Resources
How can we help you? Each and every member of London’s adoption community has a different story to tell. The resources here we hope will help answer your questions and guide you on your path to finding a new family. There are books, reading materials, videos, contacts and other organisation that can help broaden your knowledge around adopting and the process to match you with a child.
Recommended Reading for Prospective Adopters
- Building the Bonds of Attachment (2017) by Daniel A Hughes
- The Primal Wound: Understanding the adopted child (2009) by Nancy Verrier
- The Simple Guide to Child Trauma: What It Is and How to Help by Betsy de Thierry (2016)
- A Child’s Journey through Placement by Vera Fahlberg UK Edition, (2012)
- Why love matters. How affection shapes a baby’s brain by Sue Gerhardt, second edition, (2014)
- Adoption the essential guide by Diana Cambridge, (2012)
- The Adopter’s Handbook by Amy Neil Slater, (2012)
- Adopting a Child by Jennifer Lord, (2011)
- Parenting a child affected by Parental Substance Misuse, by Donald Forrester (2012)
- No Matter What: An Adoptive Family’s Story of Hope, Love and Healing by Sally Donovan (2013)
- Nurturing natures: Attachment and Children’s Emotional, Sociocultural and Brain Development by Graham Music, (2010)
- Adopting a Brother or Sister (2010), Heidi Argent
- Watch – Adopting a child with additional needs.
- An Adoption Diary, A couple’s journey from infertility to parenthood (2006), M James
- Approaching Fatherhood – A guide for adoptive dads and others (2005) by Paul May
- Managing Contact by Henrietta Bond, (2007)
Useful Websites, documentaries & podcasts
- We Are Family (WAF) is an independent adoption peer-to-peer support community that operates in and around London.
- First4Adoption is the dedicated information service for people interested in adopting a child in England. Consider also their First Steps online resource. It is a great tool to see how prepared and ready you are for an adoption assessment.
- Two Good Mums is the story of two women who have worked together since meeting for the first time to break the boundaries of the rules of contact that they felt did not put the needs of the children first.
- adoptionandfostering.podbean.com – podcast with true experiences of adoption.
- A Child in Mind series of podcasts about child and adolescent mental health – including clinical experts being interviewed.
- TED Talk about: how childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime.
- BBC Radio 4 website podcast – “The Adoption” – 17 episodes (10 mins each) following real story of adopters taking on siblings from everyone’s perspective.
- The Long Road to Baby (BBC radio 4).
- We Made a Wish adoption magazine (online magazine written by adopters).
About Transracial, Black and Minority Ethnic Adoption
- Black Ballad, a UK based lifestyle initiative for Black women hosts a podcast featuring five Black British women – all talking about adoption – each from their own perspective. Click the link here to listen to the podcast in full.
- Caring for a child of a different ethnicity (2014)
- Transracially adopted adults and adoption support by Perlita Harris (2014) Adoption and Fostering – Vol. 38(4) 346–360
- In Search of Belonging: Reflections by Transracially Adopted People: Reflections of Transracially Adopted People by Perlita Harris (2006)
- Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (2017)
- Looking after our own – Stories of Black and Asian Adopters Edited by Hope Massiah, (2005)
- Working with children of mixed parentage, Toyin Okitikpi, (2005)
- www.adoptivefamilies.com/transracial-adoption
- Adoption and Muslims in England Community Toolkit produced by My Adoption Family October (2021).
For Single Adopters
- Mum’s The Word! Parenting Podcast – Interview with an Adopt London single parent – Vicky Silverthrone speaking about why adoption was her preferred choice having not met the right partner.
- Flying Solo by Julia Wise – Inspiring and accessible, this book describes the realities of life on your own with an adopted child.
- Bloggers to watch out for include: My Adoption Journey , New Pyjamas, Suddenly Mummy, My Single Adoption, 3 Girls Together, Pedalling Solo, MeandMiniMees, Befuddled Mum, Starfish and Me, Sarah Fisher, Adoptive Black Mom
Films about Adoption
- Secrets & Lies, is a 1996 British drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh – also about an adult who was adopted seeking more understanding about her birth parents and life story.
- Mercy Mercy: A true story of adoption, Danish film on an intercountry transracial adoption from Ethiopia, 2012.
- Philomena is a 2013 British drama film directed by Stephen Frears – on adult who was adopted as a child seeking more understanding about his birth mother and life story.
- Lion is a 2016 biographical film directed by Garth Davis – on international adoption from India but also relevant to transracial adoption.
- Instant Family, 2018 – A comedy about parents who adopt a sibling group of three children
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