CALVARY MISSIONS RESOURCE CONNECTION

BOOKS ON TCK'S:

 

Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Renken

A secular book dealing with all types of TCKs, Pollock and Van Renken have created an excellent resource which should be in the library of every missionary with children. The first section describes TCKs and CCKs (Cross-Cultural Kids). The second section explains some of the factors of cross cultural living that affect them, causing them to be their own subculture. The third section explains how to help your TCKs to make the most of their experience and deal with the challenges.

​

Misunderstood: The Impact of Growing Up Overseas in the 21st Century by Tanya Crossman

Examining the Third-Culture Kid experience for children of missionaries, diplomats, military personnel and businesspeople, this book offers "a window into how international life can affect the way a child thinks and feels about their world, and how this different perspective may manifest in the way they interact with others." Crossman attempts to help the reader understand TCKs and how their experiences have shaped them. She includes information about helping TCKs through transition and grief, helping them say 'goodbye' well, understanding what they go through during home visits and repatriation, and being aware of tools that can help TCKs strengthen their ability to experience and express their emotions.

​

Raising Up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids: A Practical Guide to Preventative Care by Lauren Wells

In Raising Up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids, Wells offers practical ways TCK caregivers can support TCKs, maximise the benefits and decrease the negatives of the TCK life, and manage the challenges faced in a globally mobile life. She touches on having a healthy parent/child relationship; understanding the physical and emotional needs of TCKs; anchoring the TCK identity; and helping TCKs adapt to a new culture, deal with difficult emotions, grief and trauma, develop healthy relationships, and deal with restlessness.

​

The Grief Tower: A Practical Guide to Processing Grief with Third Culture Kids by Lauren Wells

Wells follows up from Raising Up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids with The Grief Tower, in which she describes what a grief tower is ("grief stacks up like blocks, building a tower higher and higher with each loss or traumatic experience") and what types of grief and trauma TCKs face. She then explains how to help TCKs deal with their grief by unstacking the blocks and processing them.

​

Unstacking Your Grief Tower For Adult Third Culture Kids by Lauren Wells

In Unstacking the Grief Tower for Adult Third Culture Kids, Wells speaks directly to ATCKs, explaining what makes up the blocks on a grief tower, what happens when it gets too high, reasons people avoid processing their grief, and common coping mechanisms. She goes on to walk readers through creating a grief tower timeline and processing the blocks so they can move forward with hope.

​

Families on the Move by Marion Knell

Knell has produced a very practical book focused on helping parents understand how to help their children navigate the challenges of growing up as a TCK with chapters on building a firm foundation within the family, dealing with transitions, preparing for overseas living, building bridges between cultures, dealing with educational options, living in a non-Western culture, and coping with re-entry. The book closes with a chapter addressing the unique challenges of missionaries.

​

Third Culture Kids: A Gift to Care For by Ulrika Ernvik

In addition to examining what it is to be a TCK and a whole host of issues (transitions, stress, grief, loss, relationships, re-entry) that can affect a TCK as they grow up in a  cross-cultural setting, Ernvik provides activities and practical advice for parents, agencies, and the TCKs themselves to help them understand their experiences and find a sense of belonging.

​

Fitted Pieces, edited by Janet R. Blomberg and David F. Brooks

Fitted Pieces is a compilation of articles about educating children in a cross-cultural context and contains articles on child development, educational development, living cross-culturally, different educational systems in various countries, basics of home education, and issues related to national schools and boarding schools.

​

Raising Global Nomads: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World by Robin Pascoe

Written by a child of missionaries and wife of a diplomat, this book covers practical issues in raising children overseas. Focusing mainly on children of diplomats and international businessmen, many of the issues discussed don't affect missionary kids, but there are some helpful sections on preparing your children for an international move and considering educational options.

​

Best Practices in Mobilising Families with Adolescents by Tim Cook

This article in the March 2021 edition of EduCare by EuroTCK, gives an excellent overview of specific issues faced by teens in a transition to the mission field, describes factors that have been noted in adolescents who adjusted well, and gives recommendations for mobilisers, receiving branches, and parents. This is a must-read for anyone considering moving overseas with teenagers.

​

This Messy Mobile Life: How a Mola Can Help Globally Mobile Families Create a Life by Design by Miriam N. Ottimofiore

​

Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child: Practical Storytelling Techniques That Will Strengthen the Global Family by Julia Simens

​

Arrivals, Departures and the Adventures In-Between by Christopher O'Shaughnessy

​

For the Joy: 21 Missionary Mother Stories of Real Life & Faith by Miriam Chan and Sophia Russell

​

Raising Global Teens: A Practical Handbook for Parenting in the 21st Century by Dr. Anisha Abraham

​

Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere: Insights into Counseling the Globally Mobile by Lois J. Bushong

​

Raising Resilient MKs: Resources for Caregivers, Parents, and Teachers, edited by Joyce M. Bowers (available as a free e-book at Missionary Care.com)

​

Growing Up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School by Danau Tanu

​

Finding Home: Third Culture Kids in the World edited by Rachel Pieh Jones

​

Hidden Immigrants: Legacies of Growing up Abroad by Linda Bell​

​

Writing Out of Limbo: International Childhoods, Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids edited by Gene H. Bell-Villada and Nina Sichel

​

Don't Pig Out on Junk Food: The MK's Guide to Survival in the U.S. by Alma Daugherty Gordon

​

You Know You're an MK When... by Andy Kerr and Deborah Kerr

​

I Have to Be Perfect (And Other Parsonage Heresies) by Timothy L. Sanford

 

Understanding Adolescence and Third Culture Kids and Adolescence: Cultural Creations by Ronald Kotesky (both are available as free e-books at MissionaryCare.com - Understanding Adolescence and Third Culture Kids and Adolescence)

​