50 of the Best Books About Adoption from Foster Care

Whether you’re looking for the perfect books about adoption from foster care for yourself or for others, there is no shortage of titles on the topic. There are stories and resources about all aspects of foster care: transracial placements, trauma, special needs, parenting advice, information about the process itself, relationships with biological family and even just encouraging, enlightening and inspiring books about foster care and adoption.

The following list includes books for children being adopted through foster care, books on fostering and adoption for parents, foster-to-adopt books, memoirs, and books about foster care adoption for anyone interested in learning something new. It’s by no means a comprehensive list of the best books on foster adoption, but hopefully everyone can find something to help them through wherever they’re at in life with at least one of these 50 books on adoption and foster care:

For Those Who Have or Plan to Foster or Adopt through Foster Care

Educational Books about Foster Care Adoption Process and Parenting

These books on adoption and foster parenting are a great place to start if you’re considering becoming a foster or adoptive parent, or if you’re currently raising children who have been in foster care. Here are some of the most popular books on adoption foster parenting for dads and moms:

• The Connected Child
• Adopting the Hurt Child
• Toddler Adoption: The Weaver’s Craft
• Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents
• Parenting the Hurt Child
• Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
• The Adoptive & Foster Parent Guide: How to Heal Your Child’s Trauma and Loss (Volume 1)
• Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control: A Love-Based Approach to Helping Attachment-Challenged Children With Severe Behaviors
• Wounded Children, Healing Homes: How Traumatized Children Impact Adoptive and Foster Families
• The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
• Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child’s Lifestory
• Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past
• 20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed

For Kids in Care and Foster Care Adoptees 

Children’s Books about Adoption and Foster Care

For younger kids, reading children’s books about foster care and adoption with their family can be a good way to work through their own story and feelings. Parents can start conversations, ask questions and reassure their child through story time. Here are just a few of our favorite books about adoption from foster care for children:

• Morris and the Bundle of Worries
• Elliot
• Home at Last
• Adoption Is for Always
• A Mother for Choco
• My New Mom & Me
• Families, Families, Families!
• Welcome Home, Forever Child
• And That’s Why She’s My Mama
• A Family Is a Family Is a Family
• Zachary’s New Home: A Story for Foster and Adopted Children
• A Different Home: A New Foster Child’s Story
• Murphy’s Three Homes: A Story for Children in Foster Care
• Finding the Right Spot: When Kids Can’t Live With Their Parents
• Kids Need to Be Safe: A Book for Children in Foster Care
• Families Change: A Book for Children Experiencing Termination of Parental Rights
• Family Day: Celebrating Ethan’s Adoption Anniversary
• Maybe Days: A Book for Children in Foster Care
• When I Was Little…A Child’s Journey in Overcoming Abuse & Trauma
• SOMETIMES… A Story of Transition For Foster and Adopted Children
• My Foster Care Journey: A fill-in-the-blank lifebook

Books about Foster Care and Adoption for Teens

There are fewer books targeted toward older kids or teens in foster care or who were adopted through foster care. However, the emotional benefits of connecting with books on foster care and adoption can be important for them at this transitional age. Here are a few of the best books on foster adoption to check out:

• Waiting to Forget
• Three Little Words: A Memoir
• Far from the Tree
• The Great Gilly Hopkins
• The War I Finally Won
• Under His Wings: Truths to Heal Adopted, Orphaned, and Waiting Children’s Hearts (Volume 1)
• For When I’m Famous: A fill-in-the-blank teen lifebook

For Anyone Wanting to Read Books about Foster Care Adoption

These books have general themes of fostering or adoption, characters who have foster care experiences, or other relevant ties to foster care. Recommend them to a friend, because everyone could use a little more experience with different types of families and histories — even if that exposure is gained through the page!

Some are fictional and meant to reach people emotionally, others are memoirs or are informative — but all offer valuable perspectives on foster care and adoption. Here are some books on fostering and adoption for anyone to explore:

• To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care
• Hattie’s Advocate: Adopting a Family Through Foster Care
• In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories
• Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption
• Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Forgotten Child
• A Call to Love: Preparing Your Heart and Soul for Adoption
• The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care
• Pictures of Hollis Woods
• One for the Murphys

While we hope this guide includes many books you are excited to add to your reading list, it is by no means comprehensive. There are likely many other wonderful books on foster care and adoption that we may have missed! If you are looking for more foster care adoption books, reach out to your local library, try searching Amazon or browse this list by Creating a Family for additional recommendations.