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.
:) Rachel

Adoption Themed Books for Babies-Elementary Age
Note:  This list includes international and domestic adoption themes.  It is important to me to teach my girls about adoption in general and about various cultures and traditions; therefore, this list is comprehensive.
A Blessing From Above (Patti Henderson)
Adopted and Loved Forever (Annetta E Dellinger)
Adoption is For Always (Linda Walboord Girard)
"A" is For Adopted (Eileen Tucker Cosby)
All About Adoption (Marc A Nemiroff)
All Kinds of Children (Norma Simon)
All the Colors of the Earth (Sheila Hamanaka)
All the Things I Love About You (Leuyen Pham)
All Together Now (Anita Jeram)
A Mama for Owen (Marion Dane Bauer)
A Mother for Choco (Keiko Kasza)
Before You Were Born (Nancy White Carstrom)
Brown Like Me (Noelle Lamperti)
Courduroy (Don Freeman)
Curious George (H.A. Rey)
Did My First Mother Love Me? (Kathryn Ann Miller)
Families Are Different (Nina Bellegrini)
Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers (Mary Ann Hoberman)
Flora's Family (Annette Aubrey)
God Found Us You (Lisa Tawn Bergren)
Happy Adoption Day! (John McCutcheon)
Horace (Holly Keller)
How I Was Adopted (Joanna Cole)
I Don't Have Your Eyes (Carrie A Kitze)
I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Rose A. Lewis)
I'm Adopted!  (Shelley Rotner)
It's Okay To Be Different (Todd Parr)
I Wished For You: An Adoption Story (Marianne R. Richmond)
Little Pink Pup (Johanna Kerby)
Max and the Adoption Day Party (Adria F Klein)
Megan's Birthday Tree (Laurie Lears)
Motherbridge of Love (Mother Bridge of Love)
My Adopted Child, There's No One Like You (Dr. Kevin Leman)
My Family is Forever (Nancy Carlson)
My New Family (Pat Thomas)
Nini (Francois Thisdale)
On The Night You Were Born (Nancy Tillman)
Oliver: A Story About Adoption (Lois Wickstrom)
Orange Peel's Pocket (Rose A. Lewis)
Over The Moon: An Adoption Tale (Karen Katz)
Rosie's Family (Lori Rosove)
Star of the Week (Darlene Friedman)
Sweet Moon Baby (Karen Henry Clark)
The Family Book (Todd Parr)
The Little Green Goose (Adele Sansone)
The Mulberry Bird (Anne Braff Brodzinsky)
The Red Thread (Grace Lin)
The Sea Chest (Toni Buzzeo)
The Willoughbys (Lois Lowry)
Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born (Jamie Lee Curtis)
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (Mem Fox)
The Day We Met You (Phoebe Koehler)
Three Names of Me (Mary Cummings)
We Are Adopted (Jennifer Morre-Mallinos)
We Belong Together (Todd Parr)
Welcome Home Little Baby (Lisa Harper)
When I Was Born (Isabel Minhos Martins)
When the World Was Waiting for You (Gillian Shields)

Books for Siblings
Big Sister and Little Sister (Charlotte Zolotow)
Brand-New Baby Blues (Kathi Appeit)
But I Wanted a Baby Brother! (Kate Feiffer)
Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems (Kristine O'Connell George)
Friends and Pals and Brothers, Too (Sarah Wilson)
I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother (Selina Alko)
Love That Baby! (Kathryn Lasky)
My Brother, My Sister, and Me (Pat Thomas)
One of Three (Angela Johnson)
Pecan Pie Baby (Jacqueline Woodson)
Stella Star of the Sea (Marie-Louise Gay)
The Other Kid (a workbook for siblings who have a brother or sister with a special need, illness, or injury)
Vera's Baby Sister (Vera Rosenberry)
Waiting for May (Janet Morgan Stoeke)

