Pieces of Purple is an ode to the beauty and complexity of Third Culture Kids. It goes beyond the usual inventory of TCK strengths and challenges, uncovering foundational truths that shape this community’s sense of self, world, and God.
Blending memoir, research, and storytelling, Michèle Phoenix draws on a lifetime as a Missionaries’ Kid and more than three decades working with Third Culture Kids to paint a compelling and compassionate portrait, inviting the reader to explore fifteen formative aspects of the MK and TCK experience.
More than anything, Pieces of Purple is a celebration of the immeasurable gift of growing up between worlds. It empowers Global Nomads to better understand their unique traits and needs, and equips those who walk alongside them to love them more wholly and effectively.
PURCHASE PIECES OF PURPLE
Live abroad? Amazon may print and ship in your country! It’s available from Amazon US, as well as UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, and IN.
Note: Pieces of Purple is so beautifully designed by Elise Cheung that I highly recommend the paperback version over the eBook. Plus, it smells like ink and paper. 😀
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
“Pieces of Purple is the book ministry-related TCK families have been waiting for. It not only addresses the broader matters faced by children who grow up cross-culturally, but it takes a closer look at the specific paradoxes inherent to growing up in a ‘God system.’ A welcome addition to an expanding conversation!”
Ruth Van Reken
Author, Third Culture Kids
“A deeply moving and essential read for MKs, TCKs, and the parents and caregivers who support them. This book is a lifeline for those seeking understanding and connection in their journey. An absolute must-read!”
Kath Williams
National TCK Coordinator, TCK Interlink
“An honest yet encouraging look at some of the unique challenges MKs face, gracefully weaving awareness with hope. Pieces of Purple needs to be on the bookshelf of every missionary family!”
Lauren Wells
Author and CEO, TCK Training
“Unlike any other book I’ve read, Pieces of Purple beautifully speaks to the core belovedness of MK and TCK identity. Tender and honest insights into the life of Third Culture Kids, told by a master teacher and storyteller.”
Lori Harms
Director of Children’s Debriefing, Mission Training International
“Sharing from her extensive experience in working with MKs, Michèle succinctly and accurately describes the benefits and challenges of growing up between worlds. Her insights should be must-read material for all those who are parenting MKs or walking alongside them.”
Matthew Wright
Executive Director, The 631 Solution
“Michèle educates, challenges, and gently speaks bold truth from a heart of love and personal experience. We owe it to the spiritual, emotional, and mental health of our MKs to read this book.”
Dr. J. Scott Howington
Pastor, Pleasant Hill Community Church, Wheaton, IL
THE ORIGIN STORY
Behind the Book
I didn’t set out to write a book. Just as I didn’t choose to be a Third Culture Kid. That’s one of the beautiful things about life: the greatest joys sometimes come as unexpected gifts.
Like so many other MKs, I was born into a context where airports were more familiar than playgrounds, where home was a shifting concept rather than a specific place, and where my identity felt like an intricate tapestry woven with the threads of multiple contexts and cultures. But in that complexity, I found something extraordinary—a richness, a perspective, a depth of experience that cannot be measured.
I found being an MK fascinating—and just a bit daunting.
As an adult, I spent twenty years teaching at Black Forest Academy (Germany), and had the privilege of walking alongside younger versions of myself—TCKs trying to make sense of their fragmented yet beautiful realities. In their stories, I saw my own. In their questions, I recognized the ones I had asked at their age. And in their resilience, I found inspiration.
After three decades of researching, teaching, and mentoring, I decided it was time to give in to the steady drumbeat of “You should write a book about that” and consider sharing some of what I’ve learned. And—here we are. Pieces of Purple released on April 3rd, 2025. It is an ode to the beauty of an unconventional life. To the friendships formed in international spaces, to the thrill of experiencing multi-cultural adventures, and to the way TCKs can walk into a room full of strangers and instinctively find those who share our heart language.
This book is for them. For every MK, every TCK, every Global Nomad who has ever felt unseen, misunderstood, or lost in the in-between.
And it’s for those who love their “purple people,” but don’t quite grasp the source or nature of the differences they see. Understanding fuels wisdom, and wisened love can be both protective and restorative.
Hope and Healing
In Pieces of Purple, I set out to celebrate the treasures of growing up between worlds—the resilience it builds, the adaptability it fosters, the way it shapes us into people who understand the nuances of humanity on a profound level.
But I wanted to just as intentionally explore what’s difficult too.
For every Positive Childhood Experience (PCE) TCKs enjoy there can be equally impactful Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) they endure. Because both are intimately embedded in the mosaic that reflects who we are at our core, telling only the Wonderful half our story would do an injustice to those of us who have also walked the Hard of this road.
So Pieces of Purple does celebrate the richness of our kaleidoscopic lives, but it also acknowledges and explores the impact of constant goodbyes, the weight of expectations, and the silent struggles that so many of us have (or still do) wrestle with. The book delves into fifteen specific factors that influence the development of TCKs in both beneficial and challenging ways—factors like social dexterity, cultural malleability, gut-level world awareness, the assets and limitations of unbelonging, the impact of grief on fragile faith, and the too-often-overlooked realities of trauma. In conjunction with each other, these help to explain how TCKs might uniquely navigate identity, spirituality, and transitions.
I keenly remember the luminous moments I experienced growing up in the world of cross-cultural ministry. They’re scattered like flecks of gratitude across the landscape of my past. But I also recall the ache of dark injuries endured while living in the extraordinary places I loved. Then the lostness of leaving it all—the friends, homes, and identities that had become a part of me.
I didn’t have the language then to articulate what I now understand—that TCKs’ lives are a delicate dance of shimmering light and hovering darkness. And that there is hope and healing in the gold that lies in the tension between those poles.
An Ode to Us
Pieces of Purple, beautifully designed by TCK artist Elise Cheung, unfolds like a play in three acts, with a lyrical prelude and postlude and narrative interludes (my favorite MK stories!) that serve as palate-cleansers between its fifteen light and looming topics. And it is filled with the voices of TCKs—quotes, reflections, and poetry from those who have lived this reality firsthand. Their words bring depth and authenticity to the subject matter, ensuring that no one who reads the book feels alone in their experience.
Like so many others, despite the challenges of my own life, I would not trade my TCK experience for anything. It has given me a heart that beats for the world, a spirit that craves connection, and a faith that has been refined through both certainty and doubt.
There is beauty in our complexity. There is strength in our resilience. There is richness in our wandering. And in the end, the pieces of our story—scattered though they may be—come together to form something breathtaking.
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