8 Books About Adoption and Foster Care for Kids

A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza is about a small bird who goes looking for his mother. He asks the giraffe, the penguin, the walrus. none of them look like him. Then Mrs. Bear finds him crying and does all the things a mother does: hugs him, kisses him, sings and dances with him. "You don't look like me," Choco says. "No," says Mrs. Bear, who already has a pig, an alligator, and a hippo at home. For children ages 2-5, this is the gentlest possible introduction to the idea that families don't have to look alike.

We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families by Todd Parr uses Todd Parr's signature bold colors and simple text to say the most important things as directly as possible: "We belong together because you needed a home and I had one to share." "We belong together because I was lonely and then I found you." Todd Parr doesn't explain adoption. He celebrates it. For the very youngest kids (ages 2-5) and for families who want a book that feels like a hug, not a lesson.

The Star by Corrinne Averiss is about a girl who carries a star with her. a glowing, warm thing that represents her birth family, her first home, the life she had before. When she joins her new family, the star flickers. It doesn't go away. She learns to carry both: the star from before and the love she's building now. This is one of the few picture books that acknowledges grief as a permanent part of adoption, not something a child "gets over." Illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman in soft, glowing watercolors.

Forever Fingerprints: An Amazing Discovery for Adopted Children by Sherrie Eldridge addresses the specific question that adopted children often carry silently: "Why didn't my birth mother keep me?" The story uses fingerprints as a metaphor for the unique connection between a child and their birth mother. a mark that stays even when the person is gone. This is for children who are old enough to think about their birth parents and need language for the feelings that come with it.

Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne Lang and Max Lang uses animal families to show every kind of family: big families, small families, single-parent families, two-mom families, two-dad families, adopted families, blended families. The message. "if you love each other, then you are a family". is delivered with humor and zero heaviness. This is a good book for classrooms where some children were adopted and others weren't, because it normalizes family diversity without making any one structure the focus.