Last update 14-4-2017.
In this section you can find an ongoing bibliography that I call good-reads with a list of books, sites, films and theatrical productions about “Third Culture Kids”, expats etc.
If you would suggest some titles or recommend some sites, please do so in the comment section and I will be glad to add them to the list.
Good reads
Baumgartner, Antonia, (2011) Third culture kids – development of a current phenomenon. Masterarbeit, Universität Wien. Fakultät für Philosophie und Bildungswissenschaft, Betreuer: Hutterer, Robert. [downloadable pdf]
Bridges, William, Transitions: Making Sense Of Life’s Changes.
Copeland, Anne, Global Baby, Brookline, MA, The Interchange Institute, 2004.
Gardner, Marilyn N., Between Worlds, Doorlight Publications, 2014.
Gidley, Apple, Expat Life: Slice by Slice, Summertime, 2012. [please find a book review here]
Jordan, Peter, Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home, Y W a M Pub (December 1992).
Keenan, Brigid, Diplomatic Baggage (The adventures of the trailing spouse), John Murray, 2007. (a personal story)
Lemieux, Diane and Anne Parker, The Mobile Life. A new approach to moving anwhere, 2013.
Maffini, Helen, Sammy’s next move, Third Culture Kids Press, 2011.
Mitchener, James R., The Illusive Home, 2011.
Murray, Taylor, Hidden in My Heart, A TCK’s Journey through Cultural Transition, 2013.
Parfitt, Jo, Sunshine Soup, Summertime Publishing, 2011.
Pavlenko, Aneta, The Bilingual Mind And What It Tells Us About Language And Thought, 2014.
Pavone, Chris, The Expats, Crown, 2012.
Ray, Elka, Hanoi Jane, Marshall Cavendish Asian Chic, Mark/Hoffman, 2012.
Sand-Hart, Heidi, Home keeps moving, McDougal Publishing, 2010.
Sonnenberg, Brittani, Home Leave. A Novel, Grand Central Publishing, 2014.
Storti, Craig, Figuring Foreigners out. A practical guide, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1998.
Storti, Craig, Coming Home, Nicholas Brealey Publishing; N/E edition (May 1, 2001).
Tsang-Feign, Cathy, Keep Your Life, Family and Career Intact While Living Abroad, 2013.
Van der Pool, Marieke, Bride Flight, Portabello Books, 2011.
Journals
Journal of Global Mobility, The Home of Expatriate Management Research.
Novels and children’s book
Novels
Joseph O’Neill, Netherland, Fourth Estate, 2012. (written by a TCK)
Segun Afolabi, A Life Elsewhere, Random House, 2007 (and kindle) (adult content!)
Childrens’ books
Ahmad, M.A., Emigh, C., Gemmer, U., Menezes, B., Tonges, K. & Willshire, L., Slurping Soup and Other Confusions: True stories and activities to help Thrid Culture Kids through transition, UK, Summertime Publishing, 2010 (stories and activities to help third culture kids during transition)
Asch, Frank, Goodbye House, Aladdin, 1989. (age 3-7)
Baer, Edith, This is the way we go to school, 1992. (new edition by Laine Falk & Amanda Miller 2009) (age 4-8)
Besancenay, Valérie, B at Home, Emma moves again, Summertime Publishing, 2014.
Biale, Rachel, We are moving, Berkeley, Tricycle Press, 1996.
Civardi Anne and Stephen Cartwright, Moving house, Usborne Publishing, 2005. (preschoolers)
Danziger, Paula, Amber Brown is not a Crayon, Puffin, 2006. (age 7 up)
Hollyer, Beatrice, Wake up, world!, Henry Holt, 2002.
Kindersley, Dorling, Children just like me, Barnabas & Anabel Kindersley, 1995.
Libby, Larry, Someday Heaven, Zondervan, 2001. (age 4-8)
Schubeck, Carol, Let’s move together, Orange, Suitcase Press, 2000.
Sharp, Ann Margaret, Geraldo, ACER Press, 2000.
AND Teachers manual: Discovering our voice, Geraldo,
Spraggett, Daphne and Jill Johnstone, Window on the World, WEC International & Paternoster, 2001.
