Admiral’s Daughter, The. Victoria Fyodorova. 1979. 372p. Delacorte Press. When the young Russian actress found the American father she had never known, it seemed like the happy ending to a Hollywood scenario. “The Love That Conquered the Kremlin” and “Admiral Meets Love Child” blazed the headlines in thousands of newspapers around the world. But the full story, as Victoria Fyodorova tells it, was far more complex. The product of a brief affair between naval officer Jackson Tate and Zoya Fyodorova, one of Russia’s most beloved movie stars, Victoria (named for V-E Day, when she was conceived) was a year old when her mother was imprisoned and she was raised in exile for the next eight years by her aunt. Following her reunion with her mother, Victoria grew up to follow in her footsteps by studying acting. But she always wanted to find the father she had never known.

Adoptee Trauma. Heather Carlini. 1993. 176p. Morning Side (Canada). Adoptee Trauma reveals the subconscious emotional trauma that many adoptees experience due to adoption. The explanations and therapy necessary to help them understand their complex personalities and core issues of adoption are clearly and simply set out through therapeutic steps in this book.

Adopted Like Me: Chosen to Search for Truth, Identity, & a Birthmother. Michael C Watson. 2005. 192p. Gallery of Diamonds Publishing. As a child, Michael Watson asked, “Who is my mother?” The following twenty years he asked, “Who am I?” While narrating his quest to find the missing link to his past, Watson discovers that life’s obstacles are also direct sources for human potential, and that one’s true mother can be found in everything that gives nurture and love. Adoption has always traditionally been associated with secrecy. Adopted Like Me is openly narrated from experience, and allows the reader to peer inside the mind of an adoptee. Compassionately written from an author of loving adoptive parents, the book attempts to persuade that one’s birthright should be an unconditional human gift. Watson believes that after learning the truth of their births, no matter what the circumstances, most adoptees experience an emotional release and a feeling of wholeness. In 1993, Watson began a writing contest for schoolchildren called, “Why Mom Deserves a Diamond.” Originally in honor of his adoptive mother, Martha Watson, and the birth mother he had never known, the contest has now reached millions of people. Worth the price of the book, Watson has masterfully included some of the most touching letters of love he has received from over 150,000 kids. Adoption resources are listed for those who desire more information on adoption, registries, and support groups.

Adopted, the Chinese Way. Marguerite Chien Church. 2002. 328p. Infinity Publishing. This is a story of a Chinese family: of an American woman who became the mother; of a father who was not always a father; of a favorite son who lost his identity; of a daughter not recognized as daughter; and of a concubine. It is also the story of the author’s own early years in Peking and a lifestyle of rare privilege brought to an abrupt end by World War II. Adopted at infancy by her own uncle and aunt, the author retains ties to her birth family. As the members of both families, adoptive and biological, move in and out of her life, each adds new and intriguing pages to her story.

Adopted Son: The Life, Wit & Wisdom of William Wirt, 1772-1834. Gregory Kurt Glassner & Eugene J McCarthy. 1997. 161p. Professional Press. William Wirt was the longest-serving Attorney General in U.S. History (1817-1828). He appeared in such landmark Supreme Court cases as McCullough vs. Maryland, the Dartmouth College Case and the “New York Steamboat Case.” Wirt prosecuted Aaron Burr for treason and twice represented the Cherokee Indian Tribe. A protege of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe, Wirt was also well known as an author (first biographer of Patrick Henry) and orator (1826 eulogy of Jefferson and John Adams.) I found him to be a fascinating and often overlooked historical figure. — Gregory K. Glassner

Adopted Twice. Richard Whatley. 2009. 204p. AuthorHouse. This book is about a boy who lived with his biological parents until he was seven years old. He was taken away from them along with his two younger brothers by the Welfare Department for child neglect. He lived in seven different foster homes and was adopted twice by the time he was ten years old. His second adopted parents were abusive toward him both physically and mentally. This book will tell about his experiences and the effect it had on him throughout his life.

Adopted Woman, An. Katrina Maxtone-Graham. 1983. 365p. Remi Books. An Adopted Woman is the dramatic story of one woman’s determination to know the truth. In a painful struggle against steep odds, Katrina press her claim for answers—whatever those answers might be. The struggle began in 1973 when Katrina discovered a New York adoption agency held a secret file on her, but denied her access to it in order to preserve the secrecy upon which the adoption establishment is based. An Adopted Woman describes how adoptees, and their adoptive, foster and natural parents are all victimized by a system which claims to “protect” them but in fact holds them powerless.

Adoption–Double Identity: A Mother’s Love. Christopher Baines. 2009. 88p. Xlibris Corp. Author’s Description: This book is a product or “spin-off” of a essay paper I did in English Composition 101 which I received an A+ and was given the suggestion to write a book so that I may be able to reach other adoptees and for self-therapy to deal with my issues. I started writing this book back in 1995, and I stopped because I didn’t want to disrespect my adoptive mother in any way. So after her death I continued with the book and finished it in February of 2009. My premise behind this book is to reach other adoptees be it young or old who have not dealt with their adoptive issues or don’t know how to get started in getting therapy or to just talk to someone who understands you and won’t pass judgment. I hope that whoever reads this book will get something out of it and that I’ve made a difference in someone else’s life. God Bless.

Adoption Encounter: Hurt, Transition, Healing. Mary Jo Rillera. 1987. 171p. Triadoption Library. Adoption Encounter acknowledges that adoption is a lifelong process; is a condition of peoples lives, not who they are; influences the conscious and unconscious of those it touches; involves bonding, separation, loss and gain; expands families and relationships and can Add Options to the lives of everyone innolved. Everyone in adoption is first and foremost a whole human being and should be encouraged and empowered to maintain personal dominion in their life. About the Author: Mary Jo Rillera is found Triadoption Library and is both an adoptee and birth mother. Having experienced her own reunions and ongoing relationships and having worked with thousands of searchers, she offers a unique understanding of the process.

Adoption Healing ... A Path to Recovery. Joe Soll. 2000. 215p. Liturgical Press. In this unique book, the reader is provided with a description of the unfolding of the adoptee’s personality from birth, detailing each developmental milestone along the way, followed by different methods of healing the adoptee’s wounds, including inner child work, visualizations, healing affirmations, and anger management. Every chapter includes a Myths and Realities of adoption section, a summary of the chapter and exercises to do on one’s own.

