Adoption Books

Sandy Musser's all-too-real story is an inspiration to anyone involved in adoption reform. She is a courageous woman who was willing to sacrifice her own well-being to help others search and reunite with their true families. Those who believe in bringing natural families together again are fortunate to have someone like Sandy on their side! I would recommend this book for anyone involved in activism of any kind . . . although it will make you angry at the United States court system for the unjust manner in which they treated the author, you will undoubtedly finish the book feeling good about this one brave American citizen.

Sandy Musser was imprisoned for doing no more than millions of investigators do with the blessing of state licensing agencies. Locating people. Reuniting families separated by adoption, and on many occasions outwitting those who would forever keep these families apart. For that, she spent 4 months in a Federal Prison

Researchers in the adoption reform movement read this book! Know who you are talking to, who you are so valiantly and compassionately trying to help. They may not be WHO you think they are! And you could be set up as Sandy was.

As you read To Prison With Love:

Rejoice with Sandy as she reunites family after family. Admire her for fictionalizing names to protect people who helped her, and for reassuring an investigator that she works with, who thinks SHE is being investigated, that she will stand by her no matter what. Feel her growing apprehension as she starts suspecting SHE is being setup to take the fall for the investigator. And "friend." (Named in the book) Cringe when she reads the morning headlines that are her first notice that she has been setup, and has been indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, theft of government property, and other things. Sit with her through a long trial. Read actual transcripts of the testimony--not hers, for she was afraid she may incriminate others in the adoption reform movement. Wonder why the real felon only got 2 months in a halfway house and probation, while Sandy got 4 months in prison.

Ride with Sandy to prison, where she is not processed for 3 days. Sit with her i a cell where there was no time, no radio, nothing to read, no one to speak to and none of her medication available. Cry with her as she lies on the floor, tears streaming, quietly singing an old hymn she learned in Sunday School--"On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.... I will cherish that old cross, till my burdens at last I lay down" Until she falls asleep. Stay with Sandy as she copes as best she can with prison life. Share her bewilderment and pain as she begins to realize that many of her friends in the adoption reform movement have turned their backs on her, afraid of getting involved. Finally, go home with Sandy to Cape Coral, Florida where she tries to start over. Without being permitted to engage in adoption search. Perhaps her greatest punishment. Reunting families was Sandy's life.

This is an important story because it illustrates how sealed adoption records cause disrespect for law and force people who need to make contact with their biological families to take desperate measures. The struggle for open records is a Civil Rights movement. I was disappointed by the quality of the writing, however. The book is only somewhat chronological and skips around a bit. Although it is a valuable memoir, a more cohesive writing of the events entailed would help. Also, those that are involved in this Civil Rights movement have to be prepared to made an example of as this is one of the only ways to get attention for the movement. When MLK was incarcerated he wrote the landmark "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". It would have helped the book and the movement in general were the tone of the book not one of paranoia and self-hagiography.

Very moving story of a young unwed mothers emotional parting with her child through adoption. After a marriage and four other wonderful children, and 22 years later she begins a dedicated search for the daughter she had to give up but always held the love and void in her heart. The reader will feel the emotional highs and lows of the search. The joy when pieces of linking evidence is discovered. The joy and heartbreak ofdiscovery-reconcilation-rejection and the happiness of reunification. The author becomes active in helping others in their seach for adult children given up for adoption as infants,and adult adoptees searching for their parents. There are hundreds of heart warming stories of reunification. This work of doing nothing more than helping other adults in a search for their roots causes her to be indited and convicted by our government. Eventhough Ms. Musser could have plea bargined, she elected to go to prison for her strong beliefs that these laws are terribly unjust. With the strong support of a loving family and many friends she is able to survive the prison experience and get exposure to the issue through media i.e, 60 Minutes , as well as other video programs and the press. Somewhere in the book Ms. Musser says she is 5' 4 1/2" tall, but when you finish the book she will stand about 10' tall in your eyes. This book is must reading for anyone affected by adoption which, I think is about one out of every three American families.

