloun)

Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva)

Silent Racism: How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide (Barbara Trepagnier)

The New Jim Crow (Michelle Alexander)

Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice (Paul Kivel)

“Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”  And Other Conversations About Race (Beverly Daniel Tatum)

www.tolerance.org

Resources for Kids

Black Like Kyra, White Like Me (Judith Vigna)

No Two Alike (Keith Baker)

Pretzel (Margaret Rey)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)

The Other Side (Jacqueline Woodson)

The Skin I'm In: A First Look at Racism (Pat Thomas)

The Sneetches and Other Stories (Dr. Seuss)

To Be Free: Understanding and Eliminating Racism (Thomas D. Peacock and Marlene Wisuri)

What If the Zebras Lost Their Stripes? (John Reitano)

White Water (Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein)

It Takes a Village:  Creating Support

Resources for Parents:

Effective Support Groups (James E. Miller)

How To Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)

Making Small Groups Work: What Every Small Group Leader Needs to Know (Henry Cloud and John Townsend)

The Support Group Manual: A Session-By-Session Guide (Harriet Sarnoff Schiff)

http://adoptivefamilies.com/support_group.php

Meetup.com

Resources for Kids:

All the World (Liza Garton Scanlon)

Amazing Faces (Lee Bennett Hopkins)

A Rainbow of Friends (P.K. Hallinan)

Each Kindness (Jacqueline Woodson)

Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me (DVD)

How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World (Marjorie Priceman)

I Have the Right to Be a Child (Alain Serres)

It’s a Small World (Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman)

Little Sweet Potato (Amy Beth Bloom)

Ones and Twos (Marthe Jocelyn and Nell Jocelyn)

Orange Peel’s Pocket (Rose A. Lewis)

Sidewalk Chalk:  Poems of the City (Carole Boston Weatherford)

Think Big (Liz Garton Scanlon)

Whole World (Christopher Corr and Fred Penner)

 

“I Was In Her Belly Button”:  Discussing Adoption and Race With Children

Resources for Adoptive Parents

A Child Called It (Dave Pelzer)

Before You Were Mine:  Discovering Your Adopted Child’s Lifestory (Sara TeBos and Carissa Woodwyk)

Being Lara (Lola Jayne)

I Beat the Odds:  From Homelessness to The Blind Side (Michael Oher and Don Yeager)

I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla:  Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World (Marguerite A. Wright)

Lifebooks:  Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child (Beth O’Malley) 

Nurture the Nature:  Understanding and Supporting Your Child’s Unique Core Personality (Michael Gurian)

Raising Adopted Children (Lois Ruskai Melina)

Real Parents, Real Children:  Parenting the Adopted Child (Holly van Gulden and Lisa M. Bartels-Rabb)

Searching For a Past:  The Adopted Adult’s Unique Process of Finding Identity (Jayne Schooler)

Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child (Betsy Keefer and Jayne E. Schooler)

The Whole Life Adoption Book:  Realistic Advice for Building a Healthy Adoptive Family (Jayne E. Schooler and Thomas C. Atwood)

Three Little Words (Ashley Rhodes-Courter)

The Birth Order Book:  Why You Are The Way You Are (Dr. Kevin Leman)

Twenty Life Transforming Choices Adoptees Need to Make (Sherrie Eldridge)

Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew (Sherrie Eldridge)

Resources for Kids:

Adoption Is For Always (Linda Walvoord Girard)

All About Adoption:  How Families Are Made and How Kids Feel About It (Mark A. Neimiroff and Jane Annuziata)

Did My First Mother Love Me?  (Kathryn Ann Miller)

Flora’s Family (Annette Aubrey)

How I Was Adopted (Joanna Cole)

I Don’t Have Your Eyes (Carrie A Kitze)

Is That Your Sister?  (Catherine and Sherry Bunin)

Let’s Talk About Adoption (Fred Rogers)

My Family is Forever (Nancy Carlson)

Oliver:  A Story About Adoption (Lois Wickstrom)

Star of the Week:  A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles (Darlene Friedman)

The Secret of Me (Meg Kearney)

The Willoughbys (Lois Lowry)

True Colors (Natalie Kinsey Warnock)

“Are They Real Siblings?”:  Life as a Growing Adoptive Family

Resources for Parents

Brothers and Sisters in Adoption:  Helping Children Navigate Relationships When New Kids Join the Family (Arleta James)

The Sibling Effect:  What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us (Jeffrey Kluger)

Resources for Kids

Note:  Some of these resources are not adoption-themed, rather, they are sibling-themed to help children navigate a new sibling entering into the family.

