Is it just me or does 2024 seem to be showing itself as the year of adoption books? Adoptee, adoptive parent, and first mother memoirs, collective anthologies, and research-based critical analysis by experts outside our community, abound. Collectively, they strive to beat back the long-established win-win adoption narrative, which continues to delude society and drive the for-profit adoption industry. 

I am so proud to be part of the advocacy and community that joins forces to ensure our truth is heard. Together, these efforts will pay off in time. These books will reach unsuspecting adoptees, those still unaware of the trauma that haunts them; young mothers at the precipice of life-changing decisions; prospective adoptive parents duped by falsities, blinded by desire, unaware of the harsh reality of adoption (even the open ones) that awaits them. 

While this year has ushered in too many great books to name in one article, I chose to highlight six adoption books recently released, and which I recommend for your spring reading. These books include To Be Real by Anne Heffron, I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir by Susan Kiyo Ito, Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies by Sara Easterly, Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, and Lori Holden, The Branches We Cherish, by Linda R. Sexton, Practically Still a Virgin by Monica Hall, and the deeply researched and thought-provoking Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson.

To Be Real, by Anne Heffron and Friends

In To Be Real, Anne Heffron provides a many-voiced picture of adoption. With the help of fellow adoptees Hannah Andrews, Dawn Conwell Mulkay, Leah E. Cooper, Brad Ewell, Shelley Gaske, Sharon Stein McNamara, Andrew Glynn, Tonni Johnston, Kathleen Shea Kirstein, Elisa Nickerson, Kristen Steinhilber, Kimberly Van Den Hoek, and other special guests, To Be Real lifts up the voices of the community as they share personal stories of self-discovery.

The work is a collection of stories, written by students who attended Anne’s year-long writing online writing course for adopted people. The one-year-long class meets weekly. To learn more, visit her website. Anne also authored “Truth and Agency, Writing Ideas for People Who Were Adopted.“

I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir, by Susan Kiyo Ito

Susan Kiyo Ito’s I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir is a poignant and beautifully crafted narrative that explores the author’s experiences as a trans-racial adoptee. Growing up with adoptive Nisei parents, Ito knew only that her birth mother was Japanese American and her father was white. Finding and meeting her birth mother in her early 20s was only the beginning of her search for answers, history, and identity. Ito does a masterful job of demonstrating the difficulty of managing expectations around reunion and the longing to be accepted by her newfound first mother. “I Would Meet You Anywhere” is a stirring account of love, what it’s like to feel neither here nor there, and Ito’s quest for the missing pieces that might make her feel whole.

Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies, by Sara Easterly, Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, and Lori Holden

Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies, authored by Sara Easterly (adoptee), Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard (birth parent), and Lori Holden (adoptive parent), reveals the candid thoughts and feelings of those most directly involved in adoptions. The authors interview dozens of adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, social workers, therapists, and other allies, all sharing candidly about the challenges in adoption. 

The Branches We Cherish, by Linda R. Sexton

The Branches We Cherish by Linda R. Sexton weaves together thought-provoking and poignant reflections of four birth parents, birth grandmothers, adoptive parents, and two adopted children. It follows the story of Linda and David, who decide to adopt a baby under an open arrangement, where the biological parents and the adoptive family know each other’s identities and choose to remain in contact after the adoption is finalized. The book explores the questions and challenges that arise in open adoption, such as visitation, the role of birth parents, and the feelings of adopted children about this arrangement.

Practically Still a Virgin, by Monica Hall

Practically Still a Virgin  is the riveting memoir of a fifteen-year-old adoptee’s rape —and the pregnancy that changed her life. Overwhelmed by guilt and shame when the unthinkable happens, Hall is forced to make impossible choices. Will she keep her rapist’s identity a secret and defy her parents when they demand to know who fathered her baby? Will Hall, an adoptee herself, crumble under pressure and relinquish her only known blood relative for adoption? Will she ever feel the sense of belonging she craves by reuniting with the mother who gave her away? 

Hall shares her troubled youth with candor and compassion for herself and everyone around her. Her story will resonate with anyone who knows loss, secrets, and family dysfunction.  Practically Still a Virgin is both harrowing and heart-warming—a must-read for any reader who enjoys honest and vulnerable stories of survival, courage, wisdom, and love. 

Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, by Gretchen Sisson

Gretchen Sisson’s Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood adds a crucial sociopolitical dimension to the conversation. Based on a decade-long study, Sisson examines the complex interplay between adoption, privilege, and the ideals of American motherhood, shedding light on the broader cultural and systemic factors that shape the adoption landscape. As the Washington Post notes, “Sisson vividly renders a world where children are treated like consumer products and shifted around ‘for the benefit of others’ family-making desires and a lucrative industry.'”

The book also explores the grief and constrained choices of American mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption, revealing how adoption is often an individual, private solution to a large-scale, social problem.

I urge you to pick up one or all of these valuable books, especially if you are seeking a deeper understanding of the impact of adoption on yourself or a loved one. By sharing their stories and insights, these authors contribute to a broader conversation, help break down stigmas, foster empathy, and critically examine the larger societal structures that influence today’s 30-billion-dollar adoption industry.