Books, videos, and websites for Third Culture Kids
TCKs –MKs in particular– can have mixed experiences in US American churches, both in visiting when their families are fundraising in churches, and when they try to find a church home when they’re older. In these interviews TCKs are asked:
This is the true story of the author’s grandfather who left Japan to explore the USA and eventually made a home there with his wife and daughter. He holds fond memories of Japan, however, and eventually returns there when his daughter is nearly grown (her story is told in Tea with Milk). There he longs again to return to California, but the war prevents this. So he tells his grandson about his life in America, and when his grandson grows up, he goes there himself, and discovers he, like his grandfather, loves both countries and longs to be both places at once. Like all Allen Say’s books, it is beautifully illustrated with full-page watercolors.
This book is great for children, but it can also be used at reentry retreats for teens. We sometimes read this to our teenagers at reentry and the last words are very powerful: “The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other.”
Reading level: age 5 – high school
Ministry hazards can take their toll on children of missionaries and pastors. Sanford, both an MK (missionary kid) and PK (preacher’s kid) speaks with candor and honesty about the faulty conclusions kids raised by parents in full-time ministry may have internalized about themselves, God, or their world. This book has been embraced by many adult MKs, who find themselves described in its pages. Sanford doesn’t address cultural issues in this book, so it isn’t applicable to all TCKs, only those whose parents were involved in ministry.
You may need a box or two of tissues while you work through this book, and maybe a journal to record the lies that you believed growing up that still affect your life. I was amazed by the insightfulness of this book and felt like Sanford had looked into my head to understand me so well!
Written for young and not-as-young people who grew up overseas, this journal is a place to capture and reflect on the stories of an exceptional childhood. Divided into sections including My Places, My Family, My Schools, and My Home Country, the author describes her own memories and invites readers to follow suit. The journal includes targeted questions to get the creative juices flowing and allows ample space for personalized responses.
The author’s note on Amazon describes her vision for her book: “My aim in creating this journal for mobile young and not-so-young people has been to provide people raised as I was, in several countries, with an opportunity to gather together into one place the many aspects of themselves. I want to offer them a chance to assemble the places they have lived, the many odd life experiences they have had, and the personal tastes and perspectives they have developed and to see them united as a whole.
“At best, my hope is that the journal will help a person raised on the wing to put together his or her personal story, to record, in written form, perhaps in fragments, who he or she is. I envision the journal as a learning and self-exploration tool that validates both the particulars of each individual’s experience. It can be difficult, as I know first hand, for the country-hopping child to place or even assemble all the stray elements of an exciting but challenging lifestyle. My goal in preparing this journal has been to aid these people ‘of many lands’ in the long process of putting together the stories of their lives. Even if they never write a sentence in the book, they may, just by reading through the journal, glean a helpful memory or thought. A reader may regard the journal as an invitation: an invitation to set down the story of his or her own unique life.”
This book is sadly out-of-print and very expensive on Amazon right now, but a great find for those who can get their hands on it.