Adoption Healing: A Path to Recovery for Mothers Who Lost Children to Adoption. Joe Soll & Karen Wilson Buterbaugh. 2003. 193p. Gateway Press. Inc. Adoption Healing... A Path to Recovery for Mothers Who Lost Children to Adoption is a unique book. The reader is provided with a description of the immaculate deception imposed on pregnant women and the ensuing tragedy of the loss of their babies to adoption and the profound effects on their lives. This is followed by different methods of healing the mother’s wounds, including inner child work, visualizations, healing affirmations, and anger management. Every chapter includes a Myths and Realities of adoption section, a summary of the chapter and exercises to do on one’s own. About the Authors: Joe Soll, the author of the original Adoption Healing... A Path to Recovery for adoptees is a diplomate psychotherapist and lecturer internationally recognized as an expert in adoption related issues and a former adjunct professor of social work at Fordham University Graduate School. He is director and co-founder of Adoption Crossroads in New York City, a non-profit organization that helps reunite and gives support to adoptees, original parents and those who have adopted. He resides in Congers, NY. Karen Wilson Buterbaugh has been writing about adoption since 1997 and is the author of two articles, “Setting the Record Straight,” published by Moxie Magazine (April 2001), and “Not By Choice,” published by Eclectica Magazine (January 2002). Her personal story of adoption surrender, Relative Strangers: A Mother’s Experience of Adoption Loss, is scheduled for publication in 2004. Karen is co-founder of Mothers for Open Records Everywhere co-founder of OriginsUSA and a founding member of Mothers Exploited By Adoption. She is married and lives in Virginia. She has three grown daughters. Her oldest, Michelle Renee, was the baby she lost to adoption.

Adoption is For a Lifetime: “God’s Plan For a Family Through All Phases of Adoption”. Nancy McCullough. 2008. 132p. Xulon Press. Nancy was Canada’s first foreign adoptee. She shares her fascinating story of how God orchestrated her adoption from Hong Kong, blessed her with wonderful parents, a loving husband, and in His faithfulness and healing presence, brought them through every struggle, especially the loss of their first daughter, Rebecca Joy. Despite the grief, Nancy shares how God turned their pain into joy and sorrow into victory. From what may have seemed like a tragedy to most, Nancy and her husband, Paul, now see how God used this great trial to prepare their hearts for the adoption of Joylin (5), their first precious daughter and their second, Saralin (1). Take a journey with Nancy, as she testifies of the abiding presence of our heavenly Father’s heart for adoption. Nancy (Lai Kwan Chiu) was born in Hong Kong. At 3 ½ years of age, she was adopted by Chinese parents and became Canada’s first foreign adoptee. She lived with her parents and adopted brother, Gerry, in Montreal until she was 13, after which her family moved to Philadelphia, PA. She graduated from college with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and eventually pursued a career in computer programming. Nancy, her husband, Paul, and adopted Chinese daughters, Joylin (5) and Sarlin (1) now live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she works as a computer programmer/systems analyst. She enjoys serving as head deacon at her local church and co-teaching an adult Sunday School class with Paul. Nancy’s greatest passion, however, is being a mother to Joylin and Saralin, her pride and joy.

Adoption, Love & Letters. Edward William Herman. 2004. 213p. Anointed Quill Publications. Tragic events in our past have a cruel way of stealing the joy from our present. Ed Herman’s young, unwed mother gave away her son at birth, the result of a horrific relationship. He was adopted and grew up a mile away from the birth mother he never knew. A nightmare would cause their separation to last for thirty-four years. A miracle would cause their reunion to last for an eternity! This true, miraculous story of forgiveness, emotional healing, and brand-new beginnings—as told with the help of many heartwarming letters—will show you that nothing is impossible with God!

Adoption Reality: A Paradox. Ginni D Snodgrass. Trans fr Eng & Ger by IR Jacobsen. Intros by Jean Paton, Hal Aigner & Sandy Musser. 1990. 92p. GS Enterprise.

Adoption Reunions: A Book for Adoptees, Birth Parents & Adoptive Families. Michelle McColm. 1993. 175p. Second Story Press (Canada). In this practical book, Michelle McColm draws on extensive interviews with adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents, as well as the experience of her own reunion. About the Author: Working in adoption disclosure at a Children’s Aid Society, Michelle McColm became familiar with the stories of adoptees and birth mothers alike. An adoptee herself, she has successfully navigated her way through a reunion with her birth mother and extended family.

Adoption Wisdom: A Guide to the Issues & Feelings of Adoption. Marlou Russell. 1996. 202p. Broken Branch Productions. Adoption Wisdom offers insight and understanding of the adoption and post-adoption processes through a plethora of brief quotes from anonymous adoptees, birth parents, & adoptive parents. Visit the Author’s Website.

Adoptive Boy, The. Gordon Forbes. 1992. 257p. Book Guild (Sussex). About the author’s experience of being in and out of homes as a child and rises the question of the rights of adoptive children to know the identity of their real parents.

After Long Silence: A Memoir. Helen Fremont. 1999. 368p. Delacorte Press. In her mid-30s Helen Fremont discovered that, although she had been raised in the Midwest as a Catholic, she was in fact the daughter of Polish Jews whose families had been exterminated in the Holocaust. Fremont’s tender but unsparing memoir chronicles the voyage of discovery she took with her older sister, ferreting out information from Jewish organizations and individuals and worrying about its impact on their angry, overpowering father and reticent, nightmare-plagued mother. Fremont has the courage to paint a nearly unsympathetic portrait of her parents’ secretiveness and initial reluctance to have their children dredge up the past; as the narrative unfolds, readers comprehend the tormented roots of their behavior without forgetting the psychological problems it created for their daughters. Fremont’s re-creation of her parents’ ghastly ordeals—her mother narrowly escaping the murder of nearly every Jew in her hometown; her father surviving six years in the Soviet gulag—is a triumph of dogged research and sympathetic imagination. Her book tells a deeply American story of identity lost and reclaimed, complete with Fremont coming out to her parents as a lesbian, yet it also achieves understanding of the dark European past and its icy grip on her family. — Wendy Smith

After the Morning Calm: Reflections of Korean Adoptees. Dr Sook Wilkinson & Nancy Fox. 2002. 191p. Sunrise Ventures. Korean adult adoptees speak out in this anthology. Through memories, reflections, and poetry, adoptees speak to the range of issues that accompany adoption: feelings of belonging and difference, self and other, culture and accomodation, love and loss. We now know that it is in late adolescence and young adulthood that many adoptees move full-tilt into struggling with these issues. These writings offer a wonderful tool to help adoptees move through the process.

Ain’t Nothin’ as Sweet as My Baby: The Story of Hank WIlliams’ Lost Daughter. Jett Williams. 1990. 338p. Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich. Riveting story of Jett Williams, Hank Williams’ illegitimate daughter, and her search for her roots and family.