Sandy Musser was imprisoned for doing no more than millions of investigators do with the blessing of state licensing agencies. Locating people. Reuniting families separated by adoption, and on many occasions outwitting those who would forever keep these families apart. For that, she spent 4 months in a Federal Prison

Researchers in the adoption reform movement read this book! Know who you are talking to, who you are so valiantly and compassionately trying to help. They may not be WHO you think they are!

As you read To Prison With Love:

Rejoice with Sandy as she reunites family after family. Admire her for fictionalizing names to protect people who helped her, and for reassuring an investigator that she works with, who thinks SHE is being investigated, that she will stand by her no matter what. Feel her growing apprehension as she starts suspecting SHE is being setup to take the fall for the investigator. And "friend." (Named in the book)

Feel Sandy's shock and horror when she reads the morning headlines that are her first notice that she HAS been setup, and has been indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, theft of government property, and other things.

Sit with her through a long trial. Read actual transcripts of the testimony--not hers, for she was afraid she may incriminate others in the adoption reform movement. Wonder why the government would let the real felon off with only 2 months in a halfway house and probation, while Sandy got 4 months in prison. You won't need to really, for the government was after a much bigger "fish" then the investigator. Humming in Sandy Musser, of the Musser Foundation would, as the government investigator said "Send a (more) chilling message to those would would do those kinds of things."

Ride with Sandy to prison, where she is not processed for 3 days. Sit with her in a silent cell where there is no time, no radio, nothing to read, no one to speak to and none of her medication available. Cry with her as she lies on the floor, tears streaming, quietly singing an old hymn she learned in Sunday School--"On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.... I will cherish that old cross, till my burdens at last I lay down" Until she falls asleep.

Stay with Sandy as she copes as best she can with prison life. Share her bewilderment and pain as she begins to realize that many of her friends in the adoption reform movement have turned their backs on her, afraid of getting involved.

Finally, go home with Sandy to Cape Coral, Florida where she tries to start over. Without being permitted to engage in adoption search. Perhaps her greatest punishment. Reunting families was Sandy's life.

I bought this book randomly hoping that after finding really poorly put together books on Adoption both domestic and international this one would be the key. I am currently writing a research paper contrasting and comparing international and domestic adoption for school. Trust me this book is excellent and outlining the process in detail for someone looking deeply into the multi faceted world of adoption.

I would also recommend books by Lois Gilman, Lee Varon and Myra Alperson- the multicultural resource book

The author is my mother. I feel she did a great job of listing the highs and lows of adopting a child, like me. I hope that for those who put a thought into adopting a child that they read this book and understand where she is coming from. Adopting a child could be difficult but most of the time it is worth it. Good job Mom!

The Unofficial Guide to Adopting a child is a extremely helpful resource. I appreciated the fact the author is the coordinator of the Vermont Adoptive Parent Support Network and is involved in adoptive training and workshops for parents and professionals. She is experienced in the challenging needs of adoptive children and has inside information. I like the way the book was formatted.

The book gives you comprehensive coverage of the necessary and vital information you'll need in order to decide if foreign or domestic adoption is right for you and if so how to go about it step by step. The information is up to date and presented in a sensible, concise, readable and applicable fashion.

I also felt the special features like: what to watch out for, moneysavers, timesavers and bright ideas were extemely pertinent and helpful. There is a very complete appendix in the back of the book with many valuable resources for both domestic and foreign adoption included.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone considering or in the process of adopting a child.

The Unofficial Guide to Adopting a child is a extremely helpful resource. I appreciated the fact the author is the coordinator of the Vermont Adoptive Parent Support Network and is involved in adoptive training and workshops for parents and professionals. She is experienced in the challenging needs of adoptive children and has inside information. I like the way the book was formatted.

The book gives you comprehensive coverage of the necessary and vital information you'll need in order to decide if foreign or domestic adoption is right for you and if so how to go about it step by step. The information is up to date and presented in a sensible, concise, readable and applicable fashion.

I also felt the special features like: what to watch out for, moneysavers, timesavers and bright ideas were extemely pertinent and helpful. There is a very complete appendix in the back of the book with many valuable resources for both domestic and foreign adoption included.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone considering or in the process of adopting a child.

