Product Description

More than thirty mothers and adoptees--including Louise Erdrich, Nancy Mairs, and Minnie Bruce Pratt--recount their experiences with adoption and explore such issues as open adoption, cross-cultural adoption, birth records, and adoption by lesbians. Original. IP.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #272196 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Library Journal
Educator, writer, and adoptive mother Wadia-Ells has put together an enthralling set of essays from birth mothers, adopted mothers, and adopted daughters. Each story reveals a different facet of the adoption process and of family life in general. Wadia-Ells has chosen her contents carefully, and it shows. Stories of adoptions of all sorts?closed, international, private, and state-sanctioned?are included here, as are stories of a variety of women and from times throughout the last half of this century. Some adoptions were good for all parties involved, and some were not. Either way, the autobiographical compositions in this reader are consistently fascinating and poignant, and the broad spectrum of the writers' experience makes the book particularly worthwhile. This work is recommended for all public libraries, and academic libraries that support a women's study program would also do well to purchase it.?Pamela A. Matthews, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Tear-jerker for anyone touched by adoption
This is one of the few books written about adoption that has brought tears to my eyes with the emotional intensity shared by the writers in their stories from all perspectives of adoption. I would recommend this book to anyone touched by adoption, or who is considering entering into the world of adoption, whether through adoptive parenting, placement, counseling, or reunion.

Brings a feeling of authenticity,unusual in adoption stories
PACT PRESS: "The Adoption Reader brings together thirty-two autobiographical writings of birth mothers, adoptive mothers, and adopted daughters. Readers are taken on a journey into a world of women's deepest challenges to identity - traveling from the isolated plains of separation to the fertile grounds of connection -- offering a beneath the surface look at the discovery, excavation and assimilation of inner experiences. This is a book about women connecting with many parts of themselves through the lens of adoption. The collection presents a case for redefining what joining and separating mean and discovering new sources of adoption pride."

Valuable reading for anyone
This collection of stories written by adoptees, adoptive mothers and birthmothers gives the reader a visceral insight into the truths and heart aches of surrender, adoption and reunion. Being an adoptive mother myself and having met our wonderful birthmother many years later gives me personal insight into the adoption experience, but reading this book has greatly increased my understanding and empathy for all members of the adoption and birth families. I don't know how prospective adoptive parents will feel if they read this collection, whether it is too much to cope with and sort out for their personal decision. Ideally, knowledge is power, and the more a person knows about an important subject, the better.
Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?