Adoption Books

This book not only deals with the issues of attachment and other developmental issues of the adoptive child, but it gives you practical strategies to overcome and deal with them. This book is very inlightning, but offers hope to parents of hurt children.

I thought this book provided valuable insights and gave good real life examples. I would recommend this book for anyone adopting an older child.

This book contained things that I think all parents should know about dealing with kids and thier baggage. I have refered back to this when dealing with situations with my special needs child, if only to know that I am not alone in my struggles.

I read this book twice I liked it so much. I found many books minimized the struggle of raising adopted children and focussed too much on only the positive. Although I have not raised any adopted children myself I do plan on it after I finish university. After reading many books I knew it couldn't be as flowery as they put it. Although I am sure no book could truly prepare anyone for the realities of raising childeren it can help you understand where things are comming from. If nothing else I have a greater respect for the adoptive family because of this book!!!

This book was very helpful. It helped me even though I haven't ever adopted. It helped me understand hurting kids more. I will buy this book! I would like to adopt older kids when I'm married. Besides I have known several foster/adopted kids. It helped me understand them.

As an adoptive mother to be, I found this book enlightening. It's easy to read, informative and gives simple ideas for creating a life book. It's been a great find and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's thinking about adopting too. If you manage to read it prior to your adoptive child arriving home, you'll get lots of useful hints on what to look out for while you're still in the adoption process.

This is a must do for anyone who is adopting, it was easy and full of great ideas. Thank you

This book has been in print for a while, and I hope the author comes out with a 2nd edition, because it is a wonderful, wonderful book, full of helpful practical information about making a lifebook. And a lifebook is an important thing for an adopted person! I'm only just beginning to understand its importance.

I made a lifebook for my daughter 3 years ago. After it was read a few times it sat on the shelf, ignored. But this year, in 2nd grade, when she was asked to bring the 5 most important things to class that say something about who she is, the lifebook was one of them. You just never know.

I was disappointed when I was 20 pages or so into the book because it was not nearly what I had hoped for. It is a bit disorganized and feels more like a handout at a class, than a professional book. It also seems to be outdated in terms of some of the ideas (scrapbooking and film photos)and there are also some errors in the references and links. If it were cheaper I wouldn't have minded so much! But I also realized that I have been volunteering in adoption education for many years, and have many friends, virtual and IRL, who have adopted who have helped me with most of the issues this book addresses. However, if I had not had so much exposure to it I would have found the ideas in the book more enlightening. Basically, it's a fundamental idea for adopted children and if you do not have a large support base (helpful CW's, friends with experience, etc) this book will be extremely useful to you. If you are more experienced you might want to borrow it from a friend or the library if you can find it.

Review by Sherry North, Author, Because You Are My Baby

We are in the process of adopting a child from Kazakhstan, so I bought this book to help us collect information and memories for making a lifebook. While the text is a bit haphazard- information is often repeated and the topics seem to jump around - I would still recommend the book. It has given me a new perspective on how to talk to our child's caregivers and which tidbits of information or mementos to look for while we are in Kazakhstan. It also has sample lifebook pages, which will be a wonderful guide when I sit down with our child to make her lifebook.

This book is an incredibly candid account of a foster mother and her joys and woes throughout her years of providing care for multiple children, birth, foster, and adopted. It's about reality not happy endings and truth not distortion.

I could not put the book down, and have read up to the last two chapters. I would recommend this book to anyone who has difficult children and wants comfort in knowing they are not alone.

The Unlit Path by Deborah Hannah shows an inspirational demonstration of courage, faithfulness, and forgiveness. I am not an adoptive parent, but was reading this from the view point of a parent, grand parent, and former educator. I can't personally relate with the sacrifices and heartbreak that some foster/adoptive parents face, but this book gives me sympathy and understanding of their challenges. I recently retired after spending 30 years in the classroom. I wish I would have had this book earlier in my career to help interact and understand children and parents who may have been experiencing children with R.A.D. and other difficulties . I admire the Hannah's Christian values and faith and admire how they allowed God to help them through their tears of heartbreak and frustrations. Their love for each other, their children, and their unconditional forgiveness is an example for all of us. Adoptive/foster parents, educators, and social workers would benefit from reading this book. The book is very well written. It's a real page turner. I couldn't put the book down!