This well-meaning book unfortunately presents an entire chapter on ideas about Reactive Attachment Disorder derived from the belief system of a "fringe therapy" and not on scientific understanding of early personality development. In a list of organizations that are sources of help for adoptive parents, the book includes the "Attachment Center at Evergreen", at the time of publication a hotbed of treatments involving physical restraint and emotional intimidation of children. A child's death at the hands of therapists occurred in the year that this book was published and was connected with some of the ideas discussed
by the author. I would hope that a revised version of this publication would be more cautious about this topic. Meanwhile, readers should be warned that this edition's discussion of Reactive Attachment Disorder, and of the whole issue of attachment, is profoundly inaccurate and deceptive.

Jean Mercer, Ph.D.
President, New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health

The illustration is beautiful!! The story is short and sweet. It's the perfect length for their short, but ever growing attention span.

This book is beautifully illustrated and gentle in manner. It shows the beautiful bond of mother and baby. I love it because it shows breastfeeding, with no bottles, whatsoever. It's a great book for young children who are expecting a new brother or sister.

While I agree the book is very nicely done, I guess I misread some of the other reviews, because I got a distinctly different impression of what the book was. I'm the father of a 20 month old son, with another baby on the way. I was trying to find books to help explain to my son what was going on, and thought (from some of the other reviews) that this might be a good one to use. Not!

This is a good book for first time parents. It is very nicely illustrated, and has a nice (but simple) story. But it's not intended to give an older sibling a clue as to what is going on (i.e., the impending doom of their "me" centered world ;-)

If a book does what it is supposed to do, it not only moves the reader, but it also reminds the reader of the emotions he or she felt the first time the reading the book. A very simple and wonderful story about parents' love and hope for their newborn child, 'Welcome, Little Baby' is a snapshot in time of the reason two people marry and have children.

After I bought 'Welcome, Little Baby,' I read the story to my daughter, our first, who could not have been much older than 18-months at the time. Even reading very slowly with ample, age-appropriate inflection, 'Welcome...' is no more than a two-minute read. I could never read it just one time. My daughter had me read it over and over again - a dozen times if she asked once. Within a few days, she had memorized the story and began to "read" it to herself as she turned the pages.

The illustrations, the story, and the mood are very gentle and warm. The book itself is a sort of metaphor for the care and rearing of newborns. A terrific book and a great gift for couples who have just delivered or very young children who have a little brother or sister on-the-way.

The story, illustrations and small size of Welcome Little Baby make it a favorite in the library. I have read it with my daughter since before she was born. Now, she "reads" it to her baby brother. It makes a sweet gift for any child.

The stories were sincere. I was looking for more transracial adoption stories on older child adoption but only found one inside this book. The black children that were adopted were adopted as infants, so it wasn't of much interest to my situation. I found that each parental story was very honest and will help those of you who have adopted internationally.

My husband and I are just starting on our own adoption journey. I just finished reading Carole's book last week and now my husband is now reading it. I cried tears of joy throughout the entire book! I cannot thank the author enough for writing this book; Reading everyone's story gives us the understanding that though we are in for our own roller coaster, there will be pure joy in the end. The stories also answered so many questions that other books fail to address and gave me greater insight into other issues such as the heartache birthmothers go through. We, too, believe that God will lead us to our child, but the couples' words in this book reinforced and strengthened our instinct.

Carole Turner's book is a wonderful, moving work. Her sensetive interviews with these 11 families bring the reader into their lives without intrusion. Each account of the preparation for and travel through the adoption process is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. These families' experiences are so varied; their reasons for deciding to adopt so diverse, yet the underlying desire to build a family is common among them. I was particularly moved by the courage of the parents. They worked so hard to achieve their goals. The single parents are so brave to take on such a challenge, and the couples had their own sets of hurdles to overcome, from infertility to taking older children who were traumatized by their pasts, to travel to a foreign country to meet their children. My hat goes off to Carole Turner for being able to enable the families to open up, to her own daugher, Emma, for being the inspiration for the book, and most of all, to the families featured, for sharing their lives selflessly and being such wonderful people. I highly recommend this book for anyone whose life has been touched by adoption, or for anyone interested in family.