All Together Now (Anita Jeram)

Arthur:  Big Brother Binky (DVD)

Barfburger Baby, I Was Here First (Paula Danziger)

Brand-New Baby Blues (Kathi Appeit)

But I Wanted a Baby Brother! (Kate Feiffer and Diane Goode)

Chloe, Instead (Micah Player)

Dinosaur Train:  Buddy’s World

Dinosaur Train:  Dinosaur Big City (DVD)

Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems (Kristine O’Connell George)

Emma’s Yucky Brother (Jean Little)

Friends and Pals and Brothers, Too (Sarah Wilson)

I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother (Selina Alko)

Is That Your Sister?:  A True Story of Adoption (Catherine and Sherry Bunin)

Little Brown Bear and the Bundle of Joy (Jane Dyer)

Look at Me! (Rachel Fuller)

Love That Baby!  (Karen Lasky)

One Special Day:  A Story for Big Brothers & Sisters (Lola M. Schaefer)

Peter’s Chair (Ezra Jack Keats)

Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth! (Sarah Weeks)

Stuart Little (DVD)

Vera’s Baby Sister (Vera Rosenberry)

Waiting for May (Janet Morgan Stoeke)

Whoa, Baby, Whoa! (Grace Nichols)

 

Where’s the Black?:  Supporting Your Transracially Adopted Child

Resources for Parents

High on the Hog:  A Culinary Journey From Africa to America (Jessica B. Harris)

Hog and Hominy:  Soul Food From Africa to America (Frederick Douglass Opie)

Life Upon These Shores:  Looking At African American History (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)

Our Black Year:  One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy (Maggie Anderson and Ted Gregory)

The Black Candle: A Kwanzaa Celebration (DVD)

The Healthy Soul Food Cook Book (Wilbert Jones)

The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes (Fabiola Demps Gaines and Roniece Weaver)

The 100 Best African American Poems (Nikki Giovanni)

Resources for Kids on Blackness and Diversity

Beautiful Brown Eyes (Marianne Richmond)

Black Is Brown Is Tan (Arnold Adoff)

Black, White, Just Right! (Marguerite W. Davol)

Bright Eyes, Brown Skin (Cheryl Willis Hudson)

Brown Like Me (Noelle Lamperti)

Hands Around the World:  365 Creative Ways to Build Cultural Awareness and Global Respect (Susan Milord)

Heart and Soul:  The Story of America and African Americans (Kadir Nelson)

I Like Myself! (Karen Beaumont)

Me I Am! (Jack Prelutsky)

Kids’ Multicultural Cookbook:  Food & Fun From Around the World (Deanna F. Cook)

My People (Langston Hughes)

Shades of Black (Sandra L. Pinkey)

Shades of People (Shelley Rotner)

The Colors of Us (Karen Katz)

The Crayon Box That Talked (Shane Derolf)

The Skin You Live In (Michael Tyler)

We Are the Ship:  The Story of Negro League Baseball (Kadir Nelson)

Resources for Kids on Kwanzaa

Celebrating Kwanzaa (Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith)

Crafts for Kwanzaa (Kathy Ross)

Elmo’s World:   Happy Holidays (DVD)

K is for Kwanzaa:  A Kwanzaa Alphabet Book (Juwanda G. Ford)

Kwanzaa Crafts (Carol Gnojewski)

My First Kwanzaa (Karen Katz)

Seven Candles for Kwanzaa (Andrea Davis Pinkney)

Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story (Angela Shelf Medearis)

The Gifts of Kwanzaa (Synthia Saint James)

The Sound of Kwanzaa (Dimitrea Tokunbo)

Resources for Kids on Christmas

Amazing Peace:  A Christmas Poem (Maya Angelou)

An Island Christmas (Lynn Joseph)

Christmas Soul:  African American Holiday Stories (Allison Samuels)

Grace at Christmas (Mary Hoffman)

Hold Christmas in Your Heart (Cheryl Willis Hudson)

Remember the Bridge:  Poems of a People (Carole Boston Weatherford)

The Bells of Christmas (Virginia Hamilton)

‘Twas the Night B’Fore Christmas: An African-American Version (Melodye Benson Rosales)

Under the Christmas Tree (Nikki Grimes)

Resources for Kids on Christianity

Children of God Storybook Bible (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)

God’s Dream (Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams)

He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands (Kadir Nelson)

Jesus Loves the Little Children (Debbie Anderson)

Jubilee (Ellen Yeomans and Tim Ladwig)

The Jesus Storybook Bible (Sally Lloyd-Jones)

Resources for Kids on Black History

Note:  There are numerous books on Black history.  The resources I feature here provide a broad overview; I encourage you to seek resources on specific Black figures and movements by searching your local library’s database.   I often feature newly released Black history books on my blog:  White Sugar, Brown Sugar.  

The Hero in You (CD) (Ellis Paul)

A Kid’s Guide to African American History: More Than 70 Activities (Nancy I. Sanders)

A Negro League Scrapbook (Carole Boston Weatherford)

Her Stories:  African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales (Virginia Hamilton)

Hip Hop Speaks to Children:  A Celebration of Poetry With a Beat (edited by Nikki Giovanni)

How They Got Over:  African Americans and the Call of the Sea (Eloise Greenfield)

I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of African Slavery (Cynthia Grady)

Juneteenth Jamboree (Carole Boston Weatherford)

Jumping the Broom (Sonia W Black)

Our Children Can Soar:  A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change (Michelle Cook)

The Beatitudes:  From Slavery to Civil Rights (Carole Boston Weatherford)

What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar  and Raymond Obstfeld)