All My Mothers & Fathers: A Memoir. Michael Blumenthal. 2002. 272p. HarperCollins. Shortly after his mother dies of breast cancer when he is ten years old, author Michael Blumenthal discovers a startling fact: His mother was not his biological mother, and his aunt and uncle, immigrant chicken farmers living in Vineland, New Jersey, are really his parents. As fate would have it, his father, a German-Jewish refugee raised by a loveless and embittered stepmother after his own mother died in childbirth, has inflicted on his adoptive son a fate uncannily—and terrifyingly—similar to his own: Having first adopted Michael, in part, to help his dying wife, he then imposes on him the same sort of penurious and loveless stepmother whom he had to survive. With these revelations, the “mysteries” that seem to have permeated Michael’s childhood are laid bare, triggering a quest for belonging that will infiltrate the author’s entire adult life. All My Mothers and Fathers is Michael Blumenthal’s moving and powerful account of how he put his life together, and made both a break from and peace with his past. About the Author: Michael Blumenthal is the author of six books of poetry, including Days We Would Rather Know and Against Romance. He has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Paris Review, the New Republic, and Time. The recipient of Pushcart Prizes as well as a Fulbright, a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller/Bellagio, and other prestigious awards, he was the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Harvard for ten years. He currently lives in Marseilles.

America’s Adopted Son: The Remarkable Story of an Orphaned Immigrant Boy. Samuel Nakasian. 1997. 394p. Bookwrights Press. In the spring of 1915, Samuel Nakasian’s father and one million other Armenian men were taken from their homes by Turkish policemen, escorted out into the desert, and murdered. That infamous Armenian genocide meant that young Sam, his two siblings, and his mother emigrated to America. The strain on his mother created a nervous breakdown compelling her to place her three children in private orphanages. She then entered a hospital where she died a few years later. Sam is a ward of the Children’s Aid Society and placed at the Brace Farm School. He speaks no English. He knows no one. Thus begins the American experience of Sam Nakasian, a life so interesting and rich as to be a dramatic example of the role immigrants play in the molding of our great nation. Nakasian manages, through determination and desire, to rise above the overwhelming odds against him to build a wonderful, productive life as one of America’s “adopted sons.” America’s Adopted Son is wonderful autobiographical reading, and a welcome addition to today’s national dialogue over the issues and controversies of immigration. — Midwest Book Review

And This Is My Adopted Daughter. Marie D Berger. 2004. 90p. Pipers’ Ash, Ltd (UK). From the Author: This book is a painfully honest account of my experience as an adoptee in a family where my adoptive parents already had their own child. I learned about my adoption in a playground argument when I was seven. From then on I felt desperately insecure - unless I was good all the time I knew I could be taken away. My upbringing was intensely unhappy: mentally and physically abusive. I felt I had no control over my own life, that I could never “get it right” with the family whose love and approval I needed so much. At times I resorted to self harm. The rejection I felt left me emotionally scarred and in need of therapy. I searched for and was eventually reunited with my natural mother in the USA. I hoped to find someone who could love me for myself and with whom I could have a balanced adult relationship. I was totally unprepared for what happened. About the Author: Marie Berger was born in May 1945 in Reading, Berkshire. She trained to become a teacher and is also a qualified masseuse. She is now an author by profession and lives with her husband and her children in Lincoln. She is fond of travelling, foreign languages, pastel drawing and of course her writing. By the Same Author: A Mind to Be Free (2005) and A Life Worth Living (2007); all three books have also been published in a single volume as From the Prison of My Mind (2007).

Answer Is No! What Is the Question?, The: A Little Orphan’s Search for the Meaning of Life. B Matthew Bingham. 2003. 66p. iUniverse, Inc. The Answer is No! Abuse, neglect, abandonment, rejection, adoption, foster homes, orphanages. Is this really life at its best? What is the question? It may be easy to give money at church, or to your favorite charity, but what does the older child really need? Read what happens when a four-year-old orphan is adopted. Open your heart and get ready to laugh and cry as this story unfolds. This book allows readers to understand that “Yes,” you too, can make a difference.

Ashes to Ashes. Lyn Riddle. 1997. 270p. Pinnacle Books. On a November afternoon in 1992, 24-year-old Bobby Coulson murdered his parents, two sisters, and a brother-in-law. He bound and gagged his first victim, his mother, and set her on fire. When Bobby was arrested for the crimes, everyone believed he’d done it for his parents’ $600,000 estate. But his actual motives were much deeper and darker. Now, featuring Bobby’s mother’s diary, interviews with family members and friends, here is the gripping story of a mother whose love wasn’t enough to save her son or herself.

Baby Boy-R: A Memoir. Ray Martinez. 2007. 134p. iUniverse. For 24 years, Ray Martinez served as a police officer in Fort Collins, CO, working everything from minor crimes to hard-to-solve homicides. But all that time, a personal mystery nagged at him. Ray was adopted, and he desperately wanted to find his biological mother. Ray delved into his search in April 2005, soon after retiring. He was hopeful, but not overconfident, since his past searches had always ended in failure. This time, he put the investigative skills he acquired as a police officer to full use. By searching through public records, visiting Web sites to study ancestry, and traveling through small towns in Colorado, Ray gathered clues with dogged persistence. In the process, he met new people, developed lasting relationships, and gained a fresh perspective on life. But by far, the most significant outcome was finding his mother, four sisters, and brother—the family he had been without for 54 years. Baby Boy-R is a heartwarming story of a son who refuses to give up trying to discover where he came from and the courageous mother who welcomes back the boy she thought died at birth. About the Author: Ray Martinez grew up in Fort Collins, CO, where he served on the police force for 24 years. He went on to be mayor for three terms. Martinez has published two other books: A Matter of Survival: Your Fight against Burglars, and Saturday’s Opinion: A Collection of Stories.

Baby Girl Jensen: A Memoir of My Reunion With My Birth Mother. Jennifer Minniti. 2002. 112p. Creative Arts Book Company. As an adopted child, Jennifer Minniti grew up with no knowledge of her birth parents or her birth family’s heritage. Her story chronicles a nine-month search and bittersweet reunion with her birth mother, revealing the circumstances of her adoption and an ancestry dating as far back as the 1600s. Minniti offers a detailed account of the painstaking process and emotional duress involved in finding her mother, employing personal letters, legal documents, photos, and her own daily journal. Baby Girl Jensen concludes with an update, six years later, of how the relationship with her family has evolved, and discusses the ongoing search for the author’s birth father. About the Author: Jennifer Minniti was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and received a B.A. in Child Development from Cal State University at Northridge. She also worked as a preschool teacher for a short period of time before meeting her future husband. Jennifer always felt different from most of her friends and peers because she knew she was adopted. The fact that she was adopted always lingered in the background and the subject popped up every now and then throughout her life. And because of this fact, uncovering her past has become a passion for Jennifer. She wishes to trace back to her ancestors and discover her real heritage. Jennifer Minniti and her husband live in Ashland, OR, and they have three children.

Baby God Without a Name, A. Randy T. Rogers. 2007. 64p. Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc. In A Baby God without a Name, life is explored through the simplistic and curious eyes of an adopted baby, Krissy—who refers to her father as Daddy God, a man to whom her and her friends ominously pray. As the baby grows, life unfolds into complicated scenes where faith is heavily revered and telecast is not to be ignored. Simple events like trips to the dentist take on unfathomable meanings when Krissy’s probing eyes evaluate the scene, as her innocence is juxtaposed with profound maturity. From her jarring interactions with other children and adults, Krissy’s complicated past reveals itself in this raw, passionate memoir. About the Author: Miss Paramount Child is a self-employed contractor and published songwriter living in Florida. She has three children—Deanna, Trina, and Stacey. In addition to writing, she attends a Baptist church and enjoys singing karaoke in nightclubs, bowling, and tennis.

