• Books – Staff & Family
    • The deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harris
    • How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
    • What Happened To You? By Bruce D Perry, Oprah Winfrey
    • Garbage Bag Suitcase A Memoir by Shenandoah Chefalo
    • Castaway Kid by R.B. Mitchell

Foster Care

Books for Adults

    • The Adoptive Parents’ Handbook: A Guide to Healing Trauma and Thriving with Your Foster or Adopted Child – Barbara Cummins Tantrum
    • Foster the Family – Jamie C. Finn (Faith Based)
    • The Connected Child – Karyn B. Purvis
    • Adopting the Hurt Child – Jerusha Clark and Regina M. Kupecky
    • Toddler Adoption: The Weaver’s Craft – Mary Hopkins-Best
    • Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents – Deborah D. Gray
    • Parenting the Hurt Child – Gregory Keck and Regina Kupecky
    • Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew – Sherrie Eldridge
    • The Adoptive & Foster Parent Guide: How to Heal Your Child’s Trauma and Loss – Carol Lozier
    • Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control: A Love-Based Approach to Helping Attachment-Challenged Children With Severe Behaviors – Heather T. Forbes
    • Wounded Children, Healing Homes: How Traumatized Children Impact Adoptive and Foster Families – Jayne E. Schooler (Faith Based)
    • Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child’s Lifestory – Susan Tebos (Faith Based)
    • Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past – Betsy Keefer
    • 20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed – Sherrie Eldridge
    • Ready or Not: 30 Days of Discovery for Foster and Adoptive Parents – Pam Parish
    • Another Place at the Table – Kathy Harrison
    • Welcome to the Roller Coaster – DD Foster
    • Foster Parenting 101 – Dr. John DeGarmo
    • Parenting with Love and Logic – Foster Cline and Jim Fay
    • The Foster Parenting Toolbox – Kim Phagan-Hansel
    • Three Little Words – Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Books for Children

      • Morris and the Bundle of Worries – Jill Seeney
      • Elliot – Julie Pearson
      • Adoption Is for Always – Linda Walvoord Girard
      • A Mother for Choco – Keiko Kasza
      • My New Mom & Me – Renata Galindo
      • Families, Families, Families! – Suzanne Lang
      • Welcome Home, Forever Child – Christine Mitchell
      • And That’s Why She’s My Mama – Tiarra Nazario
      • A Family Is a Family Is a Family – Sara O’Leary
      • Zachary’s New Home: A Story for Foster and Adopted Children – Geraldine M. Blomquist
      • A Different Home: A New Foster Child’s Story – Kelly DeGarmo
      • Murphy’s Three Homes: A Story for Children in Foster Care – Jan Levinson Gilman
      • Finding the Right Spot: When Kids Can’t Live With Their Parents – Janice Levy
      • Kids Need to Be Safe: A Book for Children in Foster Care – Julie Nelson
      • Families Change: A Book for Children Experiencing Termination of Parental Rights – Julie Nelson
      • Family Day: Celebrating Ethan’s Adoption Anniversary – Christine Mitchell
      • Maybe Days: A Book for Children in Foster Care – Jennifer Wilgocki
      • When I Was Little…A Child’s Journey in Overcoming Abuse & Trauma – Keri Vellis
      • SOMETIMES… A Story of Transition For Foster and Adopted Children – Keri Vellis
      • My Foster Care Journey: A Fill-in-the-Blank Lifebook – Beth O’Malley

Books for Teens

  • Waiting to Forget – Sheila Kelly Welch
  • Three Little Words: A Memoir – Ashley Rhodes-Courter
  • Far from the Tree – Robin Benway
  • The Great Gilly Hopkins – Katherine Paterson
  • The War I Finally Won – Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
  • Under His Wings: Truths to Heal Adopted, Orphaned, and Waiting Children’s Hearts – Sherri Eldridge
  • For When I’m Famous: A Fill-in-the-Blank Teen Lifebook – Beth O’Malley

Grants

 Books, Handouts and Additional Reading 

NCFA Articles 

      • The Adoptive Parent’s Responsibility when Parenting a Child of a Different Race This issue of NCFA’s Adoption Advocate discusses transracial adoptions, race, and racism. It highlights core terms and concepts, reviews intent vs. impact, and provides a foundational framework for learning more about issues of race and racism for children at different ages and developmental stages. Read the article 
      • The Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA): Analysis and Trends After 25 Years This issue of NCFA’s Adoption Advocate reviews a recent study of the implementation of MEPA and its findings, including significant progress in reducing racial disproportionality and substantial differences among states’ implementation of diligent recruitment plans. Read the article 
      • Race & Identity in Transracial Adoption: Advice for Adoptive Parents This issue of NCFA’s Adoption Advocate explores issues related to race and adoption and provides suggestions for prospective adoptive parents and families considering transracial adoption. Read the article

