Start Here

Join me on Facebook and Twitter

Adoptee/Fosteree Memoirs & Books

Adoptee Organizations

Transracial Adoptee Blogs

Transracial and International Adoptee Web Pages

Other books by TRAs

Stats


« New book written by Korean birth mothers | Main | New memoir by an adoptee »

March 28, 2010

Books and Films about Adoption

Although I am not updating this blog regularly for now, I am frequently asked about good books about adoption, so I thought I would leave this post up as the main page.

This page lists the books and films I have read or viewed that have informed or influenced me in some way. These books range from academic to popular press and are heavily biased towards the adoptee perspective. What you will not find here (for the most part) are adoptive parent memoirs or "how to adopt" books. If adoptive parents have authored some of these books listed here, then I have found something more substantive in their pages that go beyond their personal "adoption journey."

If you are an adoptee and are looking for resources for your own journey, these books and films could be a good place to begin. I don't agree with all of the positions and opinions expressed in these books, but I do think they all have given me a lot of fodder for further exploration.

New books come out all the time, so I will be adding to this page as I read books. Again, I have read the majority of these are books but not all, and this list certainly does not encompass the very large selection of books on adoption.

Please contact me at harlowmonkey at gmail dot com if you have suggestions for other resources.


Adoption - General

Adoption Books - Transracial and Transnational

  • : The Ethics of Transracial Adoption by Hawley Fogg-Davis

The Ethics of Transracial Adoption by Hawley Fogg-Davis

  • : West Meets East: Americans Adopt Chinese Children by Richard Tessler

West Meets East: Americans Adopt Chinese Children by Richard Tessler


Understanding Adoption and Foster Care Issues


Adoptee and Foster Care Memoirs


Adoptee Anthologies

 

Search and Reunion

Understanding Birth Parent Perspectives

Raising Children of Color

 

Children's Books

Documentary Films

 

Other books by TRAs

March 28, 2010 |

Comments

Thank you for this incredible list of resources!!

Posted by: Paula O. | March 28, 2010 at 08:31 PM

This is incredible. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together.

Posted by: Faith | March 28, 2010 at 10:02 PM

Thanks so much.

Posted by: Jeremy Hulley | March 29, 2010 at 11:21 AM

you might want to include this bbc documentary:

Finding Leticia
Category: Documentaries
A young orphan discovers that her natural father is still alive in El Salvador and that she was the victim of a U.S.-backed program in which thousands of children were abducted to prevent left-wing activism.

Posted by: Andrea | March 29, 2010 at 11:28 AM

Very helpful. Thank you!

Posted by: yoonsblur | March 29, 2010 at 02:13 PM

Andrea, do you have a link for Finding Leticia? I did a search engine search and couldn't find it.

Posted by: Jae Ran | March 29, 2010 at 05:02 PM

Great list. Can I add one more film:
Secrets and Lies: a great 1996 film by Mike Leigh. Deatiols at-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_&_Lies_%28film%29

Posted by: Brick | March 31, 2010 at 04:44 AM

Just wanted to let you know I've linked to this post on my blog post (publishing tomorrow)! :) Thanks for the awesome resources.

Posted by: Socialwrkr24/7 | April 02, 2010 at 12:31 AM

And this great list is one of many reasons I give you a special nod in both my books. :) Thanks as always. :)

Posted by: Bryan | April 02, 2010 at 12:38 AM

Thanks Bryan and 24/7!

Bryan, let me know if you have a good link for your books -

Brick, thanks for your suggestion. There are lots of awesome movies about adoption, my list is limited to documentaries.


JR

Posted by: Jae Ran | April 02, 2010 at 06:47 PM

Here's another book you might want to add:

Babies without Borders: Adoption and Migration across the Americas

There have been several recent interviews with the author, who brings a very rational wide-angle view to the subject of international adoption.

Posted by: kantmakm | April 06, 2010 at 03:45 PM

This is such a great list - thanks!

I don't think I see it on the list, so in case you've never discovered it, I really like "The Adoption Papers" by Jackie Kay. She is a Scottish poet and playwright, and this is an autobiographical piece. She is black and was adopted by two white Scottish parents, and tells her story through the perspective of child/adoptive mother/birthmother. It is beautifully written, unsentimental and very poignant.

I also really liked Regina Louise's memoir Somebody's Someone - about growing up in the fostercare system and her decision to be adopted as an adult.

While not a documentary, I also thought the movie Lovely and Amazing was an honest portrayal of some of the issues of transracial adoption.

Looking forward to watching the films you've listed here.

Posted by: Kristen Howerton | April 07, 2010 at 02:02 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/992119.stm

is a description of Finding Leticia but I can't find a distributor for the BBC film.

Another documentary is PBS' Discovering Dominga, about a survivor of the Rio Negro massacre in Guatemala who was adopted as an older child to the U.S. This documentary is interesting because of the interplay between U.S. role in the war, Dominga/Denese's very shattered memories of her childhood and her struggle with her identity as a Maya/Guatemalan/American. It's a really, really complicated and heartrending story. I just screened it in a migration lit. class for my students and they thought it was one of the saddest things they'd seen (and they've seen a lot of documentaries about massacres).

http://www.pbs.org/pov/discoveringdominga/

Posted by: andrea | March 24, 2011 at 01:09 PM

interested to know what you think about the Dubinsky book (Babies w/o borders)...I found it really problematic, in the same way that the film _Goodbye Baby_ (Pat Goudvis) was. Weaknesses with both are the author/director's 1) poor Spanish skills, which IMO keeps them from understanding what their interviewees are telling them 2) very naive grasp of Guatemalan politics (for example, neither understand how DNA tests were falsified for Guatemalan adoptions) and 3) unquestioned ideology. The Dubinsky book repeats ad nauseum the caveat that her son's adoption wasn't affected by corruption and both the book and the film stop short of really examining the power/$ differential between North and South that made the adoption of their children possible.

Posted by: andrea | May 11, 2011 at 05:12 PM

What a great post with great info. Thanks for taking the time to build this out.

http://www.adoptioniguide.com

Posted by: Chazelban.blogspot.com | December 09, 2011 at 10:12 PM

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by:  | 

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

My Photo

Harlow's Monkey

  • I am a social worker who doesn’t believe that social work is just about "saving" people or "helping" people. Social work is about reform and empowerment, not about social control. I am attempting to be an agent of change from within the institutional structures that historically have been used to discriminate against those our society does not value. This blog was born in March of 2006 as a way to put down my thoughts about international and transracial adoption, foster care, race and social work from a point of view that is often missing - the adoptee themselves.

Copyright

  • © 2006-2010. This content on this web site is copyrighted. Content may not be republished, reprinted or repurposed without permission. Short excerpts and links are encouraged, but for permission to quote an entire post, please email me at the link above.

Personal reflections about my adoptive experience

Thoughts about transracial transnational adoption

More thoughts about adoption

Reflections about Race

Reflections about Social Work and Child Welfare

Important Topics in adoption

Ethics, Advocacy and Support

Archives

More...