Because I Was Flesh: The Autobiography of Edward Dahlberg. Edward Dahlberg. 1963. 234p. New Directions. Edward Dahlberg was born on July 22, 1900, in a charity hospital in Boston. His mother, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Dahlberg, had been recently kicked out of her husband’s house for being unfaithful. Edward and his older brother, Michael, were turned over to an orphanage. He graduated from the Jewish Orphan’s Asylum High School in Cleveland, Ohio in 1917. Dahlberg died on February 28, 1977, in Santa Barbara, California. This memorir tells of the author’s life as a child and young man in Kansas City, in the Cleveland orphanage, in California, and in New York—and of the remarkable woman who shaped it, his mother Lizzie, the lady barber of Kansas City! Seldom does one read such a ruthless, yet so tender dissection of the mother-son relationship. Dhalberg also published a subsequent memoir, The Confessions of Edward Dahlberg (Brazillier, 1971).

Bells of the Blue Pagoda, The: The Strange Enchantment of a Chinese Doctor. Jean Carter Cochran. 1922. 281p. The Westminster Press. Popular biography of Dr. Ida Kahn (Kang Cheng) and Dr. Mary Stone (Shi Meiyu), a pair of Chinese women who were adopted and raised by an American Methodist missionary and later attended the University of Michigan medical school, and subsequently returned to China as medical missionaries. Late 19th and early 20th century Chinese reformers lauded these female physicians as models of modern womanhood, while Western publications held them up as exemplars of Christian charity and living proof that missionary work in China was a worthwhile enterprise.

Beneath a Tall Tree: A Story About Us. Jean Strauss. 2001. 288p. Arete Publishing Co. Bestselling author Jean Strauss’s memoir about her quest to unearth her past is an incredibly funny and touching journey that redefines the meaning of family and celebrates the universal connections that link us all. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. About the Author: Jean Strauss was born in California in 1955. A graduate of both UC Berkeley and USC, her previous works have included Birthright: A Guide to Search and Reunion for Adoptees, Birthparents, & Adoptive Parents (Penguin, 1994), Forever Liesl: a Memoir of The Sound of Music (with Charmian Carr, Viking, 2000, New York Times and L.A. Times bestseller), and Letters to Liesl (with Charmian Carr, Arete-USA Publishing, 2001). She makes her home in California with her two sons and her husband Jon, a college president.

Beyond the Red Door. Janet Shaw. 2004. 288p. Allen & Unwin (Australia). The remarkable life of Janet Shaw, a disabled competitive cyclist, is detailed in this inspirational autobiography. Adopted as a baby and diagnosed with a malignant eye disease shortly thereafter, Janet has struggled to live an ordinary life. In this book, she relates her childhood challenges at the school for the blind, her recent efforts to find her birth parents, her triumphant successes in the cycling world, and the revelation that her birth father is prominent Australian television personality Terry Willesee.

Black Baby White Hands: A View from the Crib. Jaiya John. 2002. 378p. Soul Water Rising. It is only three months following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the nation is burning. Black and White America are locked in the tense grip of massive change. Into this inferno steps an unsuspecting young White couple. Neither significantly knew even a single African American person while growing up. Now, a child will change all of that forever. In this fateful moment, a Black baby becomes perhaps the first in the history of New Mexico to be adopted by a White family. Here is a brazenly honest glimpse into the mind and heart of that child, a true story for the ages. Jaiya John has opened the floodgates on his own childhood. Black Baby White Hands, a waterfall of jazz splashing over the rocks of pain, love and the honoring of family. Magically, this book finds a way to sing as it cries, and to exude compassion even as it dispels well-entrenched myths. This classic is sure to find itself well worn, stained by tears, and brushed by laughter in the lap of parents, adolescents, educators, students and professionals. Here comes the rain and the sunshine, all at once. About the Author: Jaiya John is the founder and Executive Director of Soul Water Rising, an educational mission devoted to improving human relations, eradicating prejudice, and fostering spiritual growth. For over a decade he has traveled the nation as a professional speaker, poet, author and youth mentor. Jaiya’s passionate, poetic presentations combine spiritual and social science insights. This work is truly his mission, ministry and life. He has appeared on CNN, B.E.T., Fox Television and National Public Radio. Jaiya also spent four years as a professor of social psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Jaiya was born in Albuquerque, NM. Immediately placed in foster care and eventually adopted, Jaiya lived as an African American in a predominately Caucasian American environment. This childhood branded in him a burning passion for giving his life to improve the way human beings relate to each other. Jaiya studied psychology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and earned his doctorate from the University of California, Santa Cruz in social psychology. He lived and studied during 1988 in the nation of Nepal, where his research on Tibetan medicine instilled within him an appreciation for holistic concepts of physical, emotional and spiritual health. Being of not only African but Seminole, Blackfoot and Cherokee descent; and having grown up in the midst of the Southwest’s American Indian and Latino communities, Jaiya has an appreciation for the spiritual and communal passions that spring from these worlds. This spirit he ingrains in his own beliefs and messages about our social world. Jaiya believes that in every moment of life, each of us is a teacher and a student. He is faithful to his purpose: fostering relations among humankind living in a world where we have learned to let the differences in our divine nature divide us. By the Same Author: Beautiful (2008), Legendary (2008) and Reflection Pond (2007).

Black Market Baby: An Adopted Woman’s Journey. Renee Clarke. 2009. 358p. Backroads Productions. Half the U.S. population (140 million Americans) have an adoption in their immediate family. There is an estimated seven million, or one-third of the Canadian population, involved in the triad of adoption. The thread of this book is adoption through which the fascinating twists of Clarke’s life are woven: divorce, “dropping out,” living in the wilderness, overcoming cancer, estrangement of her children, and finding a soul mate. Black Market Baby chronicles the life journey and search for birth parents, evolving into an epic tale of illegitimate babies sold illegally through adoption rings operating in Montreal, Quebec, and the northeast United States during the ’30s, ’40s and early ’50s. This intriguing account is told against a backdrop of historical events from 1940 to the present day.

