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Looking for Diverse Books for Your Adopted Child

Research shows that exposure to and experience with your child’s birth culture is necessary for him to develop a secure, confident racial identity. Figuring out HOW to do that can be overwhelming for parents who are also managing attachment or trauma issues, special needs, and IEP’s.

Kids’ books are a fantastic way to get conversations about transracial adoption and racial identity started at home. In age-appropriate ways, you can introduce information about your child’s birth culture or your family make-up. Reading together about the diverse people in your home and communities broadens his understanding of himself and his story.

Diverse books allow you to learn together and to tell your children that there are other families out there that look like yours. Your kids will feel valued and validated when they read stories about folks like them.

Where to Find Diverse Books

Our partner, Creating a Family has book lists broken down by type of adoption, by country, by age and by topic. The lists are pretty diverse and are updated frequently. The suggestions on the lists come from their staff, podcast listeners, blog readers and members of their online support group.

If you surf around on the We Need Diverse Books site, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by their many resources: for families, for schools, for writers, and publishers. Their mission is “putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children,” and they’ve developed a wide-reaching platform to accomplish that goal.

The WNDB Summer Reading Series is most notable for its “If you like this book, read this next” book lists. For example, “If you liked Julia Alvarez’ FINDING MIRACLES, read Cynthia Kadohata’s HALF A WORLD AWAY because both feature adopted children who are confronted with difficult challenges from their pre-adoption past…”

WNDB is also active on social media and offers a blog which regularly features conversations with authors and other news in the world of diverse literature for young people. They’ve recently developed the Our Story app, which will put even more diversity at the fingertips of families, educators, and librarians.

The Association for Library Service to Children, which is a division of the American Library Association, keeps updated lists of award-winning children’s books. Both websites have great search functions for more specific terms unique to your family dynamic.

Literary Awards Lists Are a Great Resource

Here are a few of the most well-known award lists to get you started on the search for great diverse books specifically for children and young adults:

Also available at the ALA site is The Rainbow Project Book List, which offers suggestions for books that deal with LGBTQ issues for children up to age 18.

Other Media Resources, Including Books

You’ll also want to check out the wide variety of reviews and resources for media at Common Sense Media, specific to your family’s needs for cultural and racial diversity. There are also resources for educators and advocates that you might find helpful.

Their lists are easy to use, and many of them are broken down by age, from pre-school through 13+ years old. Here’s a sampling of the book lists on their site:

Finally, here are a couple other links for resources to teach or support racial and cultural diversity.

  • LEE & LOW BOOKS – This large American multicultural children’s book publisher offers resources for parents, educators, and breaks them down by age and by culture. Their blog is worth a peek too.
  • Teaching Tolerance – Check out their list of “What We are Reading” Staff Picks. If you scroll down the site, you’ll see teaching topics like race, religion, and immigration that could be useful resources for transracial adoptive families
  • Your local library – Don’t forget, in this age of having resources at your fingertips, your local library or school library is still available! Walk right up to that circulation desk and ask for the kinds of books you need to serve your family best. It never hurts to ask and you might just find a new author that your child loves!

Books are Great Conversation Starters

Looking for diverse books for your transracial adopted child is no easy task. While not exhaustive, we hope these resources help you find a variety of books to read to or share with your kids no matter your family make-up. Use them to start conversations with your kids about transracial adoption, diversity, inclusivity, and growing a strong, healthy racial identity.

The bonus is that you will be reading together — which is always great for attachment, reinforcing your child’s reading skills, and fostering a love for learning!