Adoption Books

For such a slender book, it's packed full of tips and tricks to make sex not just better, but more fun and more exciting. I bought a larger book with a similiar title that didn't have even half of the same useful advice in it. I highly recommend this title for anyone looking to spice up their love life.

I actually never heard of this write befoer I purchased the book but she is an in your face type writer. She pulls no punches and tells it as it should be told.
This book is great for the novice or for someone who wants to spice up their sex life.

everything was great about this purchase, the shipping speed, condition of the book, and the price i bought it for!

This author writes great books for children that love horses.
And she just doesn't stop there she runs a non-profit organization that helps children purchase Chincoteague ponies, The Feather Fund. Which is based off her book Sea Feather.

This is a great book for the young reader and Misty fan. It's about a girl who realizes she's adopted and feels like she doesn't belong in her family. She spends time at the Chincoteague Pony Farm with her favorite pony, Windy, who is pregnant, as well as Stormy, who is also pregnant and Misty's daughter. When Stormy has her baby, she rejects it, and soon Windy has her foal, and adopts Stormy's unwanted foal as well. The girl realizes that being adopted is just as important as having a real family. The story is fiction but is based on real events of Windy adopting Stormy's foal.

My 6 year old daughter is getting into riding and horses. She was given this book as a Christmas present. She read it to herself every day on the way to and from school. She didn't want to put it down she thought it was so good.

Peter's life has been going pretty well- he's got his family, friends, and school. Then, one day, he gets called into the principal's office where he learns that his dad died earlier that morning after he'd gone off to school. A few days later, while looking through his dad's desk drawers, he comes across an envelope that will change Peter's life forever, sending him on an unforgettable adventure, one that may end up keeping him from home...

I had a similar reaction to this book like I did with X In Flight. I went in thinking it would be about one thing, and being a tad disappointed while still being compelled to read the story. The book summary mentioned Peter discovering a truth that was hidden from him for too long, and that kind of language gave me a completely different idea to what actually happened. Despite this misinterpretation, like X In Flight, I still enjoyed the book a lot. Told very compellingly with vivid details and a stark realism, this is one book I found absolutely hard to put down until the very end. It's very suspenseful throughout and the plot twists come out of nowhere and keep the pages turning.

Statistics on teenage runaways are frightening. Knowing that teens are living homeless in big cities and surviving by their wits is terrifying. John Burns takes readers into the world of the teenage runaway. It is a frightening place, where survival can depend on becoming part of a group and having to trust some very scary individuals with your life.

Peter Weir's life takes a sharp turn downhill when his mother shows up at school to announce that his father just died of a heart attack. His attempts to pull his life back together are feeble. Just moving on doesn't work well for Peter.

After a meeting with his father's attorney to discuss his estate, Peter finds he has a thousand dollars in cash at his immediate disposal. The future seems clear - take it and run. He boards a bus and heads for someplace far from his absent father.

Traveling alone isn't as easy as Peter thought. Roughed up by several bullies, he loses all but two hundred dollars of his money. His remaining funds dwindle quickly. Peter is relieved to meet several other homeless teens who introduce him to Dekman. Survival seems easier as he joins their group and panhandles for Dekman in exchange for a place to sleep and food to eat.

The dark side of Dekman begins to surface, making Peter uncomfortable but still dependent for survival. His artistic talent could possibly offer him a chance to break free of the group, but he fears Dekman's threats too much to take the chance.

Afraid of Dekman, yet also afraid to call home for help, Peter's subconscious takes over. He realizes that he is able to create his own special world inside his mind. This world he calls Runnerland, and it gives him a place to escape the stress and danger of his current situation -- but it also seems to make the unstable Dekman jealous.

Peter's story is a realistic one. The deserted buildings that become his home, the creative methods he devises to beg and earn his living, and the fragile and scary trust he must have in the leader, Dekman, all come together to illustrate the dark and dangerous life of the homeless. This well-written story will make readers consider just how many of these teens are out there today, living on the edge of survival.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

I really enjoyed this book. It's a convincing story of a young teenager, Peter, who receives the bombshell news that he's adopted upon the death of his father. Hurt, confused, and despondent, he runs away from home to find his own way and make sense of everything.

Peter's impulsive and somewhat naïve character comes across as completely authentic. Author John Burns has really captured those early teenage years and all the confusion and desperation (and exploration) they contain. There are also many very nice touches illustrating that no-man's land between childhood and being a grown-up.

Once on the streets, Peter is forced to deal with the hard realities of survival. Not all that successful getting by on his own, he falls in with a group of street kids and their Fagin-like leader. As life becomes more harsh, Peter begins to periodically retreat into a fantasy world which he calls Runnerland. It starts out as an idyllic place, but as Peter's day-to-day life becomes more difficult the landscape becomes more ominous. Fantasy and reality begin to close in on each other until Peter is forced to face down all his demons, both real and imagined.