Blackbird: A Childhood Lost & Found. Jennifer Lauck. 2001. 432p. Wasington Square Press. Jennifer Lauck conveys the perceptions, thoughts, and emotions of a frightened child with utter conviction and vivid immediacy in her remarkable memoir of the six years during which both of her parents died. Lauck opens in 1969, when she is 5 and her 31-year-old mother is entering the final phase of a decade of severe health problems. Momma is beautiful and loving; we feel the tender intimacy between mother and daughter, even as we see that Jennifer has assumed a lot of adult responsibilities that make her fearful and obsessed with rules. Eight-year-old brother Bryan responds to Momma’s illnesses with anger, and is often cruel to his sister. High-powered, workaholic Daddy does his best, but is not around a lot. (The adult author subtly depicts the kids’ half-conscious understanding that Daddy is seeing other women.) As Momma’s health worsens and the family moves to Southern California to be near a better hospital, Lauck captures in painful detail the atmosphere of physical decay that surrounds a mortally ill woman. Momma dies on Bryan’s 10th birthday. In short order, Daddy has moved them all in with Deb, who obviously has been his girlfriend for a while, and events spiral down from there. Daddy dies of a heart attack before Jennifer turns 10; Deb keeps the stepchildren (whom she dislikes) so that she can get their social security allotment; Jennifer is sent out to work at a residence that is run by Deb’s creepy Freedom Community Church. She is 11 by the time that her aunt and uncle rescue her—a moment that is nearly as exultant for readers as it is for the girl whose trials they have shared for nearly 400 pages. Her harrowing story might sound unrelievedly grim in the retelling, but Lauck’s lack of self-pity and the delicacy of her prose transform it into an odyssey of endurance and transcendence. —Wendy Smith By the same author: Still Waters, a continuation of her memoir.

Blending In: Crisscrossing the Lines of Race, Religion, Family, & Adoption. Barbara Ann Gowan. 2007. 204p. iUniverse. Where do I belong? Barbara Gowan sought to answer this question as she searched for the real meaning of family. The product of an interracial relationship in the 1960s, she lived in foster care before her adoption by loving—and complex—parents. In this candid account, she faces her long-standing inner conflicts with race, religion, and identity as she searches for her birth parents and her life’s purpose. Gowan’s emotional and inspirational story deals with overcoming abuse, loss, codependency, and rejection. She demonstrates how important the multifaceted concepts of faith, family, and love are in all human relationships, and how they form our sense of self. She shares not only her personal insights and revelations but also concrete strategies from other adoptees and respected professionals. The result is a compelling narrative that will educate and support members of the adoption and multicultural community. Gowan’s deeply personal Christian testimonial provides an honest perspective on these often-challenging conflicts. About the Author: Barbara Ann Gowan, RN, BSN, is a reunited adoptee who participates in adoption panels and forums. She is a school and camp nurse and a college nursing instructor. Gowan has written articles for the Adoption Weekly e-magazine. She lives in Springfield, MA, with her four children.

Blessing Over Ashes, A: The Remarkable Odyssey of My Cambodian Brother. Adam Fifield. 2000. 326p. William Morrow & Co. Adam Fifield is 11 years old and lives in Vermont when the family is joined by his Cambodain foster brother, Soeuth, a boy who survived the slave-labor camps of the Khmer Rouge. Adam describes the months that followed: Soeuth’s wariness and detachment; his fear of being seized in the night by his parents’ ghosts; Adam’s discovery of his new brother’s amazing physical skills, such as his ability to catch fish with his bare hands; and Soeuth’s eventual emergence from years of darkness. As Soeuth gradually adjusts to rural middle-class America, a world fantastically different from the horrors of his homeland, a bond is formed with his new brothers that will enduringly affect them all. About the Author: Adam Fifield is a native of Vermont and a graduate of Bates College and Columbia University. He is a regular contributor to the Village Voice and lives in Brookly, NY.

Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson is Guilty. Anne Bird. 2005. 224p. Regan Books.What happens if, after being given up for adoption in childhood, you re-establish contact with your biological family—only to discover that your newfound brother is a killer? Anne Bird, the sister of Scott Peterson, knows firsthand. Soon after her birth in 1965, Anne was given up for adoption by her mother, Jackie Latham. Welcomed into the well-adjusted Grady family, she lived a happy life. Then, in the late 1990s, she came back into contact with her mother, now Jackie Peterson, and her family—including Jackie’s son, Scott Peterson and his wife, Laci. Anne was welcomed into the family, and over the next several years she grew close to Scott and especially Laci. Together they shared holidays, family reunions, and even a trip to Disneyland. Anne and Laci became pregnant at roughly the same time, and the two became confidantes. Then, on Christmas Eve 2002, Laci Peterson went missing—and the happy façade of the Peterson family slowly began to crumble. Anne rushed to the family’s aid, helping in the search for Laci, even allowing Scott to stay in her home while police tried to find his wife. Yet Scott’s behavior grew increasingly bizarre during the search, and Anne grew suspicious that her brother knew more than he was telling. Finally she began keeping a list of his disturbing behavior. And by the time Laci’s body—and that of her unborn son, Conner—were found, Anne was becoming convinced: Her brother Scott Peterson had murdered his wife and unborn child in cold blood. Filled with news-making revelations and intimate glimpses of Scott and Laci, the Peterson family, and the investigation that followed the murder, Blood Brother is a provocative account of how long-dormant family ties dragged one woman into one of the most notorious crimes of our time.

Blue-Eyed Son: The Story of an Adoption. Nicky Campbell. 2004. 345p. Pan Books (UK). Adopted at only 9 days old, this is Nicky Campbell’s extraordinary story of his search for—and reunion with—his natural parents. Nicky Campbell, the Radio 5 Live and BBC1 “Watchdog” presenter, was adopted as a tiny baby into a comfortable Protestant Scottish family. His father had been in the Indian Army, his mother was a psychiatric social worker and he grew up in a middle-class area, went to a good school, university and on to a highly successful career in the media. He always knew he’d been adopted and had occasionally wondered about his natural parents, but it wasn’t until he was in his thirties, 12 years ago, that he embarked on the hunt for his birth mother. When he found her, what she told him came as a shock. His natural father was not only an Irish Catholic, but an Irish Republican and his paternal grandfather had fought in the IRA alongside Michael Collins in the 1920s. The clash of cultures, of creed and of ideology between their world and the world he grew up in couldn’t be more striking. In this refreshingly candid book he tells the story of his journey to find his parents, the dark secrets that have been revealed and the journey he has had to make since finding them. About the Author: Nicky Campbell has been a radio broadcaster since he graduated from Aberdeen University. He has worked at London’s Capital Radio, Radio 1 and, since 1997, has presented a hugely popular show on Five Live. He is also a highly regarded television presenter, having appeared on such diverse shows as Wheel of Fortune and Newsnight, Top of the Pops and Panorama, and currently fronts BBC1’s Watchdog. He lives with his wife and three daughters in South London.