Viorst, Judith, Ray Cruz, Alexander, Who’s not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) going to move, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1998. (age 5-8)
A light-hearted but authoritative manual for anyone accompanying their partner on an overseas assignment
Zoer, Martine, The Kid’s guide to living abroad, Washington, Foreign Service Youth Foundation, 2007.
Great transition guides
Knell, Marion, Burn up or Splash down, Authentic Media, 2007.
Knell, Marion, Families on the Move, Monarch Books, 2001.
Livingston, Mike, Newcomer’s Handbook for Moving to and Living in the USA, First Books; 2nd edition (July 13, 2011)
Pascoe, Robin, Raising Global Nomads: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World, Expatriate Press Limited (August 25, 2006) (already mentioned above)
Quick, Tina, The Global Nomad’s Guide to University Transition, Summertime, 2010.
Rybol, Hélène E., Culture Shock: A Practical Guide, 2014 [Kindle Edition]
Rybol, Hélène, Reverse Culture Shock, 2015 [Kindle Edition]
Sand-Hart, Heidi, Home keeps moving, McDougal Publishing, 2010. (mentioned above)
Seaman, Paul Asbury, Far Above the Plain, William Carey Library, 2012.
Shah, Aniket & Akash, Club Expat: A Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas, Dog Ear Publishing, 2005. (mentioned above)
Storti, Craig, The Art of Coming Home, Intercultural Press, 2001.
Theatrical productions
Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey by Elizabeth Liang (trailer & excerpts)
Online interviews
TCKid Talks: Interview with Ruth van Reken & Michael Pollock, 26 October 2013
Tayo Rockson’s “As Told By Nomads podcast” features interviews with global nomads, Third Culture Kids, entrepreneurs and multicultural individuals who are leaders in business, culture, travel and global affairs to discuss what it takes to embrace your global identity and become a global leader. (see also his site listed up here below)
TED Talks
Short Films (Youtube etc.)
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home
Third Culture Kids and Global Nomads
International Students Experience: Part 1: Culture Shock
International Students Experience: Part 2: Culture Shock
International Students Experience: Part 3: Personal Adjustment
International Students Experience: Part 4: American Handshakes
International Students Experience: Part 5: Academic Adjustment
Netherlands and the Dutch culture
Films
All God’s Children (2008) dir. by Scott Solary and Luci Westphal.
Amreeka (2009), produced by First Generation Films, directed by Cherien Dabis.
Bend it like Beckham, the story about a girl thorn between cultures.
Brats: Our journey home (2005), produced by Kintop Pictures, directed by Gurinder Chadha.
Castaway, a man’s journey of leaving a life behind only to go home and find life there has gone on without him.
Edge of America (2003), produced by Showtime Networks, directed by Chris Eyre.
Hafu – the film (2014), is the unfolding journey of discovery into the intricacies of mixed-race Japanese and their multicultural experience in modern day Japan. (Hafu: people who are half-Japanese)
Home again: a documentary about Missionary Kids, directed by Julie Englander.
Les Passagers: A Third Culture Kids story by Aga Magdolen
Mean Girls (2004), produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Mark Waters; the story of a young girl returning to her passport country.
Neither here nor there (2011), produced and directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki.
Robin Pascoe – Where is “home” for a third culture child?
Somewhere Between (2011), produced by Long Shot Factory, directed by Linda Goldstein Knowlton.
So where’s home? A film about Third Culture Kid Identity by Adrian Bautista
The Great Santini (1979), produced by Bing Crosby Productions, directed by Lewis John Carlino.
The Interpreter (2005), produced by Universal Pictures, directed by Sydney Pollack.
The Karate Kid (1984), produced by Columbia Pictures corporation, directed by John G. Avildsen.
The Namesake (2006), produced by Fox Searchlight Pictures, directed by Mira Nair.
The Road Home (2010) produced and directed by Rahul Gandotra.
The Stream: Cultural chameleons
The Terminal by Stephen Spielberg (Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones)
Third Culture Kids and Global Nomads
Transition Third Culture Kids (about (possible) problems students face when moving to a new school).