Reading this book was like joining an adoption support group! The author deftly tells the stories of several adoptive parents in different circumstances, describing their joys, frustrations, hopes and fears with such sensitivity that I found I couldn't put the book down. I was also surprised to find that I am now open to other, less-traditional forms of adoption.

I recommend it highly.

Adoption Without Fear is now 10 years old and still a very correct and accurate reflection of the best adoption practice possible. It is a painful book as it does not allow the shortcuts that many adoption agencies would like to bring adoptive families to believe in. It is honest and accurate. It cannot be ignored by any family wanting to provide the best adoption experience for their child. They themselves may hurt in the process but that is the normal history of truly loving parenting in our human culture. This book talks of the fully open adoption process which is the only safe adoption process in the US. By "safe" I mean that 35 years after the adoption the adoptive parent will have the greatest probability possible of a continuing strong and positive relationship with the child they had adopted 35 years earlier. An adopting family will never regret reading this book, especially as their child becomes an adult and moves out in the world. They will be forever thankful. Bill Betzen

There were a number of stories and explained the emotional impact of adopting. However, it did not give much else. It only discussed stories of open adoption. It did not deal with any issues that the parents had with the children.

This is a very informative, easy-to-read, and interesting book. The collection of short stories share real experiences from down-to-earth people. BUY IT and READ IT to learn about open adoption success stories . . .!!

My husband and I adopted through the agency Jim Gritter works with. The material in this book is a very real look at stories of open adoption! Each story shares a common thread, but is unique. I reread this book several times as we waited to be chosen by a birthmom...wondering what our experience would be like! I learned that each story was different because of the PEOPLE involved...that's what it's really all about!

I don't want to detract from the inspiration this book obviously provides but was sad to see that she has adapted Loren Eiseley's Starfish story as her own - and appears to have given no credit. Eiseley's original can be found in his book, The Star Thrower.

There are no words to fully describe the depth of this book's scope in such relevant context of shelter work! The writing is excellent, the overall aura and ambience provides insight, inspiration and aspiration toward the goals encompassed in these stories! Every individual encounter in this volume will capture your emotions with hope and a desire to be a part of similar endeavors!

This was a wonderful book, especially for shelter workers or volunteers who see and experience some of the same things as in the stories. Many of the stories dealt with the euthanasia side of shelter work but end with a hopeful note. The book stresses the importance of spaying and neutering and not treating companion animals as throw away objects but as important members of the family. I recommend this book highly for animal lovers and am even considering buying a second copy and donating it to my local humane society's new library.

anyone who REALLY loves animals will love this book. I cried and laughed by the end of the book, it was really emotional.

"Come to the Window" is not really a humorous book, except that I can identify so much - and find joy in the camaraderie. It is not really a technical book, but has plenty of concrete experiences to identify with and learn from. This is an honest book - with honest to goodness feelings: fear, frustration, hope, joy, indignation, love, and faith - the things that life is made of. Daniela has some difficulties in learning and social realms that make her a challenge for the Goldstones, and these difficulties are combined with the reality of adoption and the experience of international adoption and the environment of family life, public school, and health care. Christina has done something more. She has, as can be seen in her book, been diligent in journalling her experience. There are so many parts of my experience in international adoption and bringing our adopted children into our family, that I've forgotten, or would have forgotten had "Come to the Window" not recalled them for me. Some of the most difficult times, especially the emotional times, I had buried on purpose, but now with Christina as my companion I can remember and observe - look how far we've come. Thank you, Christina, for helping me "Come to the Window."

I am happy to see this book. As a parent of an adopted (in March 1991) Romanian girl, I too, knew before I traveled, the effects of institutionalization on a child. I think that many parents do and did not. the book is a valuable tool for this purpose. It also shows the joy a child can have when loved and nurtured by parents willing to give what it takes !!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are about to adopt a child from Romania or any European area, I recommend you read this book beforehand. I am an adoptive parent and it was most helpful to know of the author's experiences and helped prepare us for the risks as well as the joys of adopting from overseas - such as delayed development of the children due to being raised in an orphanage, the difficulties in working with a child whose first language is not English, helping an orphanage child adapt to family life, etc. I wish there were more books out there which contain the personal experiences of adoptive parents, especially those who adopt older children (as we did).Otherwise, potential adoptive parents have to navigate through the maze of Web resources and links to find support and connection with others, especially if they live in small cities.

