Product Description

In this publication, the authors explore the 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. The book is rich with real-life anecdotes and examines the nature of the TCK kid experience and its effects on maturing, developing a sense of identity, and adjusting to one's "passport country" upon return. The authors give readers an understanding of the challenges and benefits of the TCK life and provide practical suggestions and advice on maximizing those benefits.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12485 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

David L. Wickstrom, Psychologist and adult TCK
A gold mine of information. The insights are sound and research-based; the advice is practical and has far-reaching potential; and the personal stories by scores of people who grew up in a culture "not their own" offer a richness of understanding regarding the internal world and extensive experience of third culture kids. This book is a must read!

From the Publisher
In Third Culture Kids David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken explore the 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. Rich with real-life anecdotes from TCKs, this is one of the first books to fully examine the nature of the TCK experience and its effect on maturing, developing a sense of identity, and adjusting to one's "passport country" upon return. David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken give readers an understanding of the challenges and benefits of the TCK life and provide practical suggestions and advice on maximizing those benefits. TCKs and adult TCKs; parents, relatives and friends of TCKs; and the organizations that send them overseas will find this an invaluable resource. For many TCKs this book will be their first opportunity to discover that they share a common heritage with countless others around the world.

About the Author
David Pollock has worked with TCKs and adult TCKs for more than twenty years and has logged thousands of miles conducting seminars and conferences for TCKs, their parents, and sponsoring organizations.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic for parents and a 'must read' for every TCK .
This book is essential reading for all parents bringing up children in a culture other than their own.It has excellent practical guidelines on how to prepare children for a cross culture experience and perhaps even more important for returning to their 'home culture' (parent's home culture). With every move there is 'a grief' as we say goodbye to family, friends, pets, places and personal belongings. This book has some very helpful suggestions to make the moving process as painless as possibe. This book should be available in every airport, international schools, foreign service families, armed forces and missionary societies. Having read this book I quickly recommended it to our local International School and I am looking forward to hosting a seminar with David Pollock...

This is a brilliant book!
Having read a borrowed copy, I couldn't resist buying one for myself. This is an excellent book for anyone having had to deal with growing up in more than one cultural setting. If you've ever wondered why possessions become so important, why it's harder being 'back home' than it was living abroad, where this constant drive for pastures new comes from or why people seem to think you're stuck-up, then this book is for you! Similarly, if you've had more addresses than you have birthdays or changed schools more often than you care to remember, buying this book could prove to be the best money you ever spent.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book to any parent considering moving abroad, anyone having been shifted from one place to another and anyone dealing with people who have (partners, grand-parents, youth group leaders, teachers,...). Every school, church, mission base and embassy library should have a copy.

An Lannoo

a life changing book for the "third culture kids"
This book is absolutely amazing to read for any TCK, or a person "who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture" ("The TCK profile" seminar material, Interaction, Inc, 1981, 1). At first reading the book had been very difficult simply because I was crying so much reading it that I could not even see the letters anymore. This is because that book puts into words what many TCK knew unconsciously but never put words on it, like the feeling of being different and awkward in one own culture, not having a sense of where home is, etc...

The book has a very positive approach to the analysis of TCKs, and will refer to these issues as challenges rather than problems, and gives keys to transform these challenges into useful tools for everyday life. It also outline well the advantages one gains from such an experience, and it will probably help people maximise the use of these particular skills in their life.

It also gives advice about moving abroad by explaining the different emotional steps a person goes through when moving to a new country, and how to deal with relationship issues related to the TCK way of life and many other useful advices.

In addition, it has a great section on what relatives and friends can do to help the TCK with eventual problems that may arise from that particular experience.

I really recommend this book particularly for adult TCKs as it will help them put in words what has been in their heart all along.