Born In My Heart: 20 Mighty Girl Books for National Adoption Day

A Crazy-Much Love

How much do these parents love their child? A crazy-much love! In this story, they recount the challenge of waiting to meet the special child who will join their family, and the incredible joys that came when they were finally together. And with every new milestone, from the first bath to the first day at school, that crazy-much love has only gotten stronger. Joy Jordan-Lake's lyrical text and Sonia Sánchez's colorful illustrations are as warm as the loving home that this little girl enjoys.

Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born

A busy little girl gets ready for bedtime by asking her parents for the story of how she was born, including an account of Mom and Dad rushing off to a hospital to meet the daughter are adopting! Based on author Jamie Lee Curtis’ family's adoption experience, this story captures the excitement and nerves of parents adopting an infant, and includes a dollop of the challenges that face every first-time parent: the first diaper change, the first bottle, and even worrying about the baby catching a cold. The message that the birth story of an adoptive family is important and special is sure to make you and your daughter smile.

A Most Unusual Day

Caroline is very distracted today! She oversleeps, she forgets to put on socks or grab her lunch box, and even though she tries to help the teacher as usual, she just makes a big mess. But the reason for her distraction becomes clear when school is over: she rushes outside to greet her parents, who have just returned from "far, far away" with Caroline's new baby sister! And when she sees the baby, everything ordinary seems "unusually new and perfectly right." Although it's easy to infer this is an adoption story, it's not explicitly mentioned in the text, making this warm and loving book an excellent choice for anyone eagerly waiting for a new sibling.

Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale

Karen Katz combines her vivid, colorful illustrations with her own family's adoption story in this lovely book about a South American adoption. These expectant parents, who have to tell everyone they know over and over that the baby is coming “very soon,” make a fun parallel to the uncertainty of waiting for labor in other birth stories. This book touches on the reasons that the biological parent has to choose to put her baby up for adoption, and also references foster parents who cared for the little girl until her mother and father arrived. It ends with the most important promise in any adoption: “forever and always.” Its simple language and bright colors will make this a favorite with your children.

The Family Tree

Ada's teacher has a new assignment for the class: a family tree! But when Ada tries to fit her family on the tree, things don't work out. She's adopted, so where does she put her birth mother? What about her sister, who has different adoptive parents? Where do other people among her extended family and friends go — the divorced parents, the children born through IVF or surrogacy, the same-sex couples and other foster and adoptive kids like her? But with the help of her supportive family and friends, Ada comes up with a clever solution: her wide, loving family isn't a tree... it's a big, beautiful landscape! This sweet and inclusive picture book will help kids see family in a new way — and remind them that, whatever their family looks like, it's a beautiful picture to share.

The Year of the Baby

Anna Wang is thrilled when her parents adopt a baby girl from China, and she's ready to be the best big sister she can be. But while Anna thinks her sister is fine, her parents and their doctor are worried because she doesn't seem to want to eat. The lightbulb moment comes when Anna's friend Camille distracts her with a song and gets a few bites of baby food in. Soon Anna and her friends are conducting a science experiment using both Chinese and American songs (with silent meals as a control, of course.) This sweet story of a devoted sister who's ready to use the scientific method to help ease her adopted sister's transition includes a pronunciation guide for several Chinese phrases, plus a recipe for Grandma's bao zi.

Bo at Ballard Creek

Jack is a camp cook and Arvid is a blacksmith in an Alaskan mining community in 1924; they're the last people you could imagine taking in an orphaned girl. And yet, when a baby is about to be sent to an orphanage, the two men adopt Bo and raise her as their own — with plenty of help from neighbors like Big Annie (and her sled dogs) and Milo who runs the Roadhouse. Bo's life roaming the countryside, helping pan for gold, and pitching in with the work of a mining camp may be a bit different from what she might have done if she'd gone to the orphanage... but no one in her immediate or extended adoptive family would have it any other way! This lively and fun story is sure to be a hit with middle-grade readers.