While aimed at young adults, it's a great read for anyone above the age of twelve. The book reads true without being overly sentimental, and it treats the subject matter with the respect and gravity it deserves. The themes explored cross generational boundaries, and almost everyone will recognize Peter's search for his place in the world.

This is the best book/cd set if you're planning to adopt from Russia or Kazakhstan! You don't have to wade through the "touristy-type" phrase books or the more difficult "academic" books. If you ARE pursuing an international adoption, you don't have TIME to become a Russian linguist! This set is perfect: the phrases you'll need without all of the "fluff" plus the author sends TWO books with the CD so you and your spouse can each study on your own. My wife impressed our Russian hosts on our first trip with how well she was able to speak common phrases. A great product at any price. I'm so grateful to the author for producing this set.

I would highly recommend this product to anyone adopting from a Russian speaking country. The product comes with 2 pocket size phrase books (which is great for each spouse to have one) and an audio cd.

Is is full of very useful phrases and words for the adoptive family. We haven't traveled yet but I have no doubt this book will be coming with us! We had purchased a general Russian travel phrase book, but that really isn't any help when it comes to the things you really want to communicate to a child. This book does!

I ordered it on a Saturday, it was shipped Monday and arrived at my home on Wednesday. Very quick service! The cd case was broken, but the cd was fine.

I have been listening to this cd in the car for about a month and feel like I have really learned a lot of phrases that will help me in my upcoming adoption. I find I am practicing these phrases at odd times...but they have really stuck. These phrases have stuck much better than the other Russian programs I am working through right now. How wonderful to know how to call your daughter beautiful and to tell her you will love her forever. A lot of more practical phrases as well.

This is an excellent book. If you or someone you know has is considering adoption as a birthmother or adoptive parent, you really ought to read this book. This book gives a detailed account of a woman's long ordeal from the point of being raped, pressure from the church to give up her son, her sense of loss, her search for her son, the triumphant moment when her son is found and then, finally the joyous time they meet again! An uplifting book that shows that with a determined spirit you can accomplish most any thing and in this case, find a lost loved one!

While maternity homes were viewed as punitive and humiliating experiences, birthmothers had others like themselves to commiserate with. But, not all birthmothers had the maternity home experience! Many were shipped out of town to serve time as maids, cleaning ladies, and nannies in exchange for a bed and food to survive. (I know of one young woman who had to care for two toddlers and an infant.) Still others lived in tiny apartments during pregnancy and moved to another location after relinquishment. Evans did not go to a maternity home. As a result, for more than two decades she didn't know of any woman who had surrendered her baby for adoption! Evans tells how she felt alone and isolated in her secret pain. Regardless of the setting where they lived out their pregnancies, birthmoms do share a sense of powerlessness! Most were sentenced to a life of inner shame, of unresolved loss. I give Evans five stars because her story shows the strength of the human spirit to survive.

A spellbinding story by a truly gifted writer

This is a wonderful guide for searches. It takes you through your search step by step. "Search" also gives contact addresses for support groups, sample letters to send seeking information & the addresses to send those letters to during your search. I found it a very helpful book.

This is undoubtedly the most comprehensive book on completing an adoption search that you will be able to find. The difference between this and other books that show you how to investigate to find missing people is that Askin's book is specifically tailored for the adoption situation. An adoptee herself, Askin is keenly aware with the emotional issues that go into a search for birth parents or relinquished child. In fact, the first few chapters are dedicated to helping the reader decide if he or she can invest, emotionally as well as financially, time-wise, etc. in the huge commitment undertaking an adoption search requires. From there she delves into the "how-to's" of a search. No, it will not necessarily lead a person with an extremely complicated search to her answers (in my case, I can't uncover my birth father's name, even after ten years). However, it was instrumental in leading me straight to my birth mother. One thing I wish it covered was the reunion process and what to expect afterward...but that's what books like _Birth Bond_ by Gediman, Dunphy, and Brown are for.

I Loved the support of the book. I no longer felt alone after reading it. I used the sample letter in the book and found my birth mom and got to have a reunion this year with her and my sisters. Thank You, Jane Askin! This book is very detailed and very factual, but easy to understand and follow -If your affected by adoption this book is a must for your library-buy it today!!

This book gets to the heart of what it feels like to be "sold" and not be given the benefit of a paper past like a legal adoption affords adoptees. Robert Andersen conveys to the reader that the frustration that occurs in a persons life when they are rendered non-existent by illegal adoptions should never happen. We are worth more than that.

Great book for all touched by adoption. Robert Andersen's book is compelling, thought provocative, and worth reading twice. Helpful not only to adoptees, but also for prospective adoptive parents seeking to understand the impact of adoption on their children. I found it an extremely insightful story. Easy to read... hard to put down. Excellent!

As an adoptee I worried that Robert Anderson's humour on adoption was far too black. (His adoptee reading suggestions, Bedtime Favourites; My Mother Loved Me So Much She Gave Me Up; Your Birthparents Crashed and Burned; and of course Be Good or We'll Take You back !)

However, the very many golden nuggets of truth I found and returned to again and again were tremendously useful to me.