Book of Sarahs, The: A Family in Parts. Catherine E McKinley. 2002. 320p. Counterpoint Press. Suffused with longing, this rueful, passionate memoir about an adopted woman’s search for her birth parents explores themes of race and family. Catherine McKinley was one of only a few thousand African American and bi-racial children adopted by white couples in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Raised in a small, white New England town, she had a persistent longing for the more diverse community that would better understand and encompass her. In an era shaped by the rhetoric of Black Power and Black Pride, McKinley’s coming of age entailed her own detailed investigation into her birth history, a search complicated by the terms of a closed adoption that denied her all knowledge of the circumstances of her birth. The Book of Sarahs traces McKinley’s own time of revelations: after a five-year period marked by dead ends and disappointments, she finds her birth mother and a half-sister named Sarah, the name that was originally given to her. When she locates her birth father and meets several of his eleven other children she begins to see the whole mosaic of her parentage—African American, WASP, Jewish, Native American—and then is confronted with a final revelation that threatens to destabilize all she has uncovered. At the center of the narrative is McKinley’s angry passion for her two mothers and her quest for self-acceptance in a world in which she seems to herself to be always outside the bounds of social legitimacy. In telling of her struggles both to fit into and to defy social conventions, McKinley challenges us to rethink our own preconceptions about race, identity, kinship, loyalty, and love. About the Author: Catherine E. McKinley is co-editor of Afrekete. She lives in New York City.

Born Losers: Billion Dollar Babies in America’s Foster Care, Adoption & Prison Systems. Lori Carangelo. 1999. 300p. Access Press. An explosive expose that follows the dollar to document how America’s foster care and adoption industry fuels the prison industry and vice-versa ... supported by unscripted narratives of 12 prisoners in 8 U.S. prisons—petty thieves, drug addicts, murderers, gang members, a child molester—all of whom share their stories and feelings for the first time in their lives. Adoptee rapist-killer Jeremy Strohmeyer and 24 adopted kids who killed their adoptive parents, as well as 30 serial killers, are linked by their “adopted child syndrome” behaviors. Discover what makes adoptee and birth-parent crimes unique and ALTERNATIVES to present systems.

“The people discussed in ‘Born Losers’ were not born to lose, but their life histories reflect the powerful influence of the American way of adoption, foster care and prisons....and those who make it a commodifying, destructive experience.” — Jean Paton, MA, MSW, “Mother” of The Open Records Movement in the U.S. since 1953

Borrowed Finery: A Memoir. Paula Fox. 2001. 210p. Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Born in the 1920s to nomadic and bohemian parents, Paula Fox is left at birth in a Manhattan orphanage, then cared for by a poor yet cultivated minister in upstate New York. But her parents, as always, soon resurface. Her handsome father is a hard-drinking screenwriter who is, for young Paula, “part ally, part betrayer.” Her mother is given to icy bursts of temper that punctuate a deep indifference. How, Fox wonders, is this woman “enough of an organic being to have carried me in her belly?” Never sharing more than a few moments with their daughter, Fox’s parents shuttle her from New York City, where she lives with her passive Spanish grandmother, to Cuba, where she roams freely on a relative’s sugarcane plantation, and to California, where she finds herself cast upon Hollywood’s grubby margins. The thread binding these wanderings is the “borrowed finery” of the title—a few pieces of clothing, almost always lent by kindhearted strangers, which offer Fox a rare glimpse of permanency. Vivid and poetic, Borrowed Finery is an unforgettable book that will swell the company of Fox’s devoted admirers. About the Author: Paula Fox is the author of five novels, including Desperate Characters, The Widow’s Children, and Poor George. She is also a Newbery Award-winning children’s book author. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Boy on a String: From Cast-Off Kid to Filmmaker Through the Magic of Dreams. Joseph Jacoby. 2006. 304p. Da Capo Press. Boy on a String is the inspirational memoir of Joe Jacoby who worked in the early days of live television and went on to become a pioneering filmmaker. Jacoby has never before revealed that his childhood was spent in foster homes and institutions. A New York University film school colleague of Martin Scorsese, Jacoby survived a childhood wrought with abuse and neglect. His mother’s unpredictable and sometimes dangerous behavior forced friends to commit her, which then led Jacoby to grow up in seven foster homes in Brooklyn, and two institutions (one for emotionally disturbed children). Yet, propelled by the power of his dreams, Jacoby came to realize his passion for puppetry and movies and made his first feature at the age of twenty-seven (now in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent archives). He also recounts, often with hilarity, his dealings with the last of the movie moguls, Joseph E. Levine. About the Author: Joseph Jacoby, film writer, producer, and director, began his career as a writer and creator of television game shows and as a puppeteer. His first directed and produced theatrical feature film Shame, ShameE ... Everybody Knows Her Name was made a permanent part of the Museum of Modern Art’s archives. He next directed, wrote, and produced his first major motion picture, a Joseph E. Levine release, Hurry Up, or I’ll Be 30, with Danny DeVito in a feature role, (his first feature film). His next film, The Great Bank Hoax starred Richard Basehart, Ned Beatty, Burgess Meredith, Michael Murphy, Charlene Dallas, and Paul Sand and was honored at the Deauville Film Festival, Deauville, France. His last picture, Davy Jones’ Locker, starring the Bil Baird Marionettes, was seen on the PBS stations nationally and NHK in Japan. It was the recipient of the UNIMA Citation of Excellence (affiliated with UNESCO), considered the Oscar in international puppetry circles.

Breaking the Surface. Greg Louganis and Eric Marcus. 1996. 286p. NAL/Dutton. Breaking the Surface is the unflinchingly honest story of a man breaking free of a lifetime of silence and isolation. Born to a young Samoan father and Northern European mother, adopted at nine months by Pete and Frances Louganis, Greg began performing at age three in local dance and acrobatic competitions. He started diving lessons at age nine, and at sixteen he won a silver medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. But despite his astonishing athletic skill and artistry on the diving board. Greg struggled with late-detected dyslexia, prejudice toward his dark skin coloring, and anguish over his sexual orientation, which he felt compelled to hide.

Brian Moore: The Autobiography. Brian Moore, with Stephen Jones. 1995. Partridge (London). Given up for adoption at three weeks old, a remarkable story of a talented man on and off the pitch.

Bridge Less Traveled, Twice Visited, A. Robert Andersen & Rhonda Tucker. 2000. 320p. Badger Hill Press. In A Bridge Less Traveled: Twice Visited, Doctor Robert Andersen and classroom school teacher Rhonda Tucker collaborate to present issues arising from adoption and how adoption colors everyday experiences. Anderson and Tucker are themselves adoptees and explore the consequences of relinquishment unobscured or discounted through platitudes. They draw upon their adoptive experience to suggest avenues for resolution of these issues for adoptees, which includes much more than search for and reunion with their biological parents. A Bridge Less Traveled is “must” reading for anyone struggling with a need for an authentic identity as an adoptee and has much of critically important value and insight for the parents of adoptees and for anyone contemplating the adoption of a child. — Midwest Book Review. By the same author: Second Choice: Growing Up Adopted

Canny Lad, A: The Early Life of Thomas Moffett: An Autobiography. Thomas Moffett. 1998. 132p. (Archival Facsimile). Erskine Press. Autobiography of a boy from one of the poorest areas of South Shields who became butler of Peterhouse College, Cambridge.

