Books For Kids
Feelings
The Way I Feel by Janan Cain
The Color Monster by Anna Llenas
In My Heart by Jo Witek
Anh’s Anger by Gail Silver
Moody Cow Meditates by Kerry MacLean
Adoption
A Place in My Heart by Mary Grossnickle – Using animal characters, this book describes adoption, how the adopted character feels about looking different than his adoptive family, and validates the character’s feelings of being curious about his birth family. There is a place in his heart for his birth family and his adoptive family.
The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman – This is a great inclusive representation of all types of families.
Foster care
Maybe Days by Jennifer Wilgocki and Marcia Kahn Wright
Kids Need to Be Safe by Julie Nelson
Families Change by Julie Nelson
Preteens
The Care and Keeping of You by Valorie Schaefer – If you have a preteen girl who is starting to go through puberty, then this is the book you need! It explains all of the bodily changes girls experience in a way that they can understand.
Guy Stuff: The Body Book for Boys by Cara Natterson - If you have a preteen boy who is starting to go through puberty, then this is the book you need! It explains all of the bodily changes boys experience in a way that they can understand.
A Smart Girl’s Guide: Friendship Troubles: Dealing with fights, being left out, & the whole popularity thing by Patti Kelley Criswell
Grief and Loss
The Invisible String by Patrice Karst and Joanne Lew-Vriethoff – This is a great book for any type of loss: death of a loved one or pet, foster care, adoption, someone moving away, family in the military, etc. It discusses how we are all connected to the people we care about through an invisible string that can reach anywhere.
Books For Parents
What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey
This is a great, easy to understand, book written in a conversation style that helps to explain how childhood trauma affects the brain. Learning the “why” behind behaviors for someone who has experienced trauma can help us develop and show more empathy towards the person exhibiting those, often difficult, behaviors.
Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control by Heather T. Forbes
Have you ever wondered why consequences don’t seem to be helping when it comes to discipline with a child who has experienced trauma? There is a reason for that! This book dives into some of the biggest trauma response behaviors that parents struggle to respond to and gives a different perspective of how to view and how to respond to those behaviors.
The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis
Karyn Purvis was a wonderful advocate for adopted children and created the very popular therapy model, Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). In this book, she shares information about how children are affected by trauma and how parents can respond with empathy to support attachment and the parent child relationship.
How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
How to Talk so Teens Will Listen and Listen so Teens Will Talk
These two books, both with the same concept but written differently for parents of young children versus parents with teens, contain easily understood and practical tips for parenting at these different stages.
The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
This book is written by a neuroscientist and parenting expert to explain the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures.
Websites
Center or Adoption Support and Education (CASE) – www.adoptionsupport.org
Adoption Support Alliance (local to Charlotte) – www.adoptionsupportalliance.org
Foster Village Charlotte – www.fostervillagecharlotte.org
Additude Mag (for resources related to ADHD) – www.additudemag.com