As a foster parent this book was very realistic and hit home on a lot of levels.

I highly recommend this wonderful book!! I read it in one sitting; I simply could not put it down. The Hannah family's journey through foster parenting and adoption mirrored my own. My family started fostering children around the same time that the Hannah's did and we have experienced many of the same break downs in the child welfare system that they have. This book is a must read for anyone looking into the possibility of fostering children and also for anyone who knows foster families. The isolation foster families feel when everyone around them starts questioning their parenting, not realizing that the children are very, very ill and need to be parented differently is devastating. The journey towards healing and forgiveness is very uplifting and motivating. Deborah Hannah conveys her joy, betrayal, disillusionment and forgiveness simply and clearly. She gives us the message that life does go on.

This was an amazing book!! I am currently on my way to becoming a foster parent, so I decided to read this book. I started reading it yesterday morning, and finished at 2 o'clock this morning. I couldn't stop reading. I cried while reading it, it was so sad, but I don't regret hearing the story. It needed to be told.

The author has a beautiful way with words, and the book was an easy read. It flowed very well.

A compelling look at the face of evil. In her own twisted mind, Georgia Tann might have been doing what she thought was best for thousands of children but as we learn in this compelling, well-researched book her motives were certainly not for the best interests of the child. We as a society have come so far in protecting our children it is shocking to learn about the early stages of adoption in the early 1900's. Children were torn from their momma's screaming arms duped into believing they were getting medical care and then handed over to rich, well to do parents looking for children of their own. Children were given to pedophiles, farmers just looking for cheap child labor, the horrors are revealed here in a way that no matter how shocking it is to read at times, you are compelled to turn the page. Well written, well researched.

Adoption is supposed to be an act of goodness, but there are those who would corrupt it. "The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, The Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption" tells of Memphis-based black market baby merchant Georgia Tann, who operated from the 1920's to the 1950's conning mothers out of their children or just out and out kidnapping them, only to turn around and sell them to the wealthy to claim as their own. Her orphanage was applauded in spite of its horrifically high death rate. She habitually hid adoption records, a practice that has unfortunately become standardized in today's adoption industry. An expose of a dark individual who treated babies worse than cattle, "The Baby Thief" reveals why, despite its more stringent modern regulations, modern adoption needs to rethink some of its practices (such as sealing records). Highly recommended.

This book exposes the history of adoption in the United States, particularly its corrupt underside. The book addresses four themes:

1. Changes in attitudes about adoption, as well as adoption laws, in the past 100 years.

2. Corruption in adoption, embodied in "The Baby Thief," Georgia Tann. This includes the long-term impact on her victims.

3. Georgia Tann's long-term impact on society as a whole, including her lasting impact on today's adoption laws.

4. A call to revise adoption laws.

It's an engaging read, but loses a star for several instances of repetitive information.

Definitely recommended.

Georgia Tann ran an adoption agency from the 1920s until the 1950s. Supported by a corrupt government, she stole children from poor Memphians and sold them across the country to wealthy families. She ignored background checks and rated people by the amount of money they could pay her. As a result, children were torn from their mothers arms, sometimes right after their births, and many were placed in abusive families. Some tricked mothers never saw their children again. Raymond has a personal interest in the story as an adoptive mother herself, and her enthusiasm makes for a quick read. Her interviews with people who knew Tann and the people affected by her shady practices are excellent additions.

Raymond does a good job of getting at as much information as she can, and this book is well researched. However, I would have liked to know a bit more about the celebrity cases involved. Christina Crawford is perhaps the most famous Georgia Tann adoptee; why wasn't she discussed? Was she stolen from her birth parents? Pamela Powell is also mentioned; Dick Powell threatened to fight if her birth parents tried to reclaim her. Whatever happened to that case?