Forever, or a Long, Long Time

After years bouncing between foster homes — so many that they can't remember where they came from — Flora and her brother Julian have been adopted by Emily. But after so many placements gone wrong, Flora has a hard time believing in forever. Flora isn't ready to use the word mother, instead thinking of Emily as her Person, and every time something goes wrong — like when Julian hoards food or Flora struggles in fourth grade — she's afraid that they'll be sent to yet another home. So Emily decides to take the siblings on a quest to find where they began... and hopefully reassure them that this family really can be forever. Carter gently but honestly reveals the trauma that lingers in kids who have struggled in the foster care system, while still striking an optimistic tone that all children can eventually find their Person.

Paper Chains

Katie and Ana are the kind of friends who share everything with each other. But there are some things you can't even share with your best friend. Katie has always known she was adopted, but recently she's been wondering about her birth parents and her birthplace in Russia. And, she worries that admitting this might mess up the perfect family she has now.  Meanwhile, Ana's family is falling apart after her father suddenly leaves. When Ana's Babushka arrives, she resents her imperious ways and unfamiliar foods — and Katie's quick connection with her. Misunderstandings start building, and soon the friendship between the girls becomes strained. Before they lose each other, they must work through the tangles of secrets to the shining truth underneath: friendship, just like family, is worth fighting for.

The Length of a String

Imani can't figure out how to tell her parents what she really wants as a bat mitzvah gift: to learn more about her birth parents. She adores her family, but as the only black person in her family and community, she feels out of place and wonders where she came from. Then she discovers her great-grandma Anna's old journal — a diary from 1941, when then 12-year-old Anna fled Nazi-occupied Luxembourg, alone, for Brooklyn, New York. As Imani reads the diary, she develops a new perspective on family — one that helps her understand what she really needs to know about her past. Thoughtful and full of heart, this story celebrates the many things other than blood that connect people.

Counting by 7s

Willow is an eccentric genius of a child, but her accepting adoptive parents have always given her space to be whoever she is — even when she's talking about rare skin conditions or focusing on multiples of seven. In fact, her parents are pretty well the only people she engages with at all. But when they are killed in a car crash, Willow's life is turned upside down. She begins to fear that her only choice will be life in a group home, where her idiosyncrasies and brilliance will be considered disadvantages, not traits to be admired and understood. However, when her sort-of-friend Mai's mother takes Willow in, she begins to see a possibility of connecting to more people in the world. Can Willow find family once again? Complex and appealing characters make this book a unique testament to the power of very different people to come together as a family.

The Adopted Teen Workbook

Develop Confidence, Strength, and Resilience on the Path to Adulthood

For some adopted teens, questions about identity and birth family cause struggles with feelings of isolation and abandonment — and they may feel like they have to work through those feeling on their own. This workbook from the Instant Help Solutions series provides them with healthy, confidence-building ways to work through those feelings instead. The compassionate advice in this book, which draws on the experiences of many other adopted teens, will help readers feel more connected with themselves and others, and give them the resilience and strength they need to thrive on their steps towards adulthood.

The How and the Why

18-year-old Cassandra adores her adoptive parents, but she still has questions about her birth mother, who placed her for adoption at 6 weeks old. Her parents can't answer her questions, and Cassandra doesn't want to worry her mother, who is in need of a heart transplant. Then she and her best friend Nyla, an adopted orphan from Liberia, discover a stack of letters from "S," Cass' birth mother. In dual narratives — one in Cass' voice, one through S' letters — this story unveils the story of adoption from both perspectives. Inspired by bestselling author Cynthia Hand's own search for her biological mother, this is a poignant and heartfelt tale about identity and family.

If Only

16-year-old Bridget never imagined being pregnant and alone, but she has to make the difficult decision of who should parent her soon-to-be child. Sixteen years later, Ivy decides to go looking for the birth mother she never knew, but she's afraid that she'll alienate her loving adoptive moms, and of finding out the reason that Bridget walked away. Interspersed between their stories are chapters depicting what could have been, and as Ivy searches for her biological mom, she realizes that who she is hinged on choices too numerous to count. This thoughtful novel explores difficult questions around unplanned pregnancy, adoption, and identity in a realistic and sympathetic way.