Christina Goldstone's account of life with her Romanian-born daughter is an excellent account of the potential problems that children who have lived in orphanages may present. Prospective adoptive parents ought to read this book. Mrs. Goldstone's devotion and love for Daniela are inspiring and heartwarming. The only criticism I have of this book is that the book requires some good editing; spelling and grammatical errors abound. Still, the book's substance is what is truly important.

There are three main characters in Hand Of Fate. The first one is Anne. Anne is in seventh grade and is about fourteen years old. Anne is part of the fortune tellers club. Anne is blonde and is a cheerleader. Another main character that I would like to introduce is Juniper. Juniper is fourteen and in seventh grade she is also part of the fortune tellers club. Juniper has brown hair and is also one of Beth and Anne's friend. Speaking of Beth she is also one of the main characters in Hand of fate. Beth is also part of the fortune tellers club. Beth is fourteen and is in seventh grade. Beth has brown hair and is very funny.
In Hand Of Fate there is a girl named Anne and she got in a car accident on her way to cheer camp. Just from that accident she finds out a huge secret about her life. As she was looking for her birth certificate she finds adoption papers and they had her name on it. Towards the middle of the story Anne finds her real ant and learns more about her Mother. Soon Anne finds out that it was her Mom's funeral that had made her get in the accident in the first place. At the end she finds out that her Mom was protecting her from a terrible fate. This story was in the twenty first century and took place in a traffic line on the way to cheer camp. The theme of this story is to teach you that fate can be a very important part of your life. I love Hand Of Fate. I love Hand Of Fate because it is mysterious and you never know what's going to happen. I also like this book because the most excitable and unpredictable things happen.

The fifth book in this mystically fun series reveals a HUGE surprise for one of the members of the Fortune-Teller's Club. A sudden traffic accident sends Anne to the hospital and ruins her dreams of going to cheerleading camp.

Anne's disappointment turns into a mysterious puzzle when she gets a strong feeling that the accident happened for a reason. So she embarks on a quest to discover the truth. But is the shocking truth more than Anne can handle?

Don't miss this latest Fortune-Teller's Club mystery! It'll keep you guessing until the final DRAMATIC conclusion.

There three main characters in Hand Of Fate. The first one is Anne. Anne is in seventh grade and is about fourteen years old. Anne is part of the fortune tellers club. Anne is blonde and is a cheerleader. Another main character that I would like to introduce is Juniper. Juniper is fourteen and in seventh grade she is also part of the fortune tellers club. Juniper has brown hair and is also one of Beth and Anne's friend. Speaking of Beth she is also one of the main characters in Hand Of Fate. Beth is also part of the fortune tellers club. Beth is fourteen and is in seventh grade. Beth has brown hair and is very funny.
In Hand Of Fate there is a girl named Anne and she got in a car accident on her way to cheer camp. Just from that accident she finds out a huge secret about her life. As she was looking for her birth certificate she finds adoption papers and they had her name on it. Towards the middle of the story Anne finds her real ant and learns more about her mother. Soon Anne finds out that it was her Mom's funeral that had made her get in the accident in the first place. At the end she finds out that her mom was protecting her from a terrible fate. This story was in the twenty first century and took place in a traffic line on the way to cheer camp. The theme of this story is to teach you that fate can be a very important part of your life. I love Hand Of Fate. I love Hand of fate because it is mysterious and you never know what's going to happen. I also like this book because the most excitable and unpredictable things happen.

The Fortune Tellers Club is a delightful series by professional storyteller Dotti Enderle. This series, geared towards ages 9-12, features three best friends--Juniper Lynch, Anne Donovan, and Gena Richmond--who use divination to solve mysteries, explain relationships, and understand life experiences. Hand of Fate is book 5 in the series and is told from the perspective of Anne Donovan.

Anne is psyched! She's on her way to cheerleading camp, and just knows she'll win Cheerleader of the Year! Just moments before she was about to leave, a freak car accident leaves her with an injured leg--and stuck at home. Anne is disappointed and angry. Who's to blame for this? Someone must be at fault! A funeral procession was taking place at the time of the accident; Anne concludes that it's the dead lady's fault. Driven to find out about the nature of fate and the woman who died, she begins a quest for answers. Gena and Juniper make a divination tool out of a glove and give it to Anne as a present. However, is Anne prepared for the life-changing answers she will get?