Diversity-Themed and Acceptance-Themed Books for Little Ones
Note: These books feature people of various races and ethnicities, people living in other places around the world, and people with special needs or living in unique family situations. Books that are geared specifically toward adoption or feature adoption as one of the themes are in the first section of this listing.
All Asleep (Joanna Walsh)
All Kinds of Families (Norma Simon)
Baby Dance (Ann Taylor)
Baby Face (Cynthia Rylant)
Ballerina Girl (Kirsten Hall)
Beautiful Brown Eyes (Marianne Richmond)
Bippity Bop Barbershop (Natasha Anastasia Tarpley)
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)
Children of the World (Anthony Asael and Stephanie Rabemiafara)
Children Just Like Me (Brnabas and Anabel Kindersley)
Children of God Storybook Bible (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)
Chocolate Me (Taye Diggs)
Cloudette (Tom Lichtensheld)
Colors of Me (Brynne Barnes)
Come On, Rain (Karen Hesse)
Daddy Calls Me Man (Angela Johnson)
Dancing in the Wings (Debbie Allen)
D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet (Nancy Sanders)
Don't Call Me Special: A First Look at Disability (Pat Thomas)
Down the Winding Road (Angela Johnson)
Every Child Everywhere! (Debby Anderson)
Fiesta Babies (Carmen Tafolla)
Freedom River (Doreen Rappaport)
Freedom Summer (Deborah Wiles)
Grace for President (Kelly DiPucchio)
Girls Hold Up This World (Jada Pinkett Smith)
Happy to be Nappy (Bell Hooks)
Honey Baby Sugar Child (Alice Faye Duncan)
Hip Hop Speaks to Children (Nikki Giovanni)
Homemade Love (Bell Hooks)
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (Marjorie Priceman)
I Am Me (Karla Kuskin)
I Am Who I Am (Bruno Hachler)
If the World Were a Village (David Smith)
If You Lived Here:  Houses of the World (Giles Laroche)
I Like Myself! (Karen Beaumont)
I Love My Cotton Candy Hair (Nicole L. Updegraff)
I Love My Hair! (Anastasia Tarpley)
I'm Like You, You're Like Me (Cindy Gainer)
I Won't Comb My Hair (Annette Langen)
Joshua By the Sea (Angela Johnson)
Joshua's Night Whispers (Angela Johnson)
Just Like Josh Gibson (Angela Johnson)
Keats's Neighborhood: An Ezra Jack Keats Treasury (Ezra Jack Keats)
Kids Around the World Celebrate (Lynda Joney)
Let's Talk About Race (Julius Lester)
Lily Brown's Paintings (Angela Johnson)
Little Library (Gyo Fujikawa)---set of four board books
Lola at the Library (Anna McQuinn)
Lola Love Stories (Anna McQuinn)
Looking at Lincoln (Maira Kalman)
Love Twelve Miles Long (Glenda Armand)
Mama Bird, Baby Birds (Angela Johnson)
Me I Am! (Jack Prelutsky)
"More More More," Said the Baby (Vera B Williams)
My Friend Maya Loves to Dance (Cheryl Willis Hudson)
My Granny Went to Market (Stella Blackstone)
My Name is Not Alexander (Jennifer Fosberry)
My Name is Not Isabella (Jennifer Fosberry)
My People (Langston Hughes)
My Village: Rhymes from Around the World ( Danielle Wright)
No Two Alike (Keith Baker)
Peekaboo Bedtime (Rachel Isadora)
Peekaboo Morning (Rachel Isadora)
Please, Baby, Please (Spike Lee)
Please, Puppy, Please (Spike Lee)
Princess Grace (Mary Hoffman)
Same, Same but Different (Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw)
Rain Feet (Angela Johnson)
Roly-Poly Egg (Kali Stileman)
Rosa (Nikki Giovanni)
Say Hello (Rachel Isadora)
Shades of Black (Sandra L. Pinkney)
Shades of People (Shelley Rotner)
Shanna's Ballerina Show (Jean Marzollo)---other Shanna books available
Skin Again (Bell Hooks
Something Beautiful (Sharon Dennis Wyeth)
Sophie Skates (Rachel Isadora)
Ten, Nine, Eight (Molly Bang)
The Crayon Box that Talked (Shane Derolf)
The Colors of Us (Karen Katz)
The Great Big Book of Families (Mary Hoffman)
The Hero in You (Ellis Paul:  CD)
The Other Side (Jacqueline Woodson)
The Princess and the Pea (Rachel Isadora)
The Night Before Christmas (Rachel Isadora)
The Sandwich Swap (Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah)
These Hands (Hope Lynne Price)
The Skin I'm In: A First Look at Racism (Pat Thomas)
The Skin You Live In (Michael Tyler)
The Twelve Dancing Princesses (Rachel Isadora)
The 12 Days of Christmas (Rachel Isadora)
ToddWorld: I Like Being Me! (Todd Parr)
Uh-oh! (Rachel Isadora)
Underground (Shane Evans)
Under the Christmas Tree (Nikki Grimes)
We're Different, We're the Same (Bobbi Kates)
We March (Shane Evans)
What A Family (Rachel Isadora)
What is Your Language? (Debra Leventhal)
While You Were Sleeping (Durga Bernhard)
Whoever You Are (Mem Fox)
Whose Knees Are These? (Jabari Asim)
Whose Toes Are Those? (Jabari Asim)
You Be You (Linda Kranz)