Sites
Among Worlds
http://www.interactionintl.org/amongworlds.asp: Among Worlds is an online magazine for adult TCK’s (or ATCK’s).
BR Anchor Publishing
https://www.branchor.com/: BR Anchor Publishing’s primary goal is to prepare individuals and families for domestic or international relocation.
British Expat
http://britishexpat.com/: full-features site for expatriate Brits.
Canuck Abroad
http://www.canuckabroad.com/: For Canadian expatriates. Provides information and resources (and a forum!) that are useful also for other expatriates!
http://cultureshocktoolbox.com/: On this site you find all kinds of informations about what to expect during your international life. From culture shock – while living in new places – to reverse culture shock – when returing to a place you already lived in or your passport/home-country.
Denizen
http://www.denizenmag.com/: Denizen magazine is an online magazine dedicated to today’s Third Culture Kids. It represents the modern global nomad community, complete with attitude, expression and creativity.
Expat Focus
http://www.expatfocus.com/: For anyone moving or living abroad!
Expat Women
http://www.expatwomen.com/: A free website helping expatriate women from all nationalities and any country in the world share experiences and advice, and find resources for living in a foreign country.
Expatica
http://www.expatica.com/: This is a Netherlands-based website that provides useful resources for those living and working in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium. It publishes also an online newsletter and hosts conferences on expat-related topics.
FIGT (Families in Global Transition)
http://figt.org/: For Families in Global Transition. It hosts a yearly intenational conference on topics related to global family living.
FSYF (Foreign Service Youth Foundation)
http://fsyf.org/: Foreign Service Youth Foundation: around the world in a Lifetime. Organization for Unated States foreign service teens.
Global Education Explorer
http://globaleducationexplorer.com/: Global Education Explorer is an online tool that enables companies and families to learn about curricula in other countries, educational assessments and customs surrounding schooling.
Global Living Magazine
On this site under “Expat Book Reviews” you can find reviews of books with the “expat” topic (mostly fiction) and under “Expatriate Living” you can find many advices about the Expat life.
Hobsons
http://www.hobsons.com/: Hobsons enables the preparation, recruitment, management and advancement of students.
Interaction International
http://www.interactionintl.org/: Interaction International is an organization founded by David C. Pollock “The voice for third culture kids and internationally mobile families”.
The Interchange Institute
http://interchangeinstitute.org/: The Interchange Institute offers training for educators, human resources personnel and others in matters related to cross-cultural living.
http:// http://www.thelastboardingcall.com/: The Last Boarding call is “ a blog on one of the most hidden journeys of expats or global nomads and the globally mobile family – the journey that involves the major life changes of aging and retirement, sudden disability, family care-giving, and death.”
School Choice International
http://www.schoolchoiceintl.com/: School Choice International helps families with a child with special needs, for whom an overseas move is particularly difficult, both emotionally and educationally.
Sea Change Mentoring
http://www.seachangementoring.com: Sea Change Mentoring offers online mentoring and support for expat teens, third culture kids and global nomads around the world.
Tayo Rockson
http://www.tayorockson.com: Tayo Rockson is a TCK himself who lived on 4 different continents and “shares stories that can help people and motivate them to do better with their (international) lives”. He publishes a series of podcasts As Told by Nomads, and is author of the free e-book “The Ultimate Guide To TCK Living. Understanding the World around you“.
Third Culture Kid
http://tckid.com/: A non-profit organization that serves as an active global community of Third Culture Kid (TCK) adult & youth across geographical boundaries.
Third Kulture Kid Academy
Third Kulture Kid Research
http://tckresearch.com/: The first and most extensive data collection of TCKs. A Wikipedia of TCK research.
Third Culture Kid World
http://www.tckworld.com/useem/
Telegraph (Expats)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/: An online section of the Weelky Telegraph (UK) newspaper dedicated to expatriate living, with resources, news, articles, and informations.
The worlds within
http://www.theworldswithin.org/: “Eva Laszlo-Herbert, Jo Parfitt and Cerine Jin are compiling an anthology of TCK art and writing, as a first volume of a bigger project, which aims to make the lives and stories of worldwide TCKs and TCAs visible and graspable.”