This is the best book of the series, in my opinion. Featuring real-life challenges and family secrets, as well as the fascinating element of divination, Hand of Fate will keep you on the edge of your seat...and wondering about the nature of Fate itself.

I'm a fan of good juvenile fiction, and read this genre for relaxation. I thoroughly enjoyed books 2-5 and highly recommend them for girls 9-12, as well as adults that enjoy mysteries and divination in this genre.

Jamison Odone's HONEY BADGERS tells of a boy brought up by mammals considered the most fearless creatures in the world - and so he himself is gentle and fearless as a result. Funny images about a boy's life as an honorary honey badger complete with honey badger father and family provide a gentle story kids will appreciate.

Imagine a book that was basically the lovechild of Maurice Sendak and Edward Gorey, with the sweetness of a Mem Fox outing worked in there for spice. Hold that image in your mind and you might begin to get an inkling of the pretty little oddity that is "Honey Badgers". It is difficult for a picture book to tread the fine line between quirkiness and incomprehensible muck. "Honey Badgers" not only treads, but dances upon this line, producing an oddly sweet, if baffling, tale of unconventional families and how normalcy differs within each and every household.

"I get along with honey badgers," says our narrator. This stands to reason when you consider that a pair raised him. Maurice and June have been good to their adopted son. Certainly they are different from him. While they eat snakes, he eats flowers. But they're caring, affectionate adoptive parents, often making kites with their boy out of ferns, living quietly in their den. The boy admits that this kind of life may seem strange to some, but it has nothing on his friend who lives with a pair of creeping beetles. "That's absurd!" That said, he goes to bed, his loving honey badger parents looking on.

So, I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but prior to reading this book I didn't even know that there even were creatures out there called honey badgers. You might know them by their other name, ratels. Whatever the case, as strange as the book can be, Odone has certain facts right. Honey badgers like their honey, sure, but snakes are what they're known for eating. The Guinness Book of World Records calls them "the most fearless animals in the world", which doesn't really come into play in the story. And kids hoping that this book might give them some report material on honey badgers are going to be disappointed, not to mention downright befuddled.

I got a shocking amount of information off of the bookflap of this title, which is a good or a bad thing, depending on how you want to look at it. Apparently the hero of this tale is a boy. I suppose Front Street would know. They wrote the book, after all, but I am just as comfortable believing the protagonist to be a girl. I also learned that honey badgers are "considered, pound for pond, the most fearless animals in the world." That doesn't really come up in the story but it sounds nice on a page. The bookflap ends with, "Jamison Odone has written a sprightly nonsense tale and filled it with radiant, exotic imagery that demands and rewards close attention." And that is something that we call all agree on.

Sendak is the greatest influence on Odone, it seems. For one thing, the honey badgers' names are Maurice and June. If anyone can explain the "June" to me, please do. I would have done better with "Maurice and Ursula". The art is entirely Sendakian too. From the color scheme to the mild eccentricities, to the image of the narrator as a naked baby, the book comes across as nothing so much as a gentle homage. It has a mood, however, and delicate wordplay of an Edward Gorey creation. Sentences like, "They found me in a basket, on top of a rock, covered with a herringbone-patterned wool blanket," or the seeming non-sequitor, "Last week, an empty boat floated down the stream," bear his mark. So too does the umbrella the honey badgers carry. It sports an emblem of a skull with feathered wings, and appears in most of the scenes. But at the beginning of this review I mentioned "the sweetness of a Mem Fox outing," and I'll stand by that statement. Sendak and Gorey have their charms, but it was the gentle sweetness of the book that stayed with me long after I turned the last page in the story. You can be weird all you want, but unless you provide a little heart to your tale, you'll just remain another forgettable oddity.