Resources for Adoptive Parents
Note: These books cover many adoption-related topics. Additionally, some of these books talk about having a child with special needs, the loss of child, and infertility.
Adopted for Life (Russell D. Moore)
Adoptive Families Magazine
Adoption Is a Family Affair (Patricia Irwin Johnston)
Adoption Nation (Adam Pertman)
A Little Bit of Wicken (Kristin Chenoweth)
Breastfeeding an Adopted Baby and Relactation (Elizabeth Hormann)
Brown Babies, Pink Parents (Amy Ford)
Choosing to SEE (Mary Beth Chapman)
Dear Birthmother (Kathleen Silber)
Expecting Adam (Martha Beck)
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side (Michael Oher)
Inside Transracial Adoption (Gail Steinberg)
In On It: What Adoptive Parents Would Like You to Know About Adoption (Elisabeth O'Toole)
In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories (Rita J Simon)
I Will Carry You (Angie Smith)
LifeBooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child (Beth O'Malley)
No Excuses (Abigial Thernstrom, Stephan Thernstrom, Sandra Steingraber)
Nurture Shock (Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman)*see ch.3
Raising Adopted Children, Revised Edition (Lois Ruskai Melina)
Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother (Jana Wolff)
Someone Else's Twin (Nancy Segal)*see chapter 7
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)
The Brotherhood of Joseph (Brooks Hansen)
The Girls Who Went Away (Ann Fessler)
The Open Adoption Experience (Lois Ruskai Melina)
The Third Choice (Leslie Foge)
The Water Giver (Joan Ryan)
Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew (Sherrie Eldridge)
Without a Map: A Memoir (Meredith Hall)


Music and Movies for Kids and/or Adults on Adoption or Diversity
Arthur:  Big Brother Binky (DVD 2006)
Annie
Anne of Green Gables
Babies (DVD)
Corduroy (Scholastic DVD)
Crash (DVD)
Curious George (DVD)
For Colored Girls (DVD)
ELF (DVD)
Good Hair (DVD)
Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me (HBO DVD for kids)
I Am Sam (DVD)
I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Scholastic DVD)
Juno (DVD)
Precious (DVD)
Putumayo Kids CDs (African Playground, World Playground, Caribbean Playground, etc.)
A Smoky Mountain Christmas (I've only seen it on VHS)
Tarzan (Disney DVD)
The Blind Side (DVD)
The Little Princess (Shirley Temple version is fun)

African American Culture for Kids and/or Adults
A Sweet Smell of Roses (Angela Johnson)
Art From Her Heart (Kathy Whitehead)
A Time to Kill (DVD)
Cane River (Lalita Tademy)
Coming on Home Soon (Jacqueline Woodson)
Diary of a Mad Black Woman (DVD)
Duke Ellington (Scholastic DVD)
Elizabeth and Hazel:  Two Women of Little Rock (David Margolick)
For Colored Girls (DVD)
Ellen's Broom (Kelly Starling Lyons)
ESSENCE (magazine)
Good Hair (DVD)
Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King (Jean Marzollo)
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom (Catherine Clinton)
I Beat the Odds (Michael Oher)
Jambo Means Hello:   Swahili Alphabet Book (Muriel Feelings)
Jumping the Broom (Sonia W Black)
Lincoln and Douglass:  An American Friendship (Scholastic DVD)
Magic Trash:  A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art (J.H. Shapiro)
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (Carole Boston Weatherford)
My Hands Sing the Blues:  Romar Bearden's Childhood Journey (Jeanne Walker Harvey)
Only Passing Through (Ann Rockwell)
Precious (DVD)
Jet (magazine)
Jonah's Gourd Vine (Zora Neale Hurston)
Me and Nessie (Eloise Greenfield)
Remember the Titans (DVD)
Ruth and the Green Book (Calvin Alexander Ramsey)
Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat:  Ella Fitzgerald (Roxane Orgill)
The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison)
The Color Purple (DVD)
The Great Debaters (DVD)
The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
The Princess and the Frog (Disney DVD)
The 100 Best African American Poems (Nikki Giovanni)
The Secret Life of Bees (DVD)
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married (DVD)
Underground (Shane W. Evans)
Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (Ayana Byrd)
We Shall Overcome:  A Song That Changed the World (Stuart Stotts)
What Color is My World? (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
When Harriet Met Sojourner (Catherine Clinton)
White Water (Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein)

Foster Care Resources
A Child Called It (Dave Pelzer)
Adopting the Hurt Child (Gregory C Keck)
A Man Named Dave (Dave Pelzer)
August Rush (DVD)
Damaged (Cathy Glass)
Parenting the Hurt Child (Gregory C Keck)
The Language of Flowers (Vanessa Diffenbaugh)
The Lost Boy (Dave Pelzer)
Three Little Words (Ashley Rhodes-Courter)
Today I Was Adopted (Yvonne Drew)
White Oleander (DVD)

Baby and Infant Care
Jo Frost's Confident Baby Care (Jo Frost)
The Baby Owner's Manuel (Louis Borgenicht)
What to Expect in the First Year (Heidi Murkoff)

Going Green
Raising Elijah:  Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis (      )