Adoption Books

I'm almost 13yo and this has got to be one of the best books I've read. I get the Brio Girl's magazine, and this is along the same lines, it's wonderful! I can't wait to read the rest. It really helped me in my faith.

Fast Forward to Normal is a great book! It keeps a person interested throughout the storyline, and helps one to grow in their faith -- without even realizing it.

Becca is happy with her family and friends and the way everything is going in her life, until Alvaro and Hannah enter it. Alvaro is a young boy her parents fostered after he was sent to the U.S. for surgery. His parents are considering adopting him, but Becca is completely against the idea. Hannah, a strong Christian who thinks everything she does is right with God, is the new kid at school. She's very attractive, and soon wins over Tyler's heart. (Tyler is the only Brio Girl who's not a girl.) Everything seems to be falling apart in Becca's life, but throughout the book, she learns what is really important to her and her relationship with God.

I worked with Rose Johnson-Tsosie at EPRI. When I heard about her book I was eager to read it. I will be moving to New Mexico in a few years and am very interested in the culture of the Navajo People.

My heart ached for the young Helen when she discovered her babies were taken from her. What enormous relief & joy she must have felt when she learned her daughters had grown up to be beautiful, acommplished women.

This is a wonderful re-telling of the saga and I applaud Rose for telling it for all to read.

Pamela Eccles Rietz

Great summer read!

Wow! What a moving story of a Navajo woman's 33 year journey back to her roots after being mistakenly adopted out in the 1950s. Written from the perspective of several key people in the story. The frightened 13 year old girl who travels to a small Hopi hospital to give birth to premature infant twins, the older Mormon couple who long for more children and then of course, the perspective of one of the twins (the author)growing up Navajo in an Anglo world.

This is a beautiful story that will be sure to tug at the heartstrings of every mother and anyone who loves an inspirational read about everyday miracles!

Here's a feel good book just in time for the election season. But it's more than just that. Perkins weaves an exquisite cultural sensitivity into her Presidential election drama, drawing on personal experience and what I can only describe as a really big heart. The characters: An adopted South Asian teen. A flower child mom who is a church-going political liberal! Her husband: the kindest, most tolerant Republican (since Abe Lincoln), but not a church goer. The opponent: Hill sans Bill, with a handsome son to boot. But the best character of all is Uncle Mohamed. I can't wait for him to reappear in the sequel.

And yes, there are "bad guys"--an over-the-hill (at 30!) media know-it-all, and the usual paparazzi.

While marketed as a teen novel, ADULTS WILL REALLY WANT TO READ THIS as an antidote to the evening news. Perkins is clearly anchored in reality, even as she tries to bring out the best in (nearly all) of her characters.

You know that great feeling when you read a book for the first time and just fall in love with the character or the author? That's what happened to me when I read this book. No, I'm not fourteen, but if you haven't ever read children's or teen literature just for you, you might be missing out. Not only that, but occasionally reading what they are reading is a great way to connect with your teen or preteen.

Sixteen-year-old Sameera Righton is the adopted Pakistani daughter of white parents. Her father James Righton is running for President. Between boarding school and tagging along with her ambassador father, Sameera has lived much of her life abroad, and the campaign team thinks that she needs to look and act more "American." Sameera, or Sparrow, as she is known to her friends and family, is a typical American teen--she texts, she blogs, she's interested in sports, and well, yes she's glad that this makeover sponsored by her dad's campaign team might make her visible to the opposite sex. It's an inspiring book, because we get to see a teen on the cusp of adulthood who respects herself and stands up for herself. What mom doesn't want that for her own daughter? It reminds me a great deal of the movie The Princess Diaries (Special Edition) because it is an accurate portrayal of the many teens who don't choose an R-rated lifestyle or attitude, but are still modern and fun.

This is one of the best books written on the subject. I couldn't put it down. It's not just for those in the adoption triad, but something most people would enjoy. I highly recommend it.

When I read memoir, I scribble the margins full of notes about writing techniques that might apply to my own passion for recording my life as memoir.

Ellerby's Following the Tambourine Man: A Birthmother's Memoir inspired an abundance of scribbles. It's an excellent example of how to tell a story. Ellerby provides immediacy whether using past or present tense. She skips around in her life with ease, sometimes writing about her adult self and her sixteen-year-old self in the same sentence. And she reflects on an era by using political and cultural happenings and lyrics from the Beatles and other musical groups popular in the 60's. Although we belong to different time periods and Ellerby's story is quite different from mine, I identified with her heart-wrenching drama by imagining what if the accidental pregnancy had happened to me.

Yes, that big what if of my era and hers--before The Pill. Ellerby's privileged life in the conservative suburbs of Los Angeles wasn't protection enough. She and her boyfriend that she loved for way too long into her adult life did it only once, and when her parents found out she was pregnant, they did what any parent with wealth and status did back then. Overnight, they shipped her off to a home for unwed mothers and covered up the incident by constructing a lie that everyone, even the father of the child, was told. One lie led to another, all under the guise of what was best for their daughter.

Ellerby wanted to keep her baby, but it was taken from her after only a moment's glance. She didn't argue nor did she discuss her sadness with her parents or anyone else. Instead, she spent most of her adult life living a lie, feeling lost and lonely.

There is so much more to the story: the birthmother's guilt, her multiple marriages, and then finally the happy ending. I strongly recommend the book.

by Donna Van Straten Remmert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Wonderful story..It is very important that children and parents are aware of Rescue Services...maybe through books like these more families will contact the rescue people and the "puppy mills" will cease their horribe operations. Our very best little doxy was a rescue dog and I cannot say enough about these caring people...GREAT BOOK !!!