In "Search and Consequences" he describes two models for the search for ones birth parents; the medical "deficiency" model where the adoptee lacks information or experience which can be found by reunification with the birth parent(s); and the psychological trauma model where one acknowledges and responds to the trauma of adoption which was passively endured as a child, by actively mastering that trauma during a search. Finding is not imperative. The therapeutic agent is internal and the goal is growth, not cure.

He describes the "abstract, diffuse conflicts" adoption can cause, resulting in low self esteem, a lack of self confidence, feeling incomplete, a lack of a sense of belonging. He demonstrates the process of (unconscious) transference and the mayhem it creates in his own relationships.

And a lot more.

Perhaps the humour seems so black because of not having examined closely ones own feelings about the sometimes very uncomfortable issues he raises. As an aid to doing so this book does a great service.

(For light relief and more gloriously black humour on adoption look for Bastard Nation on the web).

If the subject is relevant to you I recommend the book very highly.

For anyone who is teaching their 8 or 9 year old how to write this is one fine book to read because it is so well written. I am a homeschooler who is using IEW to teach my children to write and this book is loaded with "dress-ups". All that aside, the story line is captivating, the characters are memorable, and there are lessons to be learned here that will last a lifetime.

THIS REVIEW IS ONLY ABOUT THE ORIGINAL VERSION, NOT THE MODERN REWRITE!!!

When I first read this book (at around 9), I loved it because of the main character, Mary. She was described as "disagreeable," but I liked her -- and I was disappointed when she changed from her "contrary" self into a nice little girl. I also loved the other characters (especially Martha, the "sturdy" housemaid and the "robin who showed the way" and Ben Weatherstaff), and the descriptions.

For example, Mary explores Miselthwaite Manor on a rainy day; she's heard that the house has over a hundred rooms-- and the book is so vividly written that all these years later, I can still remember her playing with a set of ivory elephants, finding a mouse and her young family in a sofa....Other vivid small moments are the maid talking about the moors and opening the windows which made me long to go to Yorkshire and breathe in the moor air. THe story itself is quite suspenseful and I loved that, too.

Now that I'm grown up, I still love all those things, but I understand why Mary had to change (though I still wish she hadn't!). Now, parts of the book (like her reaction to the flowers starting to grow in the garden) make me cry -- they're touching and Mary is too. I appreciate the descriptions and characters and plotting even more than I did as a child and agree that this is probably the best children's book ever written -- and one of the best books ever written, too.

It inspired me as a writer. I am the author of BLOW OUT THE MOON, which is also about a contrary child (but an American) who transforms herself as a result of kind-hearted English people in the English countryside. I didn't copy THE SECRET GARDEN, but the English boarding school I went to as a child (which is the subject of Blow Out the Moon) did remind me of that book!

This is a classic book about a girl, Mary, who is forced to go to her uncle's mysterious mansion to live. But when a boy is discovered in a secret passage, Mary gets suspicious, and a little scared.
All that suspicion is gone when the mean gardener tells her the story of a secret garden. Of course, her curiosity gets the better of her and she goes to find it, that is, with the help of her new birdie friend. The two of them embark on a journey that will change their lives.
Every night when I read this book, I could not put it down because it was so good! When you think the problems are over, another one joins in. I enjoyed reading this book, and I hope you do too!

-6th Grade Student-

We bought this book just days before we left to meet our little girl in Haiti. (We had another book/CD that we'd bought earlier, but that system didn't seem as useful.) Even though we didn't have much time to study the book before our trip, we used it constantly while in Haiti. It's small size, the way phrases are broken down into categories, and the phrases offered made this the perfect resource. Being able to tell our daughter how much we love her and knowing that she understood us was such a gift. We can't recommend this book highly enough. Even if you have other resources, this book is a must.

We are in the process of becoming Grandparents to our son and daughter-in laws adoption of 2 little sweethearts from Haiti. So obviously we have been concerned about our inability to speak to them in there native language, while they learn English. Then we found your book and CD. What an unbelievable blessing! It is fantastic. You are to be commended so highly for coming out with a tool that no one else has been able to do. It is exactly what we needed. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!!

This book and accompanying CD is a very useful "out of the box" resource for adoptive families. It is difficult to find any resources for learning Haitian Creole (for instance, Rosetta Stone offers no such product) and this is a good resource for families who have limited time to learn the entire language. The phrases and sentences are exactly what you need for simple, daily communication and the accompanying CD is very helpful to learn proper annunciation (there are a lot of differences between French and Creole!).

This book has a wonderful story that would be great for young kids. The rhymes work perfectly with the picture in the book and the word selection is very nice for a children's book. If your a parent it gives you plenty of room to be creative with your kids with its many sounds. 5 Stars I say!

I like reading this book aloud to my kids -- the sounds bring the story to life and kids love all the repetition -- plus, the pictures are wonderful -- the book makes a great gift -- I've given it to all my family and friends with young kids

This is such a fun book! My toddler loves the silly noises. The pictures evoke a very whimsical party feel. A favorite!