Transitions Abroad
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/: Transitions Abroad is an informational website where you can find website addresses for expats of all countries (by entering: http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/living/resources/expatriatewebsites.shtml)
Related sites:
Libby Stephens and her blog
- Expat Life: Not Always A Smooth Ride! – An infographic by the team at Overs
Thanks so much for adding Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey!
Gratefully,
Lisa L.
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You’re very welcome, Lisa! I hope I’ll have the opportunity to see you live on stage once. Let me know when you’ll come and perform in Europe! Cheers, Ute
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Will do! I’d love to take the show all over Europe! 🙂 Cheers, Lisa
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Terrific list, Ute, glad it was suggested to me. If you’re so inclined, I’d love if you checked out my book The Emotionally Resilient Expat: Engage, Adapt and Thrive Across Cultures (Summertime Publishing, 2013). The second in the series – about global students – is now underway. Thanks, Linda
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Linda, thank you very much! I included it in the list. Could you please send me the title for your other book about global students? When will it be published? I’m planning a conference in Autumn about this and would really love to read it first – of course, if it’ll be published by then. I’m looking forward to reading them both! Thanks again for stopping by!
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Ute, thank you for this copious list! (And thank you for including my book, Global Mom.)
One small point you might want to note and your readers might want to know: the name of the brilliant TED talk speaker (and he’s a fabulous expat author himself, check out is titles through Google) is Pico Iyer.
Thank you for your excellent work. I am constantly sending people to your blog.
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Of course, Melissa. Thanks for pointing out my ‘faute de frappe’ (I spelled it right for his book). Will correct it asap!
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This is an excellent compilation — thank you for including my own two books here (Unrooted Childhoods & Writing Out of Limbo)!
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Thank you, Nina! I am very glad you like the list. Of course I wouldn’t miss to mention your books! Please, let me know if you would add other titles. ~ Ute
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I might add my book that looks at the lives of a missionary community and the impact of place and religion on their lives:
Benson, John. S. MISSIONARY FAMILIES FIND A SENSE OF PLACE AND IDENTITY: TWO GENERATIONS ON TWO CONTINENTS. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.
It looks at the American Lutheran missionary community in which I grew up in Tanzania and compares the lives of the missionary community who mostly grew up in the US and then tried to make sense of Tanzania as adults, and the children who did the opposite. It also compares how the two different generations developed religiously.
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Thank you John! Of course. I will add your book straight away. Thank you very much for pointing out that it was missing in the list. If you have more titles to add, please don’t hesitate to let me know! ~ Ute
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Hi. Hope it’s OK to contact you here. I wanted to suggest my new book which is aimed at kids aged 2-7. It uses the Story-powered language learning method and is available in many different language combinations: Dutch, French, Tagalog and more! One of our reviewers said ‘The kids were so busy laughing, they didn’t realise they were learning.” which is exactly what I was hoping for. Here is the Dutch one, for example https://www.amazon.com/dp/1916080146 thanks so much! Mark
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Thank you for signalizing your book. I understand it is mainly to learn vocabulary, right? I’ll soon start a list for language learning or acquiring resources on my “other” site and add it there. Thank you, Mark!
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HI, I hope it’s ok to reply with this here. I’ve just written a new book called The Fabulous Lost and Found that helps kids aged 2-7 learn to love language learning with the Story Powered Language learning method. Hopefully it will be a really useful resources. It’s available in many different languages including French, Dutch, Welsh, Tagalog and many more! Here is the link to the Dutch one. One of our reviewers said “The kids were so busy laughing, they didn’t realise they were learning” which is just what we were aiming for. THanks so much. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1916080146
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Thanks for your reply. I couldn’t see an email address to reply to. It’s a story first and foremost but yes, it also teaches vocab. I have a confidential review copy online that I’d be happy to share if you are interested to read it? Many thanks, mark
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Mark, I’d be happy to receive the copy! The mail you can send it to is info@UtesInternationalLounge.com (it’s my professional mail 😉 )
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