Research proves that reading with your child provides a unique and unduplicated opportunity to share physical, emotional, and cognitive processes. When you read with your child, you are physically close in a shared mission, you share emotions evoked by the material, and together you cognitively process and discuss the story or information you are receiving. There is no other activity that can duplicate the bonding and growth that can take place. Choosing which books to read with your child should be a thoughtful process, one that only a parent who is attentive to their child's specific nature and requirements is able to do so with optimal results.

Books can literally change lives, and can process, reframe, and rebuild, like no other medium. The best therapeutic books are those that bring about healing without identifying that goal as their purpose. As a parent, learn to look for books that help your child to identify and express their feelings, to dream and imagine, and to stretch their minds and their emotions. These are often not "therapeutic books", but books unique to your child, your family, and your situation. Thus, although you may run to books recommended for children with backgrounds of adoption and/or foster care, you as a parent must find yourself a place in the library and bookstore, and find those favorites that are unique to you and your child.