Overall, this is a good read and not just for people with a specific interest in adoption.

Excellent recollection of a horrible, horrible time in our so-called Democratic Society. I appreciate the efforts of the author and all who helped her. I wish Steven Speilberg would turn this into one of his epics. His Holocaust movie set in motion positive reactions, respect and awareness. Let's hope he can bring this to fruition. But more importantly-the research presented here and the stories told should affect our Elected Officials and our Supreme Court....they should OPEN ALL THE RECORDS sealed because of the manipulation of a criminal, evil woman and her corrupt support system. As an adoptee I want to know who I am-it is my constitutional right to know. To quote Alex Haley:"In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are, and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning; no matter what our attainments in life, there is the most disquieting loneliness." Alex Haley Thank you again Barbara-Bravo

When I first picked up this book, I was a little unsure about it. I am here to tell you that this book is worth reading. It shows a family dealing not only with cancer, but living with past lapses in judgment that sometimes come back in the middle of the night to haunt them.
It made me realize how short life is, and that we should all take a little more time and enjoy the people who are in our lives. We never know when something could happen to them.

This is simply one of the finest memoirs I've read in years; and an important book on serious topics - marriage, divorce, adoption, alcohol, and illness. Armstrong has a lot of wisdom to impart, and does so in a simple yet affecting style that will often break your heart.
Do not miss this book...it's a work of art.

I thank the author. As we all know, there are, at times, difficult decisions to be made in life. When our choices seem both right and wrong simultaneously, the measure of our worth can possibly be revealed. This is a true story, a memoir, of deep human connections. Make a point of reading this one. Then you, too, will be thanking Campbell Armstrong, also for his wonderfully emotionally uplifting writings.

I want to thank the author for following his ambitions, listening to his heart and sharing his writings with us. As we all know, there are, at times, difficult decisions to be made in life. When our choices seem both right and wrong simultaneously, the measure of our worth can possibly be revealed. This is a true story, a memoir, of deep human connections. Make a point of reading this one. You will be thanking Campbell Armstrong, also.

I just read All That Really Matters the UK version of I Hope You Have A Good Life. What a wonderful book! I would definately give more than 5 stars if I could. The book is a true story of a woman who gave up her baby girl years ago. Well she gets married, to who else, Campbell Armstrong an aspiring writer, and has kids, 3 boys, of her own. After they move to Phoenix, they end up getting divorced and Campbell moves back to Ireland where they are originally from, while Eileen stays with the boys in Phoenix. Years later Eileen finds out she has cancer. Across the world, a woman named Barbara also finds out she has cancer. She has been looking for her real mother for a long time. When she finally finds her mother and they both discover they both have cancer, the illness doesn't matter anymore because they have found each other. This is a story of loves lost and found along with lifes ups and downs. What a magnificent story. I have also read Concert of Ghosts by Campbell Armstrong. Also a descriptive book!!!

This book is wonderful. You won't be able to put it down. I left the dishes in the sink, let my children run around like wild animals, just so I could read on.

I couldn't put this book down. It is an awesome love story between parents and their daughter.
Dianna Wells Shire, author "The Ordinary Life of a Military Woman"

This book should be called "Unconditional Love". It was an awesome read.
Dianna Wells Shire, author "The Ordinary Life of a Military Woman"

Journalist Neely Tucker doesn't sugar coat anything about his experiences working in an African orphanage and the gut wrenching, heart rending story of how he (a white American)and his wife (African American) struggle to adopt Chipo (a black African infant girl)in a country not keen on Americans or journalists. This book is a study in contrasts of race, culture, gender, nationality, and personality how they all affect Tucker's family. Wonderful story told from the heart but not sappy or sentimental. This is gritty but inspiring reading.

This was fantastic! I was routing for them the entire book. Moving & emotional - I felt like I was experiencing their pain and frustration and then joy - what an experience!