Caroline & Just Me. Caroline Carden. Illustrated by Lauren Reis-Black. Edited by Daniel Collins. 1997. 58p. Harvest Media, Inc. A higher “stream of consciousness” concerning adoption. This book captures the spirit of a troubled child and a renewed heart. Caroline and Just Me reflects a very personal narrative of the author as seen through the child within. The work serves as a catharsis tracing the painful and devastating path of her childhood through the spiritual, philosophical and emotional awakening she experienced as a mature adult. Adopted at 18 months old, Caroline’s adopted mother, through her own fears and deep need for control, was physically and emotionally abusive. Caroline lived with abandonment and heartache as companions during her youth. She portrays the unconditional love of her adoptive father which made all the difference, invented an alter-ego to transfer some of the emotions she felt and help her ease the difficulties of day-to-day living. Caroline and Just Me reflects a higher “stream of consciousness” kind of writing literature which the author leads us on her journey from pain to peace. In the motif, we find a child who only becomes an adult when she lays to rest the anguish and insecurities of the past and looks to the present and future with a clearer, more healthy sense of self. Through her struggles, love of God, fulfilling love of family and “real” self, Caroline Carden emerges as an adult writer, who colorfully tells her story. Caroline and Just Me not only touches our hearts, but transforms our souls. — Daniel Collins

Castaway Kid: One Man’s Search for Hope & Home. RB Mitchell. 2007. 272p. (Focus on the Family Books). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. From Publishers Weekly: Mitchell is a respected financial consultant and a dedicated youth advocate, but what’s not well known is that he had a tumultuous childhood. His memoir reveals his life in an orphanage after his mother abandoned him at age 3, as well as his struggle to find love and acceptance and learn to trust. Mitchell knew his mentally ill mother, who once kidnapped him from the orphanage, but had no real memories of his father, who attempted suicide but ended up brain damaged. His maternal grandmother was the boy’s anchor, but she couldn’t raise him, which only added to his confusion. He teetered on the edge of disaster as he matured, but at age 17 he prayed, “Jesus, if You are real, come into my nightmare. Forgive me of my sins and change me.” Mitchell’s story is inspiring both for its spiritual dimension and its conventional Horatio Alger narrative. The facts of his case are also verifiably true, which Mitchell and the publisher take pains to ensure in part through the Web site www.amillionlittleproofs.com, which offers .pdf versions of documents from Mitchell’s past. His memoir will appeal to adults with difficult pasts, those who work with troubled kids and anyone who revels in seeing God change a life. — © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chasing Away the Shadows: An Adoptee’s Journey to Motherhood. Zara Phillips. 2004. 198p. Zara Music. From the Publisher: This book would be suitable for anyone whose lives have been touched by adoption but would be very helpful to adoptees contemplating Parenthood. From the Author: I wrote this book after the birth of my first child, even though I had been in reunion for many years with my birth mother, I couldn’t have been prepared for the impact that my sons birth had on my issues surrounding adoption. I decided to write about my adoption experience from the beginning. About the Author: Zara started singing professionally over ten years ago in the United Kingdom as a backing vocalist for Bob Geldof, Matt Bianco, Nic Kamen, and many other bands. From the start of her professional career, Zara has worked on albums, videos and promotional television shows throughout Europe for various bands. Now a mother of three children, Zara has been based in Los Angeles since 1994 and is currently writing parenting articles for children’s magazines in England. Along with recording a new CD and performing her own material as a successful solo artist, she has finished work this, her first book. This is a powerful, personal book about her transition from the life of a single adoptee to that of a married mother of three. This book is about relinquishment, reunion and motherhood. Zara’s latest musical work is becoming increasingly popular in the local Los Angeles adoption community with emotive songs as “Silence All These Years” and “Secrets.” Using a combination of strong lyrical themes and powerful melodies to create an engaging style that is both thought provoking and entertaining, these songs capture the emotions of adoption with sensitivity.

Child Called “It”, A: An Abused Child’s Journey from Victim to Victor. David J Pelzer. 1995. 184p. Health Communications, Inc. This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games—games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother’s games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an “it.” Dave’s bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive—dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son. By the Same Author: The Lost Boy: A Foster Child’s Search for the Love of a Family and A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph & Forgiveness. He is also the author of a self-help book called Help Yourself: Celebrating the Daily Rewards of Resilience and Gratitude, as well as The Privilege of Youth, the final chapter in his story of survival.

Chosen Children: Billion Dollar Babies in America’s Foster Care, Adoption & Prison Systems. Lori Carangelo. 2001. Schenkman Books. The people discussed in Chosen Children were not “born to lose,” but their life histories reflect the powerful influence of the American way of adoption and foster care and of people on the outside who are able to make of adoption and foster care an experience that is destructive. Secrecy is always a temptation to those who are outside of the secret. Lori Carrangelo reveals this process through case histories like “why adoptees killed their adopters,” “why most serial-killers are adopters, and alternatives to adoption.” Prison systems, privitization, and alternatives are discussed.

Coming Apart Together: A Memoir. Emily A Hipchen. 2005. 208p. The Literate Chigger Press, Inc. Coming Apart Together tells the true story of two teenagers from Long Island—of different classes and ethnic backgrounds—who meet by chance, fall in love, find their parents will not allow them to marry, and head off to college only to discover that they are going to have a child. The young woman is spirited away to a home for unwed mothers, gives birth, signs the relinquishment papers, returns home. In four years’ time, when they are old enough to marry despite their parents, they do. Over the next twenty-five years, the pair have five more children together. Their first child, adopted at three months of age, grows up in the knowledge that she is different because she is adopted and, as an adult, she begins the search for her birth family. She discontinues it out of fear and then, almost without reason, begins it again in 1998. In that same month, July of 1998, her entire birth family discovers the New York State adoption registry and they are, through it, reunited in February of 1999. This reunion is the impetus of Hipchen’s story, the cataclysm that begins it and ends it both. Coming Apart Together recounts the stories that are necessarily part of any reunion experience, and meditates upon what those stories mean (or don’t mean). It is also an imaginative exploration of what it may feel like to adopt a child, to be an adopted child, to give up a child for adoption, what it might be like to be the other mother, to find other relatives, to have a strange adult show up on your doorstep one day, claiming kinship. Though the plot creates interest, the real beauty of the text is in its language and its capacity for conveying to readers the difficult emotional paths of the birth parents, of their own parents and grandparents, of the adoptive mother and father, and of the adopted daughter at parting, in living apart, and in reunion. About the Author: Emily Hipchen holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Georgia and teaches English and writing at the University of Tampa. She is co-editor, with Joseph and Rebecca Hogan, of a/b: Autobiography Studies and is a member of the Executive Board and chairs the Conference Planning Committee of the Alliance for the Study of Adoption, Identity and Kinship whose inaugural conference will take place in November 2005. She has spoken and written about representations of adoption in literature and art in several venues, including meetings of eighteenth-century scholars, the National Women’s Studies Association conference, and the Modern Language Association conference. Most recently, she edited and with Jill R. Deans wrote the introduction to a special edition of a/b: Auto/Biography Studies on adoption life writing. She is working on a book about such writing, tentatively titled Family Bodies in Adoption Life Writing. She was adopted as an infant and reunited with her birth family in 1999.

