Adopting Children
Beautiful fiction books on adopting children and the birth of new relationships that can sometimes be stronger than our biological ones.
The Secret Garden (Fiction) by Francis Hodgson Burnett
A classic in children's literature, The Secret Garden shows how sometimes the relationships between a foster parent and the adopted child can be more meaningful, beneficial and positive than the biological one. A coming of age story that beautifully illustrates the transformation of a bossy 10 year old who loses her parents in India and goes onto live with her wealthy uncle in a Yorkshire mansion. Here she discovers a secret garden and a little boy who shows her a different path to life, people and things. A beautiful book of positivity, hope and life lessons that shows how you can recreate new relationships and a surrogate family who may just sustain you better than your original one.
The Book Thief (Fiction) by Marcus Zusak
Set in Nazi Germany, a little girl by the name of Liesel is left by her birth mother with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel never knew her father and her younger brother died in a train accident. Pretty much an orphan she finds great solace in books and secret and methodically steals books. Her foster father Hans teaches her how to read and write. The family also take a little jewish boy, the son of a family friend, who lives in their basement and develops a close, beautiful relationship with Liesel. A superb tale on the power of non-blood relationships.
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More book prescriptions can be found at Book Therapy.
A big hello and thank you for reading! Passionate about literature, psychology, and life I launched Book Therapy as an alternative form of therapy using the power of literature. I train mental health professionals, librarians, teachers as well as readers on using bibliotherapy in their own work through our online Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health course. We also curate reading lists/personalised book prescriptions for clients based on their individual needs. This is our signature personalised reading service.
You can also check out Book Therapy’s other free reading lists and A- Z of book prescriptions (covering both fiction and non-fiction). These suggest books based on your existing life situation (e.g. anxiety, job change, relationship heartache) as well as interests (e.g memoir, historical fiction, non-fiction, crime etc). There’s also a Children’s A — Z of Book Prescriptions. Feel free to check out the blog for more literary gems. There’s also a post on my personal story of how I entered the world of bibliotherapy and book curation.
In this role, I have had the opportunity to publish a book called The Happiness Mindset, and write various literary essays and pieces for newspapers and magazines. I have undertaken bibliotherapy workshops for The United Nations, various libraries in New York and corporate organisations in the UK and US. My book recommendations have featured in the Guardian, Marie Claire, NBC News, Asian Voice, New York Observer, Sydney Telegraph and various other publications. If you are a parent you might enjoy a podcast I’ve recorded with speech and language therapist Sunita Shah on Raising A Reader & Storyteller. And if you’d like to connect, email me at bijal@booktherapy.io or www.booktherapy.io.
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