I work with foster parents and I am always looking for good resources for them. This book was an easy read. It gave a realistic view of the foster parenting role and the emotions connected to caring for difficult children and making the best decisions for the health of the family as a whole. I passed it along to one of my foster parents and she loved it.

It's heart breaking to read what happens to the children of bad parents who are also children of bad parents. Still, It is good to know that foster care works so hard to save injured children and the Moms & Dads. While I don't agree with some of our countries courtroom practices regaurding family. I know that the average everyday people who are Fostercare do everything they can out of love for children. This book was an eye opener for me. Anyone thinking of becoming a foster parent should read this.

I wish this book was much longer--I wanted to know more. The story of a family with the resources to have a luxurious easy life, but chose to open their home and hearts to children who had less than nothing. The selflessness of this family is amazing. I just couldn't have done it. I couldn't have divided myself into so many pieces and have coped with the disorganization. But, I wholeheartedly admire the people who can. Such an inspiring story. Don't miss it!

What an amazing book this is. I was thinking about fostering children and this book was so helpful in my decision. Kathy writes with honesty and although I'm usually not one to cry, through the joy and pain in this book I cried three different times. I couldn't put it down.

This book is fantastic! It offers a realistic view of what raising fostor children is like. It shows the good and the bad, yet I have never wanted to be a fostor parent more!

The author also has a great weekly radio show and a user friendly website. Visit www.creatingafamily.com to access both.

This is absolutely the best book! Dawn Davenport is incredibly thorough in providing a better understanding of adoption and additional resources to best help you through your process. This is a must buy if you are interested in adoption.

I was just beginning the process of International adoption and found this book to be wonderful in helping me understand the process coming up and all the terms that were being used! It was one of the best information books on IA that I have found!

This book is an excellent resource for anyone beginning the international adoption journey. It is full of helpful, up-to-date information as well as personal stories of families who have completed their adoptions. Dawn Davenport gives a balanced view...the anecdotes are authentic and show both picture-perfect examples and ones where things were not so easy. I highly recommend this book!

This book is thorough and well written. I highly recommend it as a research resource for parents reviewing adoption options!

I enjoyed the details of modern-day China while itching at the gender inequities. This book drops you into a whole other world--one that I felt honored to experience from what felt like the authentic "inside."

It seems so many novels about China focus on past eras; it was refreshing and quite pertinent to read a novel that takes place in China's current times.

A lot is expected of a young Chinese girl. "My Half of the Sky" by Jana McBurney-Lin is the story of Li Hui, a young girl who has just achieved marriageable age. She seeks to make the most of herself, but the expectations all around her make it difficult, as her parents seek to use her as pawn to their advantage, she is faced with what she believes to be true love. She must balance career, romance, and family, all to somehow make everyone happy, a tough endeavor indeed. An engaging and entertaining read from beginning to end, "My Half of the Sky" is a poignant tale of the modern Chinese woman, and recommended for community library collections.

I have recently joined a book club and this was the chosen book. I started reading and found the first 50 - 90 pages a little tough.....but then.....I could not put the book down. The characters came alive and I was absolutely immersed. A fantastic book.....can't wait for the sequel:)

This is a beautiful story of family, life, love, responsibility, hopes and dreams. However, it is well balanced, with surprise, disappointments and hopes. Our book club selected this book with some reservation since it was not on one of the best seller lists, we were not disappointed. What disscussion we had. Worth the read.

This is a terrific book about a young Chinese college graduate who struggles to find her way in a China that is increasingly modern but still mired in tradition. Along the way, the author brilliantly weaves in information about China's customs and folklore, without ever lapsing into dry exposition. It's part of the narrative, it's part of the protagonists thought process, and it is fed to the reader in the most natural way. Similarly, when the "heroine" goes to Singapore later in the story, she is taught about life there and the reader learns right along with her. This is good stuff, the way it should be done in fiction. The plot of the book is nice enough, but the real strength of the novel is its characters, all of whom are drawn sharply and distinctly. Chinese names might have been confusing for a western audience, but the author anticipates this and so minor characters are known by their jobs: Mr. Cab Driver, Madame Paper Cutter, etc. And the major characters are so well done that their names aren't a problem: Li Hui, the protagonist; her boyfriend, Chan Hai; the tea seller, Feng Gu; etc. This is a great read.

