Books
Books have always been a great resource that we use constantly within mk2mk. Most of these books discuss being a TCK, through real-life circumstances and stories and incorporating topics like grief, transition and identity. All books can be found on Amazon.
Back to Resource Index
Third culture kids: growing up among worlds
By David Pollock and Ruth E. van Reken
Exploring experiences of those who have become known as third culture kids (TCKs) - children who grow up or spend a significant part of their childhood living abroad. Readers will leave with an understanding of the challenges and benefits of the TCK life and practical suggestions and advice on maximizing those benefits.
12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing you
By Tony Reinke
Drawing from the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies twelve potent ways our smartphones have changed us—for good and bad. Reinke calls us to cultivate wise thinking and healthy habits in the digital age, encouraging us to maximize the many blessings, to avoid the various pitfalls, and to wisely wield the most powerful gadget of human connection ever unleashed
Misunderstood
By Tanya Crossman
The Third Culture space is introduced - through the personal stories of hundreds of individuals. Whether you grew up overseas, are raising children overseas, or know a family living abroad, Misunderstood will equip you with insights into the international experience, along with practical suggestions for how to offer meaningful care and support.
Making peace with change
By Gina Brenna Butz
Change is hard. Really hard. Whether it’s something wonderful like a job promotion or devastating like a difficult health diagnosis, change brings stress. As followers of Jesus, we know He is ultimately in control and yet we are too familiar with feelings of apprehension and uncertainty when our circumstances change. Making Peace With Change shows us that we don’t have to resign ourselves to just coping with the change or merely trying to survive it. Instead, we can make peace with change.
Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing Up Global
This book presents a cultural mosaic of today's citizens of the world. In twenty stirring memoirs of childhoods spent packing, writings by both world-famous and first-time authors make universal the story of growing up without the opportunity to ever feel rooted.
“I Have To Be Perfect” (and other parsonage heresies)
By Timothy L. Sanford
"I have to be perfect!" is the lie that many pastor’s kids and missionary kids tell themselves growing up. Whether you've grown-up in a ministry family or struggle with perfectionism, you'll find encouragement, challenge, and inspiration in Tim's writing. Tim shares some of his personal story and insights from years of professional counseling!
Unstacking your Grief Tower: For Adult Third Culture Kids
By Lauren Wells
When we tell people that we lived abroad during our developmental years, we’re often met with awe and envy. What they don’t see are the number of losses we experienced with each move, the amount of “goodbyes” we said, or the hardships that we endured. Each of these stack up like blocks on a tower, each block influencing how we deal with the next hardship we face. This hope-filled book offers you the invitation to uncover and process the blocks on your Grief Tower. Through her own experience, Lauren Wells walks you compassionately and practically through unstacking your Grief Tower in light of your Third Culture Kid experiences.
Third Culture Kids: a gift to care for
By Ulrika Ernvik
Third Culture Kids are Global Nomads who have moved in between cultures many times and therefore are a part of many cultures. Their beauty and challenge in life is to integrate and embrace all their experiences into a life story that reflects who they are. Using interactive and reflective activities to accomplish this, the whole brain and body are involved in the processing. Deeper relationships are built as families and groups do the activities together. Young and adult TCKs, parents, teachers, sending agencies and others who care for TCKs can all find meaningful activities that bring understanding, integration and joy.
Life in motion: Growing through transitions
By: Amy Casteel & Ruth E. Van Reken
In Life in Motion, we see how ever since Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden, humans have had to deal with the reality of making geographic transitions. Amazingly, we discover that people who made such transitions in ancient times responded in remarkably similar ways as we do today. Through their stories, we gain insight into the normal stages of transition, how we often respond during each stage, and how we can grow through all transitions with strength and hope.
Re-Entry: Making the transition from missions to life at home
By Peter Jordan
This is a helpful book for every local church and mission agency who sends workers overseas. Whether you are returning home from a year on the mission field or 20 years, this book is both insightful and enjoyable to read.
Raising Up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids
By Lauren Wells
If we could ensure that our TCKs would grow up healthy and resilient, we would do it in a heartbeat. In Raising up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids, Lauren Wells has gifted us with a gentle guide and a preventive health primer, unique in the field of third culture kid literature. This book is a goldmine of wisdom, organized in a practical and readable format. While we cannot know all our TCKs will go through, we can take a giant step forward by learning how to multiply the benefits of a global life and conversely pay attention to the challenges that can become stumbling blocks to healthy development. If you are working with, raising, or love third culture kids from any part of the globe, this book will give you practical ways to be proactive about the way you raise up third culture kids.