The latest novel in the Max and Annie series, Forever Home is a chapter book for young readers distinguished by its high-quality paper, its gentle color illustrations on virtually every other page, and its heartwarming story. Trini, a cheerful three-legged English springer spaniel, finds herself abandoned when her owner passes away. Her journey in search of a new "forever home" will take her past obstacles and through hard times, but with courage and cheer, Trini is determined to brave any obstacle. Highly recommended, especially for young dog lovers.

Anyone who is a Foster or Adoptive Parent, needs this book on their bedside table! Simple to read, easy to understand, and enlightening for all, dealing/living with "kids in care". I would reccommend this book be mandatory for all Child Care Agencies to provide to Foster/Adoptive parents!

Thank you Mr. Delany and please keep the books coming!

Many people, including new and prospective foster and adoptive parents, presume that "replacing" a "bad" family with a "good" one will normalize children who've been neglected or abused. It's suprising when these kids, who "should" be bending over backwards to please their new parents, repeatedly lie, despite being caught red-handed; pick fights when things appear to be going smoothly; and set up their "replacement" moms and dads to play the role of bully.

Fostering Changes provides a framework for understanding why so many foster kids engage in anti-social, self-defeating behavior despite months, and even years, in healthy, loving foster homes. It also describes the dynamics which can result in disrupted placements, even in families where seasoned and highly capable foster parents feel well-equipped to handle children with "special needs."

This book, written as a practical guide for both professional and lay persons, is easy to read, with a minimum of jargon, numerous case examples, and charts summarizing key points. It's clear that Dr. Delaney, a psychologist, has a great deal of experience with emotionally disturbed children and a wealth of compassion for the pain of foster parents seeking to be healers. As a foster parent, I "saw" myself in these pages and "heard" Dr. Delaney telling me, "No, it's not just you," "There is hope," and, "You're not alone."

My only major criticism is that Delaney uses most of the book to explain "the problem" and says relatively little about what to do about it. His follow-up book, Troubled Transplants, is a helpful sequel which emphasizes therapeutic intervention.

Thank You Fred!
I bought the book early, and finished it over Thanksgiving weekend. As a waiting China Mom, I found it very inspiring and a true gift for Lila when she is older.
You are a truly special couple, and I laughed and cried my way through the book. You have a true gift Fred, and thanks for sharing it with the rest of the world!
Sandra Aragona

I just read this new book by the gifted Author Fred Ford. What an incredible "Mission of Love" that will never be forgoton by all who read it! I could not put it down and everyone will be inspired by this Adoption Love Story!

We Love you Lila!

Tom, Maryellen and Taylor AnsbroA Gift For Lila Rose: A China Adoption Love Story

A truly inspirational book that demonstrates you should always "Keep The Faith" and NEVER give up.

This book will make you view your own life in a different way. The part on adoption is very moving. The book will lead the reader to see in a very easy way, how important it is to move on, and never give up.

Ben is eleven years old and on his way to his eighth foster home. He's lived in seven of them since he was five years old, so he knows all about foster homes and the state's system for homeless kids. And that's why he's worried about Grover G. Graham. Even the name is weird. What kind of mother would give her son a name like that? A mother who left him, that's what kind. Just got up one day and ran off, leaving her son with her boyfriend, who wasn't even Grover's father. Grover entered the system before he was two years old.

Ben has survived the system by keeping his rules. The biggest rule is: don't get close to people. Whenever he has to leave a place, he blanks it out of his mind and leaves a clean slate for whoever is next in the lineup. He keeps three goals in his mind all the time: start with now, stick it out until he's 18, and walk away from the system forever.

But when he meets Grover, another foster kid with Ben's eighth foster family, he forgets his rules before he even realizes that he's forgotten them. He starts to care. And he worries. Especially when he finds out that Grover's mother wants back into her son's life. But the foster family thinks it's great. They're helping her get her act together. They say that she's trying her best, and that Ben should give her a break and stop letting Grover get so attached to him. They say he should let go of Grover.

But he can't. Grover's mother reminds him of his own mother, who dumped him with his great-grandmother when he was a baby. Nobody's been able to find her, and Ben doesn't want to. He won't leave Grover in the clutches of a mother just like her, either. But what can he do? How can he fight the system, which is pushing Grover back? And how can he survive the system himself anymore, now that he forgot his rules?

--- Reviewed by Tamara Penny

Grover G. Graham and Me is a great book about a boy named Ben. He lives with foster parents. His mom left him and he doesn't have any siblings. He has stayed with many different families but he becomes really attached to a baby boy in one of them. I really liked it because you always wanted to read on. Sometimes you were sort of worried about Ben and sometimes it was just a fun and happy story. Also you really got to know about the characters and what they would do. That is why I really liked the book!

Robin Minietta writes exquisitely and I was touched by her searing honesty and candor in describing her trials and tribulations in trying to conceive, facing menopause, losing a parent, and living in an adopted land. She brings a keen journalistic eye for detail to her tales of expatriate living in Hong Kong, and conveys a joy for life and adventure. Above all, her stories of love for her children will resonate with parents everywhere.

Wow! A wonderful, heartfelt book about real life experiences. Robin Minietta is a true writer, who grabs you and keeps you reading. From her change at 10, to her realalistic views of adoption, to her families love (and hardships). I laughed and cried, a lot! I can't wait for her next novel. I am so impressed with this author...bravo!