I read this book to my children (7 and 5) just before our vacation to Newfoundland. It was a great way to learn a bit of historical NL culture and prepare for a wonderful vacation. They loved Thunder and Tom, and could not wait for me to finish reading this book to them. Thunder, a smart and perceptive dog, helps Tom and his adoptive family survive many potential tragedies.

THUNDER OF THE SEA IS THE BEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ!!!!!!!It's about a boy who's never had a home, finally he goes home with strangers and hopes to find a home. then when he's starting to question whether he's going to be just the worker boy or part of the family he finds a miricle dog in the middle a of storm. then everything changes he starts trouble between familys he goes through a constant struggle to belong. thunders love is strong enough to keep them together but is it strong enough to keep the family together as they face nature's fury and other opsticles.

Thunder From the Sea
How would you like to be an orphan who moved into a new family with new people? Well Tom, the main character in this book did and he always wanted a dog. Finally he got one while he was sailing with Enoch and their neighbors the Bosworth's. They saw a black thing in the water when a thunder storm was on the way . They rescued what was a dog and named him Thunder. " Thunder From the Sea" was written by Joan Hiatt Harlow.. If you like realistic fiction you should pick up this book in your library. My favorite part is when Fiona and Tom are trapped in a blizzard on a sheet of ice right before Fiona has her baby . The feeling that I have about this book is that it is a wonderful extravagant book especially if you like dogs. This book takes place on Back "O" the moon island. The most important problem is if Tom can keep Thunder. After all the dog is not really his. He tries to solve the problem by showing how much he loves Thunder. But will it work? Can Tom keep Thunder?

By Emily

The book Thunder from the Sea, by Joan Hiatt Harlow, takes place in 1929 on the island of Back O' the Moon, which is part of Newfoundland. It is a realistic fiction book, and the chapters are a little on the short side (around 5-12 pages long).

The main characters in the book were Tom Campbell, who is an orphan that is going to live with a fisherman and his wife; the fisherman Enoch, who is a kind man that has a nice house on top of a hill, and his wife, Fiona, who is also kind and very friendly. There are other families on the island, like the Bosworths.

In the book, Tom is just starting to live with the Murrays (Enoch & Fiona). He is treated as part of the family and helps Enoch with repairing fishing supplies, and he even goes out fishing with Enoch and his friends. One day, while they are out fishing, a storm appears and Tom rescues a dog struggling to stay alive. Tom names him Thunder, and soon the dog proves his loyalty many times by rescuing various people from disasters. Then Fiona gets pregnant and Enoch is out on a fishing trip. Margaret tells Tom to get Fiona to the doctor, all the way across the frozen harbor, because there isn't much Margaret can do to help under the circumstances. Thunder has to bring Fiona over the harbor with Tom's help very quickly. But then, Tom looses his compass and a blizzard strikes. Will Thunder be able to save Fiona and her new baby?

My favorite part of Thunder from the Sea is when the mummers come to the Murray's house. It is very mysterious, and some parts about that are confusing, but it's interesting to learn about some of the Newfoundland customs. And, later in the book, it's interesting to find out who they were in the first place.

I think that Thunder from the Sea is a very good book with a lot of action. This is a good book about a boy and the loyalty he has for his dog. I would recommend it to people who like dogs and who like suspenseful books. I would give Thunder from the Sea 4 stars. * * * *

I got this book from the book fair at my school.It is a very beloved story.It is about a boy name Tom who gets sent to live with a fisherman and his wife, and he finds a dog of his dreams by the sea in the middle of a storm,but now the fishermans wife is pregnant and the dogs owner may be found.Just read it and find out more.DO NOT listen to any bad reveiws of this book,just trust me read it is VERY VERY good.