Useful books and leaflets

The Adoption Experience: Families who give children a second chance Ann Morris

Actual adopters tell it like it is on every part of the adoption process from the exciting moment of first deciding to adopt to feelings about children seeking a reunion with their birth families or simply leaving home.

Jessica Kingsley publications for Adoption UK in association with the Daily Telegraph 1999

An Adoption Diary Maria James

Story of one couple’s emotional journey to become a family which gives a fascinating insight into adoption today.

BAAF 2006

Adopting a Child Jenifer Lord

BAAF’s best selling guide describes what adoption means and how to go about it.

BAAF 2006

The Adopter’s Handbook Amy Neil Salter

The purpose of this guide is to help adopters help themselves throughout the adoption process and beyond.

BAAF 2006 (3rd. edition)

Facing up to Facebook – A survival guide for adoptive families Eileen Fursland

This book examines the challenges faced by all parties involved in contact after adoption and looks at how adoptive parents can help children satisfy their curiosity and their need to know while minimising potential risks to their security and stability.

BAAF 2010

Could you be my parent? Adoption & Fostering stories Ed. By Leonie Sturge-Moore

This is a book of stories about children who need a new permanent family and the stories of people who have welcomed them into their home.

BAAF 2005

Adopted Children Speaking Caroline Thomas & Verna Beckford with Nigel Lowe and Mervyn Murch

This book is full of poignant testimonies offering revealing insights into what children and young people think about adoption.

BAAF 1999

Adopters on Adopting: Reflections on parenthood and children David Howe

In this absorbing collection of personal stories, adoptive parents whose children are now young adults describe the importance and distinctiveness of adoptive parenting.

BAAF 1996

Talking about Adoption to your Adopted Child Marjorie Morrison

A guide to the whys, whens and hows of telling children about their origins.

BAAF 2007

Whatever happened to Adam? Stories about disabled children who were adopted or fostered Hedi Argent

This remarkable book tells the stories of twenty young people with disabilities and the families who chose to care for them. Following their life journeys from joining their new families, through childhood and adolescence and into preparation for adulthood, it reveals the tremendous rewards of adopting or fostering a child with disability.

BAAF 1998

Looking after our own – The stories of black and Asian adopters Ed. By Hope Massiah

This collection looks at the experiences of nine adoptive families and their children.

BAAF 2005

Related by Adoption Hedi Argent

This brief handbook aims to give grandparents-to-be and other relatives information about adoption today that will directly affect them. It discusses how the wider family can support building a family through adoption and be involved in both the good and the bad times.

BAAF 2004

Flying Solo – A single parent’s adoption story Julia Wise

This book tells Julia’s very personal story of adopting a child on her own.

BAAF 2007

Special and Odd James Mulholland

In this revealing and extraordinarily witty memoir, the author tells the story of how he met his birth mother 29 years after being given up for adoption and the effect this had on him and his adoptive family.

BAAF 2007

First Steps in Parenting the Child who Hurts: Tiddlers and Toddlers (2nd edition)Caroline Archer

This book offers practical, sensitive guidance from an adoptive parent through the areas of separation, loss and trauma in early childhood which will encourage confidence in other adoptive parents and foster carers and thereby enable enjoyment in parenting young children.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers for Adoption UK 1999

Next Steps in Parenting the Child who Hurts: Tykes and Teens Caroline Archer

This book continues the first book looking at older children.

Jessica Kingsley Publications 1999

Picnic in the Park Joe Griffith

This book introduces children to a range of family structures including two and one parent families; adoptive and foster families; gay and lesbian families and step families.

BAAF 2007

Oh Brother! Tom gets a new adopted brother Claire Friday

Aimed at children aged between 7 & 11 years, Oh Brother! Tells the story of Tom, a 10 year old single birth child, whose parents decide to adopt another child.

Adoption UK 2005

Bridget’s Taking a Long Time CD ROM – A journey through adoption from the perspective of the birth child Nicky Ball with Bridget Betts

This interactive story for children aged 5-12 follows the hopes, fears and frustrations of a child in an adoptive family coming to terms with a new arrival.

Available from BAAF.

Bringing Up Brits Meghan Peterson Fenn

The book for parents from other cultures who are raising children in Britain and addition for family and friends who are touched by this.