Network of Politicized Adoptees (NPA) Recommended Book List
NPA assessed current mainstream library book access to adoption-related books and discovered a lack of critical viewpoints and adoptee voices, and an overwhelming adoptee parent perspective. To counter this, NPA compiled a recommended book list to offer a more politicized and alternative knowledge base against the mainstream narrative of adoption. Our hope is to encourage a deeper understanding of the complexities of adoption.
Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging (2010) by Eleana Kim
Adoption Healing...a Path to Recovery (2000) by Joe Soll
Adoption Therapy: Perspectives from Clients and Clinicians on Processing and Healing Post-Adoption (2014) edited by Laura Dennis
Adoptionland (2014) by Janine Myung Ja
Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self (1993) by David M. Brodzinsky, Marshall D. Schecter, Robin Marantz Henig
Beyond Good Intentions (2005) by Cheri Register
Birth Mothers and Transnational Adoption Practice in South Korea (2016) by Hosu Kim
The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel (2013) by Kathryn Joyce
Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America (2011) by Mia Tuan and Jiannbin Lee Shiao
Here: A Visual History of Adopted Koreans in Minnesota (2010) by Kim Jackson and Heewon Lee
Coming Home to Self: The Adopted Child Grows Up (2003) by Nancy Newton Verrier
Dreaming a World: Korean Birth Mothers Tell Their Stories (2010) edited by Sangsoon Han
The Family of Adoption (1998) by Joyce Pavao
From Orphan to Adoptee: U.S. Empire and Genealogies of Korean Adoption (2014) by SooJin Pate
Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee’s Return to Korea (2009) by Jane Jeong Trenka
Ghost of Sangju (2015) by Soojung Jo
The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe vs. Wade (2007) by Ann Fessler
The Handbook of Adoption (2006) edited by Amanda Baden
International Korean Adoption: A Fifty-Year History of Policy and Practice (2007) edited by Bergquist, Vonk, Kim and Feit
Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences, and Racial Exceptionalism (2016) by Kim Park Nelson
Journey of the Adopted Self: A Question for Wholeness (1995) by Betty Jean Lifton
The Language of Blood (2003) by Jane Jeong Trenka
Lost & Found: The Adoption Experience (1979) by Betty Jean Lifton
Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption (2006) edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Sun Yung Shin
Paper Pavilion (2007) by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
Parenting as Adoptees (2012) edited by Adam Chau and Kevin Ost-Vollmers
The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child (2003) by Nancy Newton Verrier
Reframing Transracial Adoption: Korean Adoptees, White Parents, and the Politics of Kinship (2012) by Kristi Brian
Rough and Savage (2012) by Sun Yung Shin
Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology By Korean Adoptees (1997) by Jo Rankin
Skirt Full of Black (2006) by Sun Yung Shin
Somebody's Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption (2012) by Laura Briggs
The Translation of Han (2014) by Hei Kyong Kim
This Many Miles from Desire (2007) by Lee Herrick
To Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of International Adoption (2015) by Arissa H. Oh
Transnational Adoption: A Culture of Economy of Race, Gender, and Kinship (2006) by Sara K Dorow
The "Unknown" Culture Club: Korean Adoptees, Then & Now (2015) by Janine Myung Ja
Unbearable Splendor (2016) by Sun Yung Shin
Why be Happy When You Could be Normal? (2011) by Jeanette Winterson
NPA assessed current mainstream library book access to adoption-related books and discovered a lack of critical viewpoints and adoptee voices, and an overwhelming adoptee parent perspective. To counter this, NPA compiled a recommended book list to offer a more politicized and alternative knowledge base against the mainstream narrative of adoption. Our hope is to encourage a deeper understanding of the complexities of adoption.
Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging (2010) by Eleana Kim
Adoption Healing...a Path to Recovery (2000) by Joe Soll
Adoption Therapy: Perspectives from Clients and Clinicians on Processing and Healing Post-Adoption (2014) edited by Laura Dennis
Adoptionland (2014) by Janine Myung Ja
Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self (1993) by David M. Brodzinsky, Marshall D. Schecter, Robin Marantz Henig
Beyond Good Intentions (2005) by Cheri Register
Birth Mothers and Transnational Adoption Practice in South Korea (2016) by Hosu Kim
The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel (2013) by Kathryn Joyce
Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America (2011) by Mia Tuan and Jiannbin Lee Shiao
Here: A Visual History of Adopted Koreans in Minnesota (2010) by Kim Jackson and Heewon Lee
Coming Home to Self: The Adopted Child Grows Up (2003) by Nancy Newton Verrier
Dreaming a World: Korean Birth Mothers Tell Their Stories (2010) edited by Sangsoon Han
The Family of Adoption (1998) by Joyce Pavao
From Orphan to Adoptee: U.S. Empire and Genealogies of Korean Adoption (2014) by SooJin Pate
Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee’s Return to Korea (2009) by Jane Jeong Trenka
Ghost of Sangju (2015) by Soojung Jo
The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe vs. Wade (2007) by Ann Fessler
The Handbook of Adoption (2006) edited by Amanda Baden
International Korean Adoption: A Fifty-Year History of Policy and Practice (2007) edited by Bergquist, Vonk, Kim and Feit
Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences, and Racial Exceptionalism (2016) by Kim Park Nelson
Journey of the Adopted Self: A Question for Wholeness (1995) by Betty Jean Lifton
The Language of Blood (2003) by Jane Jeong Trenka
Lost & Found: The Adoption Experience (1979) by Betty Jean Lifton
Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption (2006) edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Sun Yung Shin
Paper Pavilion (2007) by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
Parenting as Adoptees (2012) edited by Adam Chau and Kevin Ost-Vollmers
The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child (2003) by Nancy Newton Verrier
Reframing Transracial Adoption: Korean Adoptees, White Parents, and the Politics of Kinship (2012) by Kristi Brian
Rough and Savage (2012) by Sun Yung Shin
Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology By Korean Adoptees (1997) by Jo Rankin
Skirt Full of Black (2006) by Sun Yung Shin
Somebody's Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption (2012) by Laura Briggs
The Translation of Han (2014) by Hei Kyong Kim
This Many Miles from Desire (2007) by Lee Herrick
To Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of International Adoption (2015) by Arissa H. Oh
Transnational Adoption: A Culture of Economy of Race, Gender, and Kinship (2006) by Sara K Dorow
The "Unknown" Culture Club: Korean Adoptees, Then & Now (2015) by Janine Myung Ja
Unbearable Splendor (2016) by Sun Yung Shin
Why be Happy When You Could be Normal? (2011) by Jeanette Winterson
