Book Corner – May 2025
Chester Keene Cracks the Code by Kekla Magoon Grades 3-7 Chester Keene’s mom is always worrying about him, so Chester tries his best to hide bad things from her. When a bully gives him a black eye, Chester tells his mom he ran into something. Chester really needs someone to talk to. His father left when Chester was a baby, but presents arrive every birthday and Christmas. When Chester finds an email address in one of the packages, he is read more
Book Corner – April 2025, Becoming Vanessa
Becoming Vanessa by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Ages 3-6 During a month that we focus on the significance of names for transracial adoptees, Becoming Vanessa, by Vanessa Brantley-Newton feels like a relevant recommendation. Vanessa wants to feel special on her first day of school, but everything goes wrong. The outfit she picked is too fancy, and her name has too many letters. She shares her sad feelings with her parents, who help her discover how special her name is – and how read more
Book Corner – March 2025
Blended by Sharon Draper Grades 4-7 Told from the perspective of an 11 year old, whose parents are divorced, Izzy / Isabella relays her experiences being shuttled between both parents’ homes (she can’t call either house her home). Her mother is white and her father is Black and not much is ever said to her about being two different races until a racist event (targeted at her close friend) happens at school. Suddenly, Izzy is forced to “check the box” read more
Book Corner – February 2025
All Ways Black Cree Myles, Curator of All Ways Black Instead of one book and author this month, we’re sharing a robust resource from Penguin Random House. All Ways Black is a year-round celebration of Black authors and stories, a place to honor the depth and breadth of experiences around what it means to be Black. This is a community dedicated to Black literature – reading, sharing, living, and loving it. All Ways Black aims to help you discover incredible read more
Book Corner – January 2025
Somewhere Sisters: a Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family by Erika Hayasaki Ages: Adult Vietnamese twins Loan and Ha were separated when they were babies. Ha was raised by her aunt in a loving home in rural Vietnam. Loan was adopted, renamed Isabella, and grew up in a loving home in a Chicago suburb. Isabella’s American family weren’t told their daughter was a twin, and when they found out, Isabella’s mom started to search for Ha. After read more
Making and Breaking Traditions:
As the year draws to a close, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the traditions we hold dear and consider how we shape new ones to honor the diversity within our families. This month, we are thrilled to share our 2024-2025 Bibliography for the Giving Season and All Year Long, a curated collection of books that celebrate stories of identity, culture, and connection. This guide is a testament to the power of books in fostering understanding, self-discovery, and belonging for read more
Book Corner – August 2024
Reviewed by Bear Howe, TRJ white adoptive parent The Connected Parent by Karyn Purvis, Lisa Qualls and Emmelie Pickett Adult Nonfiction The Connected parent offers a framework for parenting called Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). TBRI is an attachment-based and trauma-informed approach designed to support the complex needs of children with histories of trauma. This framework focuses on three core principles: empowerment, connection and correction, and first asks parents do their own inner work of healing and introspective processing in order read more
Book Corner – July 2024
By Becca Howe, TRJ Parent Book Corner – Brooke Randolph: It’s Not About You Understanding Adoptee Search, Reunion, & Open Adoption It’s Not About You: Understanding Adoptee Search, Reunion, & Open Adoption is a book written for adoptive and birth parents and their therapists. After repetitive conversations with adopted persons (and sometimes their parents) about reactions to their search and reunion, Brooke knew adoptive and parents of origin needed a book on the topic. Brooke is a therapist, author, speaker, trainer and read more
Book Corner – June 2024
By Kristen Perry, transracial adoptive parent and professor of literacy education Max and the Tag-Along Moon, by Floyd Cooper Floyd Cooper’s picture book, Max and the Tag-Along Moon, is the perfect story to celebrate all the fathers, grandfathers, and other father-figures in our children’s lives. It is a wonderful ode to the love between a grandfather and grandson and to the things that connect us to each other, even across distances. In this sweet story, Max is sad to be read more
Book Corner – May 2024
Reviewed by Rebecca Howe Monstrous, by Sarah Myer Monstrous is a young adult graphic novel memoir written and illustrated by nonbinary comic artist and transracial adoptee Sarah Myer. The story is about Myer's childhood years in the 1990s and early 2000s in rural Maryland, taking us from an imaginative and emotionally explosive early childhood, through an adolescence rife with bullying, racism, homophobia, ableism, mental health struggles and the protagonist's reckoning with identity, how to stick up for themselves, take responsibility read more