Books About Adoption, Waiting, and the Many Ways Families Are Formed
For National Adoption Month, we’ve chosen three books that invite different conversations about family. A picture book gives children a way to talk about belonging. A memoir makes space for difficult questions about foster care and adoption. A personal account of infertility and miscarriage offers companionship to readers living with grief and uncertainty. Each is a place to begin, depending on the conversation you want to have.
Little Sprout Says Yes! by Jennifer E. Tirrell
Little Sprout has a hard time watching his siblings get chosen while he waits for a home of his own. He tries to stand out, and his antics give young readers plenty to laugh about. Children may also recognize what’s underneath all that effort. Little Sprout wants to know there’s a place for him.
Inspired by a real one-horned goat, this picture book gives families a simple way to talk about belonging. After reading it together, you might ask, “When did Little Sprout start to feel at home?”
The Glider by Linda Summerford
When a sister they never knew comes into their lives, Linda Summerford and her siblings begin looking for answers about why they were separated. The search takes them back through a childhood marked by abuse and through the foster care and adoption systems that were supposed to protect them.
Summerford’s memoir brings an adult adoptee’s perspective to the reading list. Her search for answers invites readers to consider what children need from the systems entrusted with their care and what questions they may carry about their own histories long after childhood.
Barren by Heather LaVigne
In Barren: A Shared Journey of Infertility, Loss, and Faith, Heather LaVigne writes about her own experience with infertility and miscarriage. She reflects on women in Scripture, including Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah, as she makes room for the grief and questions that can accompany the hope of having a child.
This third selection belongs alongside the adoption stories as related reading on waiting and loss. LaVigne gives readers space to grieve the family they had imagined and to bring that grief into their life of faith.
