Find your next great read for National Adoption Month by exploring my reviews of these heartwarming YA books about adoption.

These contemporary YA books are focused on the teen experience of adoption—either as the adopted child who is seeking a biological parent or as a teen mother giving up a child for adoption (or even both).

Here is my list of heartwarming YA books about adoption that will give you all the feels.

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

“It took us fifteen years to find each other, but we still did! And sometimes, family hurts each other. But after that's done you bandage each other up, and you move on. Together. You've got us now, like it or not, and we've got you.” ― Robin Benway, quote from Far from the Tree

This book was so good it made me cry. As in, I had to leave the couch for tissues. Prepare yourself.

Grace, Maya, and Joaquin are siblings that were adopted to different parents as infants—except Joaquin wasn’t adopted. He went into foster care and had a harder time of things.

At 16, Grace finds herself pregnant and giving her baby up for adoption, which is the triggering event for reuniting these siblings and sending them on a search for their biological mom. In the process, they learn what it’s like to be family with one another as well.

This book won the National Book Award, and there’s a reason. If you haven’t read this one yet and you’re looking for heartwarming YA books about adoption, give it a look. You will not regret it!

The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“Goodness, I was already a dork most of the times. I didn’t need to be a drunk or high dork.” ― Jennifer L. Armentrout, quote from The Problem with Forever

After four years of home schooling and therapy, Mallory Dodge takes the gigantic step of going to a public high school for her senior year. She’s ready. She’s pretty sure. But on the first day, she collides with her past as she comes face-to-face with the person who meant everything to her: Rider Stark.

The boy who saved her.

Everything about this book is wonderful. I couldn’t put it down. I loved the characters, and I loved the strong relationship between Mallory “Mouse” and Rider. I loved the way their characters grew and changed as the story unfolded. They were so encouraging with each other, and Mallory’s best friend Ainsley is such a great friend.

The themes in the novel are well developed: childhood trauma, class difference, foster care, adoption, the impact of good teachers (Mr. Santos, the speech teacher), good parenting.

This is simply an amazing book!

If you’re looking for romantic and heartwarming YA books about adoption, check out The Problem with Forever. You won’t regret it.

The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand

“But what I'm thinking in this moment is: none of us really get to have our own, separate lives. Our lives are always all horribly tangled up with the people around us. The people we love.” ― Cynthia Hand, quote from The How and the Why

There were not a lot of surprises in The How & the Why for me. I did not find any earth-shattering revelations or stunning plot twists.

And yet, Cassandra’s story is utterly compelling.

In many ways, she’s a typical teenager with a lot of ordinary conflicts: where to go to college, how to handle the boyfriend crush, and how to resolve a major fight with her best friend. She also has major non-normal conflicts like a mother who is dying because she needs a heart transplant and she’s contemplating a search for her biological mother.

As the reader, we meet Cassandra’s biological mother much earlier in the story because we read her letters, and so we understand the how and why of the pregnancy and adoption. We see this unfold while Cassandra is dealing with all that other teenager mess.

If you’re looking for heartwarming YA books about adoption, this is a good book and a worthwhile read. I was sad to see it end and wanted more.

Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson

What a weird and utterly hypnotic novel!

Frances Robinson is adopted. She has two loving, if overprotective, parents. When she was seven, her biological mother murdered her three younger sisters and almost succeeded in killing Frances too.

The premise of this book is so fascinating. What happened? Gosh! The pages turn at breakneck speed with this novel. And right from the beginning, there is a new boy at school, and Frances goes on a road trip with him to see her biological mother. This seems so random and out of character for Frances. But is it?

So many things about what happened seemed really over-the-top, especially in the second half of the book, but I could not put this book down. From the first chapter, I was all in. I had to meet this woman who could murder her own children and see how this situation would be resolved.

This isn’t a “heartwarming” YA book about adoption, but it’s definitely worth reading.

What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

I really wanted to like this book. All the potential is there: heartwarming story, humor, romance, and the tough topic of a teen aging out of foster care. Muir’s character arc is well-developed, and some of the dialog is laugh-out-loud funny.

Unfortunately, the author kept blurting these heavy-handed and out-of-character statements about race into the protagonist’s viewpoint. These were incredibly jarring and kept pulling me out of narrative. It seemed that the author wanted this book to be about race, but rather than craft the novel in such a way to show this in a natural and authentic way, it failed. In fact, as a reader I was genuinely confused. At one point, I thought maybe the author herself had forgotten who her character really was—like maybe she changed her mind mid-novel about Muir’s identity and got lazy in the editing.

(p.11) I am white, and I know that buys me a definite amount of privileged safety…

Yet at the thought of being adopted by a white foster mother, she goes on this rant:

…this country was built on stealing babies from their mothers. White people did it to indigenous people, and they still try it; slave owners sure as fuck did it; white people still adopt kids from other cultures, name them Tiffany…

But… Muir is white. No one is stealing her. Where did this fake rage come from? It does not belong to Muir, and this speech breaks the flow of the rest of the story. It’s tacked in there. It falls flat.

I did like objects that Muir kept from all the foster families and the stories of how those objects came into her possession. I liked her resiliency in a life that was hard, and I liked her advocate, Joelle, who was the one constant in her life. The secondary characters were interesting. I liked the dog.

If you’re looking for YA books about adoption, What I Carry has good moments.

Other Heartwarming YA Books about Adoption You Should Read

If you are looking for some other YA books about adoption, check out the YA Adoption Fiction and Adoption YA Books lists on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books.

Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.

Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.