Scholarly Articles

      • Adopted Chinese girls come of age: Feelings about adoption, ethnic identity, academic functioning, and global self-esteem This article published in the Children and Youth Services Review investigates adolescents transracially adopted from China to the United States using three main research questions: (1) How are the adoptees’ feelings towards their adoption related to their global self-esteem? (2) What is the nature of the relationship between their ethnic socialization and their global self-esteem? (3) How is the adoptees’ academic functioning related to global self-esteem? Read the article 

Parenting Children of Another Race or Culture 

National Council For Adoption 

      • In this Families Rising article, the author describes how positive racial identity develops and offers suggestions on parenting tasks that facilitate positive racial identity. Read the article 
      • NTDC Cultural Humility Handout This handout through the National Training and Development Curriculum provides tips on practicing cultural humility in your daily life. Read the handout 
      • Parenting in Racially and Culturally Diverse Adoptive Families This factsheet from the U.S. Children’s Bureau provides information to help families in developing a healthy racial and cultural identity and live a vibrant multicultural life. It discusses the importance of examining thoughts and biases and preparing children to live in a society where race has a major impact on individual lives. Read the handout 
      • Race Education This collection of resources from The Park Adoption Community Center provides additional information on transracial adoption and race education. Explore additional resources
      • Racial Identity This collection of resources from The Park Adoption Community Center provides additional information on transracial adoption and identity. Explore additional resources 
      • Anti-Racism Toolkit This toolkit from Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families offers resources on understanding race, racial identity development, being actively anti-racist, and for use at school. Explore the toolkit 
      • Adoptee Voices/Adoptee Identity This collection of articles from Pact explores adoptee identity, with a special focus on adoptees of color. Read the articles

Multimedia 

      • UCLA Asian American Studies Center 50th Anniversary Film Festival This program highlights films that address various issues facing AAPI communities, from immigration and xenophobia to mental health and self-care. Browse the program 
      • Inside Transracial Adoption This video podcast series explores the good, hard, and complicated moments of transracial adoption through the lens of an adult adoptee and his adoptive mother. View the trailer 

Courses and Trainings 

  • NCFA Webinars Navigating Anti-Asian Racism: Tools for the Adoption Community ▪ In this free recorded webinar from NCFA, four adult Asian adoptees share from their lived experiences to address how anti-Asian racism has and continues to impact the adoption community, and specifically Asian American adoptees. Adopted individuals are supported in their own experiences of racism and provided with strategies for self-care. The panel also discusses how adoptive parents can best support their children and help them in processing the racism they experience. View the webinar (link for parents) 
  • Navigating Race and Adoption Discussions with Children ▪ This on-demand webinar from NCFA addresses issues of race and racism, especially in the context of transracial adoption. The speaker provides tips on how to talk with children and parents about race and adoption. Purchase the webinar (link for parents) (Please note: This resource is not free.)

Other Webinars Beneath the Mask:

  • Teens and Young Adults Share Their Stories ▪ This C.A.S.E. on-demand webinar explores key areas of vulnerability in the adoption experience through an overview and moderated panel discussion of teen and young adult adoptees. Watch the trailer and purchase the webinar (Please note: This resource is not free.) 
  • Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens ▪ This C.A.S.E. on-demand webinar highlights the extra layer of challenges adoption can add to the normal developmental tasks adolescents must accomplish, discusses potential impacts on behavior and mental health, and provides parents with knowledge to understand and parent their teens through their complex journey. Watch the trailer and purchase the webinar (Please note: This resource is not free.) 
  • The Hierarchy of Racial and Cultural Needs of Transracial Adoptees & Fosterees ▪ This two-part recorded webinar from Raise the Future guides participants through the nuanced aspects of raising a child of color in a multiracial family. 
  • Transracial Adoption and the Black Lives Matter Movement ▪ In this webinar from Spaulding for Children, panelists with lived experience discuss how the Black Lives Matters impacts Black and Brown adoptees raised in White families in America. Watch the video 

Other Trainings

  • C.A.S.E. Education Resources for Professionals ▪ This page informs professionals about a variety training opportunities available through the Center for Adoption Support and Education, from the National Training Institute to W.I.S.E. Up!® Train the Trainer to local and online offerings. Explore the offerings 
  • Families Rising Training on Transracial Parenting ▪ Families Rising offers transracial parenting training for parent groups and agencies to inform and support adoptive parents about the issues of race and culture involved in foster care and adoption. Learn more about hosting a training event or workshop 

Other Organizations