The wonderful team at Arise Cape Town update this Library List every year ahead of the Arise Adoption Conference & have given me permission to share it with you here. It’s a list of recommended reading for parents thinking about adoption as well as those who have already adopted. I’m slowly working my way through this list!

Title Author
Category: PARENTING GENERAL
50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do) Tulley and Spiegler
Grace Based Parenting Kimmel
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk Faber and Mazlish
Playful Parenting Cohen
Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids Payne and Ross
The 5 Love Languages of Children Chapman
The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind Siegel & Bryson
Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys James and Thomas
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children Bronson & Merryman
Sacred Parenting Thomas
Category: ADOPTIVE PARENTING
Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches Moore & Mahaney
Adopters on Adoption: Reflections on parenthood and children Howe
Adoption Conversations Renee Wolf
Attaching through love, hugs and play Gray
Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents Gray
Contact in Permanent Placement: Guidance for local authorities in England & Wales and Scotland British Association for Adoption and Fostering
Flying Solo: A single parent’s adoption story Wise
Helping Your Adopted Child: Understanding Your Child’s Unique Identity Tripp
Why can’t my child behave? Empathic parenting strategies that work for adoptive and foster families Elliott
Managing Difficult Behaviour: An handbook for foster carers of the under 12s British Association for Adoption and Fostering
Our Own: Adopting and Parenting the Older Child Maskew
Parenting the Hurt Child: Helping Adoptive Families Heal and Grow Keck and Kupecky
Adopting the Hurt Child Keck and Kupecky
Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living through the Rediscovery of Abba Father, Cruver & more
Talking About Adoption (2012) Morrison
Talking About Adoption to Your Adopted Child (2007) Marjorie Morrison
Talking with Young Children about Adoption Watkins and Fisher,
The Primal Wound Verrier
Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew Eldridge
We are Fostering British Association for Adoption and Fostering
What to Expect When You’re Adopting Palmer
Category: AUTO/BIOGRAPHY OF AN ADOPTEE
Hope in a ballet shoe De Prince