I am frequently asked about good books about adoption. 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 than their personal “adoption journey.”

This is an admittedly biased list of recommendations. There are many more adoption books out there than what I’ve listed here. 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 if they are listed here then they all have given me a lot of fodder for further exploration.

Please contact me at harlowmonkey at gmail dot com if you have suggestions for other resources or would like me to review your book. However I won’t promise a good review or a recommendation, and I will provide my honest, critical review so be forewarned.

Happy reading!

Search and Reunion

Understanding Birth Parent Perspectives

Raising Children of Color

Documentary Films

• Adopt Me, Michael Jordan
• Adopted
• Approved for Adoption
• Calcutta Calling
• China’s Lost Girls
• Crossing Chasms
• Daughter From Danang
• First Person Plural
• Found in China
• In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee
• Las Hijas
• Long Wait for Home
• Made In Korea: A One-way-ticket Seoul-Amsterdam
• Off and Running
• Operation Babylift
• Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America
• Passing Through
• PRECIOUS CARGO
• Resilience
• Struggle For Identity
• The Triumvirate