Best of
Adoption

2007

The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family


Karyn Purvis - 2007
    Some adoptions, though, present unique challenges. Welcoming these children into your family--and addressing their special needs--requires care, consideration, and compassion.Written by two research psychologists specializing in adoption and attachment, "The Connected Child" will help you: Build bonds of affection and trust with your adopted child Effectively deal with any learning or behavioral disorders Discipline your child with love without making him or her feel threatened

A Mama for Owen


Marion Dane Bauer - 2007
    They loved to play hide-and-seek on the banks of the Sabaki River in Africa. That was all before the tsunami came and washed Owen's world away.But after the rain stops, Owen befriends Mzee, a grayish brown tortoise. He plays with him, snuggles with him, and decides he just might turn out to be his best friend and a brand-new mama.Inspired by the tsunami of 2004, acclaimed storyteller Marion Dane Bauer and celebrated illustrator John Butler depict this heartwarming true tale of healing, adoption, and rebirth—with splendid illustrations and oodles of love.

Castaway Kid: One Man's Search for Hope and Home


R.B. Mitchell - 2007
    Left by a dysfunctional family in an Illinois children's home, he grew up with kids who were not friends but rather “co-survivors.” After becoming a Christian as a teenager, Rob found what he was looking for, home and family, in a relationship with God. Rob was able to overcome his past, forgiving his relatives and forging healthy family relationships of his own.

What Every Parent Needs to Know: The incredible effects of love, nurture and play on your child's development


Margot Sunderland - 2007
    Based on over 700 scientific studies into children’s development, award-winning author and child psychotherapist Dr. Margot Sunderland explains how to develop your child’s potential to the full.Find out the truth about popular childcare tactics, how touch, laughter and play build emotional wellbeing for life, and the strategies for effectively dealing with temper tantrums and tears.Essential for any parent: a practical parenting book which give you the facts, not the fiction, on the best way to bring up your child.

The Red Thread: An Adoption Fairy Tale


Grace Lin - 2007
    A king and queen rule a beautiful and peaceful land. They should be full of joy and contentment, but they both feel a strange pain that worsens every day. Then a peddler's magic spectacles reveal a red thread pulling at each of their hearts. The king and queen know they must follow the thread--wherever it may lead. Grace Lin's lovely adoption fairy tale is for all children--and the parents who would search the world to find them.

We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families


Todd Parr - 2007
    We Belong Together is about sharing your home and sharing your heart to make a family that belongs together. With an understanding of how personal and unique each adoption is, and that not everyone comes to it in the same way, Todd Parr's colorful art explores the meaning of family.

My Family, My Journey: A Baby Book for Adoptive Families


Zoe Francesca - 2007
    This lovely keepsake album contains sections to record all the joyful milestones and cherished family moments that mark a new baby's life, pages to chart the adopted child's unique journey, as well as a sturdy pocket in which to store important documents and memorabilia. Inside the pocket are over 60 stickers you can use to customize the family tree pages. As the pages of the journal fill with memories, My Family, My Journey will stand as a lasting testament of love for the entire family.

Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience After Neglect and Trauma


Deborah D. Gray - 2007
    With higher and higher percentages of children joining their families not as newborns, but from domestic or international foster care or from orphanages abroad, both parents and the professionals with whom they consult need new skills.From the author of Attaching in Adoption (already a must-have book for both adoptive parents and placement professionals) comes this new tool designed to help placement professionals and therapists whose practices are not focused specifically on adoption and attachment understand how new research on the impact of neglect, abuse, early trauma, and institutionalization on the developing brains of children can guide their practices in new directions. Nurturing Adoption s goal is to help professionals to assist parents in healing their children s and guiding them into strong and healthy relationships and productive adulthood.The hardcover was a 2008 silver medalist in the Benjamin Franklin Awards!

Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion


Karen E. BenderK.A.C. - 2007
    In addressing a wide range of women’s choices—from using birth control to taking the morning-after pill, from adopting a child to putting a child up for adoption, from having an abortion to bringing a pregnancy to full term—Choice explores the complexities inherent in every reproductive decision.Including twenty-four honest, heartrending essays from established writers such as Francine Prose, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Pam Houston, Ann Hood, and Sarah Messer and emerging talents such as Kimi Faxon Hemingway, Stephanie Anderson, and Ashley Talley, Choice will allow you to truly understand the meaning of the word “choice”—regardless of what side of the debate you stand on.

Motherbridge of Love


Anonymous - 2007
    Through the exchanges between a little Chinese girl and her adoptive parent, this title offers a poignant and inspiring message to adoptive parents and children all over the world.

This Many Miles From Desire


Lee Herrick - 2007
    The haunting music of Lee Herrick's This Many Miles from Desire reflects the quest of the poet, an adoptee, to understand his place in the world: "one more child found in the world's history/of found children." Spiritually yearning, imagistically sharp, and lyrical, Herrick's poems are a journey of reward.

Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting: More Family Life In A Farmhouse


Dorcas Smucker - 2007
    Dorcas Smucker once again writes so vividly about life with her six kids that you'll be convinced you have a place at their table, your own seat in their van, a list of chores with your name at the top, and a small hankering for trouble -- just like one of the family. She and her kids are innocently funny and usually well-meaning, trying hard to manage all their energy and their peculiar points of view.           Jenny asks questions endlessly like, "What's inside your lips?" Matt has serial obsessions -- animals to astronomy. Ben drops caterpillars down the gaps in the porch floor and has a 12-year collection of scars. Emily moves effortlessly from being a whirling Queen of the Smuckers to posing as a pompous science lecturer. Amy phones home to report that, "New York City is not dangerous," and "We girls walk outside at night." And 9-year-old Steven from Kenya joins the family, soon demonstrating the same compulsion as his new brothers by throwing balls in the living room.           What makes this collection a stand-out is Dorcas' "Mother voice." With each new development, she's clear about the outcome she's hoping for, less certain about how she'll accomplish it, willing to confess the way things unfold. Dorcas Smucker, writer and mom, is bravely honest and hilariously humble. She never fails to give courage to any parent who reads these joyride chapters, while relentlessly entertaining.

Motherbridge of Love


Josée Masse - 2007
    Through the exchanges, between a little girl born in China and her adoptive parent, this title offers a poignant and inspiring messae to adoptive parents and children all over the world. Text royalties are donated to the charity The Mothers; Bridge of Love, founded by bestselling author Xinran.

Fertile In Our Faith


Krista Ralston Oakes - 2007
    Topics include:What infertility is, and what it is notUnique challenges and blessings of being LDS and infertileFilling the measure of our creationMother’s Day and other holiday challengesDealing with family and friendsTips for supporting loved ones with infertilityStrengthening a “family of two”Medical treatments, pregnancy loss, and secondary infertilityAdoptionSuccess stories (and how to have your own)Forward by Briant G. Herzog, M.D.

From God's Arms to My Arms to Yours


Michael McLean - 2007
    Along with the title song, the book and CD also include "The Gift We Could Not Give Each Other," written from the perspective of the adoptive parents; "Yours," the imagined words of an adopted child; and a brand-new Michael McLean song written from the perspective of the birth-grandmother. Michael has also included a special edition of his extremely popular song "You're Not Alone," created especially for those dealing with adoption. 48 page hardcover book plus CD

Following the Tambourine Man: A Birthmother's Memoir


Janet Mason Ellerby - 2007
    Janet Mason Ellerby follows the crooked path she took from a protected and privileged childhood and early adolescence to her unplanned pregnancy and banishment and to her daughter's birth and adoption. She then delves into the complex journey embarked on over the next thirty-five years, haunted by her first child's memory and attempting to compensate for her loss. Ellerby crafts an autoethnography, relating and reflecting upon the changes in middle-class American attitudes that informed the conservative suburbs of the fifties, through the political revolution of the sixties, seventies, and into today. In so doing, she provides a personal commentary on the shifts in adoption culture and describes the overlooked heartbreak that many birthmothers endure.

