picture books about adoption

Some work-related research I thought I could share. In sharing these books with an adopted child, it seems important that the gender of the book character matches the adopted child's gender. Is this a sexist notion? It seems like a important idea because so many other factors of a child's adoption may differ from the few books that are out there. I think it might vary family to family, since I've worked with a variety of family politics while searching for books about adoption for young ones.

In my store right now, we only have I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, which is about an Asian girl.

Books about adoption with boy characters:
Happy Adoption Day! by John McCutcheon
We Adopted You, Benjamin Koo by Linda W Girard
Borya and the Burps by Joan McNamara
Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies by Ann Warren Turner
Horace by Holly Keller

Books about adoption with girl characters:
My Family Is Forever by Nancy Carlson
I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose Lewis
My New Family: A First Look At Adoption by Pat Thomas
How I Was Adopted by Joanna Cole
Adoption is for Always by Linda Walvoo Girard**
Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jaime Lee Curtis
I Don't Have Your Eyes by Carrie Kitze
Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale by Karen Katz
The Red Blanket by Eliza Thomas *single parent
When I Met You: A Story of Russian Adoption by Adrienne Ehlert Bashista
Familes Are Forever by Shemin

Gender-free:
The Day We Met You by Phoebe Koehler
Kids Like Me in China by Ying Ying Fry *photo essay

Wow. An hours worth of research reveals that almost ALL adoption books are about international adoption by white couples. Many of these titles are based on the family of the author. Politically and culturally interesting that the folks that choose and are able to widely publish a book have adopted girls in much higher proportions. Listen up, authors and publishers, let's recruit some more diverse offerings!

Next up for research: foster parenting books...