Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109590 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03
• Released on: 2004-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The author, a freelance writer, is from a western European background, while her husband is Japanese American. Although Nakazawa initially hoped to raise her son and daughter to be "color blind," they couldn't ignore the many comments made by both adults and children concerning Christian and Claire's appearance. When Christian was a toddler he was asked if he spoke Chinese, and the author was assured that little Claire didn't "even look Asian." Nakazawa decided to develop strategies to ensure that her son and daughter would be proud of their heritage and confident about their multiracial identity. Finding no useful book on the subject, she decided to write her own. Based on personal experience and interviews conducted with 60 other multiracial families, Nakazawa has skillfully combined anecdotal research with a strong knowledge of childhood and educational development philosophy to provide this useful guide for raising multiracial children in a color- and race-conscious world. Nakazawa believes that, although most three-year-olds are not racially aware, it is important to deflect insensitive comments from strangers about appearance. As a child grows older, this early dialogue should deepen, so that children will feel safe and comfortable discussing their racial identity with parents and be able to bring up any racially charged experiences that have occurred at school or with friends. Included are suggestions for the special problems that may arise during adolescence.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A well-researched, readable and user friendly guide...[Nakazawa] writes with refreshing candor...She includes many practical suggestions for parents." -- Pacific Reader January 2004

"Illuminate[s] the mindset of the multiracial adolescent...offers readers, concerned or simply curious, a comforting guide to the unfamiliar." -- Duke Magazine February 2004

"Provides parents with the tools to instill in their children an appreciation of their multiracial heritage..." -- Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, March 13, 2006

About the Author
Donna Jackson Nakazawa has been a regular contributor to AARP's My Generation, as well as to Working Mother, Modern Maturity, New Woman, and Baby Talk. She is married to a Japanese-American and has two children. She lives in Annapolis, Maryland.

Customer Reviews

Finally a Book that Focuses on Asian-Caucasian children!
Great book! I was pleased to find it because there seem to be so few books that discuss Asian/Caucasian multiracial issues as thoroughly as this one does. Most other books seem to concentrate on African American/Caucasian issues -- a worthy issue I'm sure, but not my life.

I loved her organization: she concentrated on specific times in the children's lives and how they perceive race at each time. My smart, beautiful, Japanese/Caucasan daughter is only three, but I get the "is she yours?" question way too frequently.

I'm sure I will be consulting this book for some time.

Good book, although not precisely targetted
This is a good, fairly basic book on children dealing with issues of racial difference. Topics such as how and when children start understanding racial differences, how peers begin to react to racial differences in school and some basic strategies for parents are covered well. My one criticism is that the book is marketted for adoptive parents and yet its main focus is on the children of interracial couples. The author says - off-hand - at one point that the differences between these two situations are minor and beyond the scope of the book. That was a bit of a shock. I think the differences are probably vast. Parents of transracially adopted children don't have the basic resource of an adult partner from the child's background. That's an enormous enough of a difference that I really think the issues should be treated in separate books. My other reason for personal dissatisfaction is not the fault of the author. I am in the situation of adopting a minority child in a country where racism is still very overt and raw. I found the book's focus on Asian-Caucasian mixes unhelpful because, although there is some racism in American society, it is not nearly so intense, particularly when it comes to people of Asian background. If you are looking for a hard-ball book on dealing with intense racism, this probably isn't it. This is about dealing with run-of-the-mill basically well-intentioned ignorance, not open hostility.
-A.F.

great book
this book is, hands down, a great purchase for anyone raising or working with multiracial kids. What a great resource.