The Thunderstruck Stork


David J. Olson - 2007
    After he crashes into a hot-air balloon, something goes wrong in his head. Soon the bats are brought a young moose, the sparrows get a piglet, and two tiny frog parents receive an enormous newborn elephant. Can this mess ever be fixed? Full color.

Nurturing Attachments: Supporting Children who are Fostered or Adopted


Kim S. Golding - 2007
    Featuring throughout are the stories of Catherine, Zoe, Marcus and Luke, four fictional children in foster care or adoptive homes, who are used to illustrate the ideas and strategies described. The book offers sound advice and provides exercises for parents and their children, as well as useful tools that supervising social workers can use both in individual support of carers as well as in training exercises.This is an essential guide for adoptive and foster parents, professionals including health and social care practitioners, clinical psychologists, child care professionals, and lecturers and students in this field.

Picnic In The Park


Joe Griffiths - 2007
    This is a charming picture book for young children which shows that families come in all shapes and sizes.

That Mean Old Yesterday


Stacey Patton - 2007
    In this astonishing coming-of-age memoir, collegiate Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Patton relays how she survived her adoptive familys abuse through her determination to be the best student--and human being--she could possibly be.

Mishka: An Adoption Tale


Adrienne Ehlert Bashista - 2007
    All day he watches as families walk past. He can't help but feel lonely. Mo wants a family. He wants a home. Then one day Mo's wish for a family comes true as a special couple take him on a marvelous journey to meet his new best friend, Yuri. Mo has lots of questions once he gets to his destination. Where is he? What's a mishka? And most importantly, will the man and the woman who brought him and Yuri together come back? Will Mo ever have a family of his own?

Adopting Overseas: A Guide to Adopting from Australia, Plus Personal Stories That Will Inspire You


Lucy Burns - 2007
    This wonderful book looks not only at the processes involved in adopting a child from other countries into Australian families but also includes the findings of the largest survey of adoptive parents in Australia. The information they share with us and their personal experiences are heartwarming, inspiring, and sometimes confronting--but regardless, the stories always make for compelling reading. "Adopting Overseas" offers both expert advise and personal accounts on how best to manage a range of issues that some adoptive families will face such as: "Why choose intercountry adoption? "and "Will our child attach to us? "It also covers tantrums and how to manage them; anxiety about being abandoned; health issues such as skin, teeth, delayed growth, and motor development; behavioral/psychological issues; the importance of finding out about your child's background and keeping the birth culture alive; and racism. The authors are donating their royalties from the sales of this book to overseas aid for children.

Adopted: The Ultimate Teen Guide


Suzanne Slade - 2007
    Many adopted teens have unanswered questions that may result in fear, anger, and low self-esteem. These feelings may be compounded by the isolation they feel because most friends and family members cannot fully relate to their situation. Adopted: The Ultimate Teen Guide enables young adults to explore their feelings as they read the personal experiences of other adopted teens. Through these stories, adopted teens can learn how others have resolved some of their adoption issues and gain powerful insights from those who have experienced some of their same frustrations, struggles, and concerns. Experienced adoption professionals share practical ideas and strategies for teens as they answer their questions in the "Teens Ask" sections of the book. Adoption experts, such as Hollee McGinnis (Policy & Operations Director for the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute), Judy Stigger (Director of International Adoptions at The Cradle), Kathleen Morrison (member of the board of trustees of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys), Katrina Carlisle (adoption counselor and search specialist at St. Elizabeth Coleman Pregnancy and Adoption Services), and others, provide valuable answers to teen questions. Replete with stories, pictures, and artwork by adopted teens, this up-to-date source will benefit teens as they move forward on their adoption journey.