Sometimes you need a picture book that's not going to be like anything else you've read before. I might have been reminded of similar artists when I read, "Honey Badgers", but I consider it wholly original in terms of text and type. Somehow the entire mood of the piece leaves you feeling happy. I can easily see this becoming a favorite bedtime story for some children, even if they can't put into words what it is about the tale that makes them so happy. You should always keep a couple picture books on hand to build up and influence your children's nighttime dreams. "Honey Badgers" is perfect for this purpose. Sweet, strange, sublime.

Jamison Odone, Honey Badgers (Front Street, 2007)

Do you need to know anything other than that this book is narrated by a child who's been raised by badgers? You do? Okay, then I'll add that it makes no sense whatsoever. If you're not yet enticed, let me add in Odone's rather Maurice Sendak-esque illustrations. The book's biggest drawback is that there's simply not enough of it; it's twenty-six pages, mostly one sentence per two pages (with an illustration on the facing page). More about the basic absurdity of the kid's life would have been great; some interesting badger facts certainly wouldn't have been unwelcome. But for what it is, it's a charming little book that lives in a completely illogical world, and for some folks, that will be enough. ***

Publishers Weekly review of Honey Badgers February 19th, 2007: Odone's debut book makes a deep bow to Maurice Sendak, with its somber palette and heavily crosshatched, pen-and-ink and watercolor wash illustrations. But the affectionate, dreamy text is his own. "I get along well with honey badgers," the boy narrator begins. "In fact, I was raised by a pair-Maurice and June. They are good parents," he adds. On the opposite page June, in a warm red overcoat, holds out her arms to a naked, Sendak-style foundling. (Honey badgers are carnivorous African mammals, making Maurice and June's solicitousness particularly heartwarming.) Telegraphic sentences on the left-hand pages ("We have a small stream nearby to sip from") accompany framed pictures on the right; here, the boy and Maurice, sporting warm sweaters to ward off the chill, drink on hands and knees, surrounded by a forest of gnarled trees. Visual references to myth (empty boats), fallen civilizations (Mayan stone sculptures), and wealth and education (velvet drapes and leather-bound books) give the story elegant resonance without weighing it down. "It is late now," the boy says. "I think I'll go to bed." Maurice and June stand guard as he sleeps under an enormous canopy. Odone, tapping into a powerful vein of fantasy (what child would not rush to move into a cozy den with two gentle, furry parents-) has created the kind of book certain children will cling to, years after they abandon the rest of their picture book collections. Ages 4-up.(Apr.) Copyright © 1997-2005 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gritter has been involved in US adoption since the dawn of time, both pre- and post-open. You can trust what he has to say about it. This book has been phenomenally helpful to me as an adoption worker, and to birth parents (lifegivers!) and adoptive parents alike. Should be required reading!

Though Gritter is not a birthparent, he certainly empathizes with us in a way that most adoption workers or triad members do not. He's right on target with how it FEELS to be a birthparent: marginalized, feared, misunderstood, and sometimes, even shamed. The book should be required reading for all adoptive parents, so that they know that first parents are regular people, pretty much just like them.

My favorite part of the book comes at the end, with the simple list of ways adoptive parents can honor and respect their child's birthparents. My least favorite part is the description of grief; parts of that chapter didn't strike me quite right. I think Gritter should have relied more on the words of those of us who have actually gone through the grief.

But he did listen as he was writing the book: I was fortunate enough to read this book in manuscript, and offered my suggestions on how this book could be even more "true to life." Other birthparents did the same, making this, I think, an essentially reliable guide to our feelings and desires.

In the end, the message is simple: both sets of parents love and want what's best for the child. And when both types of parents work together in a true open adoption, beautiful things can happen.

This book is very informative, but as a Birthmother myself, I couldn't help but feel this book was more for those wishing to know more about Birth Parents. I highly suggest this book for social workers, and adoption professionals; also adoptive parents.

Still, I am glad I added this book to my collection; and will be adding more of Jim Gritter's book as well.

As an adoptive mom in an fully open adoption, I probably will never be able to completely identify with my daughter's birthmom. I think it is so important, though, for me to understand as much as I can about how it is for her. There are not a lot of role models on how to help your child maintain a healthy and appropriate relationship with her birthmother, and this book gave me tools and insights to support all of us in this life-long relationship. I'm excited to give a copy to her, as well.