Coming Home to Self: The Adopted Child Grows Up. Nancy Newton Verrier. 2003. 485p. Verrier Publications. Although written with adult adoptees in mind, Coming Home to Self is a book that can help anyone who has had early childhood trauma or who feels as if he or she is living an unauthentic life. It is a book about becoming aware of the reasons for certain attitudes and behaviors. From understanding basic trauma and the neurological consequences of trauma to step by step ways to heal from that trauma, Coming Home to Self, by helping readers discover a more authentic self, take responsibility for that self, and discover one’s own personal spiritual path, will contribute to the well-being of people suffering from a variety of wounds. Carol Schaefer, author of The Other Mother, writes: “With enormous compassion and caring and exceptional knowledge and insight, Verrier reveals not only how to finally heal but also how to actually be better for the journey. Most highly recommended.” If being more authentic and powerful is your goal, this is the book for you.

Complete Surrender. Dave Sharp. 2008. 288p. John Blake Publishing, Ltd (UK). In late 1942, a brief advert was placed in the Reading Mercury, a newspaper for the local area, reading: “Wanted: Home for Baby Boy, Age 1 Month; Complete Surrender.” Two weeks later, on the deserted platform of Reading railway station, a young couple who had read the advert were to fleetingly meet the mother of this baby boy as she passed the child over to them. The reasons for the surrender of her child were never explained. The boy, Dave Sharp, grew up happily with his adoptive parents, the light of their eyes, never knowing the full story of his parentage. A chance discovery some sixty years later was to set him on a quest to uncover the truth behind his mysterious abandonment. The search was not to be easy, nor was it to prove without shocking and uncomfortable revelations, both for Dave and for the family that he discovered. Not only was Dave, a bricklayer by trade, to be united with the brother that he had never had—the world-famous novelist Ian McEwan—but the two men were to discover a shared history and relationship closer than they could ever have imagined. With a foreword by McEwan, this book tells the moving, and by turns funny, story of Dave’s search for the family that had given him up and the astonishing secrets that lay behind his adoption. About the Author: Ian McEwan is one of the world’s best loved living writers, the critically acclaimed author of many books including The Cement Garden (1978), The Child in Time (1987), Enduring Love (1997), and, most recently, On Chesil Beach. His novel Atonement has recently been adapted as a major motion picture starring Keira Knightley and James MacAvoy. Dave Sharp is a bricklayer by trade and a life-long supporter of his beloved Reading FC. This is his first book.

Confessions of Edward Dahlberg, The. Edward Dahlberg. 1971. 317p. Brazillier. The second volume of Edward Dahlberg’s memoirs, which began with Because I Was Flesh, published in 1963.

Consider This... Ebony in an Ivory World. Laura Bartolo. 2003. 69p. Lulu.com. This book contains nine important factors to consider when adopting a child of another race. A chapter on recognizing the symptoms of childhood depression is also included. Consider This...is based upon my experiences as an African-American woman who was adopted by a Caucasian family, and who began life in a small, rural community 31 years ago.

Cornish Waif’s Story, A: An Autobiography. Emma Smith (pseudonym). Foreword by AL Rowse. 1954. 188pp. Odhams Press (UK). Autobiographical account of a young life spent “on the road,” begging for a living in early 20th century England. Born illegitimately and abandonned by her family, she was handed over to an itinerant organ grinder and his wife for what was basically slave labor at the age of five. At twelve, she escaped and found refuge in a Convent-penitentiary, ultimately finding happiness and security in marriage with a home and family of her own.

Corpsman’s Legacy, A: He Continues to Heal Others through the Daughter He Never Knew. Stephanie Hansen. 2006. 333p. (Valor in Combat Series). Leatherneck Publishing. Adopted at birth, Stephanie Hanson begins a search for her biological parents and learns her father, Gary Norman Young, was killed in the Vietnam War before she was born. To unravel the mystery of his death, she hears first-hand from other veterans of her father’s world of courage and bravery as a helicopter crewmember in 1969. She learns of the remarkable relationship that exists between Marines and their Navy Corpsmen, and realizes she has now inherited the honor and respect given to her father. After years of perseverance, Stephanie finally obtains the medals and honors her father earned for his sacrifice and service, through the help of veterans, the Marine Corps Commandant and a United States Senator. During her journey, she locates the family members of the men who died with her father and helps other veterans and children connect with each other. Embraced by thousands of veterans, she discovers the greatest gift her father left her is the legacy of healing.

Crumbs of You, Pieces of Me. Michael Vergati. 2006. 52p. Lulu.com. An emotional memoir that exposes the buried and often primal emotions of an adoptee, Crumbs of You, Pieces of Me follows a young man and his life-long quest for ’sense of self’. Chronicled from his earliest childhood memories, past the moments when he reunites with his natural mother and his subsequent abandonment and disavowment by her to the time he finds his maternal relatives on the cusp of a military tour to Iraq, this story will make the reader question the very fabric of their pre-conceived notions of adoption. This is a must-read for anyone who is preparing to go through the often arduous roads of an adoption reunion.

Cry Out!: Inside the Terrifying World of an Abused Child. P(hil) E Quinn. 1984. 205p. Abingdon Press. Peter had withdrawn into himself, behind a protective shield of passive indifference to all about him; a private world where he could survive, alone, as he attempted to adjust and understand. Only the pain remained the same. Survival meant controlling the pain. This is a shocking, searing account of child abuse told from the child’s point of view. It is a nightmare of torment, terror, and desperation. It is also a story of hope. And it is true in its entirety.

Dark Son, The. Denise V Lang. 1995. 416p. Avon. The Heikkilas appeared to be a happy family. The trouble began when 20-year-old Matthew was arrested for holding a gun to his adoptive father’s head. Six months later, prior to taking his girlfriend out for a birthday dinner, he murdered his parents. This is the tragic story of a teen killer and his unprecedented defense, “Adopted Child Syndrome.”

Darkness on a Sunny Day: The Struggle of an Adopted Child to Find Herself. Heidi Cox. 2009. 96p. PublishAmerica. Who would have thought that each day you would be thankful for the pain you had suffered throughout your childhood? Each day I do. I think about how I wouldn’t have as much insight and understanding to life’s daily living. I am thankful for what anguish and suffering have allowed me to learn about me, who I am as a person and people around me. This book has taught me things step by step while writing it and looking back at the past, about my identity and what I want in life. I hope that others may learn from my own experiences before they make a mistake. Imagine a one-year-old already understanding the meaning of anger and hatred. That was me. After being juggled around for the first six months of my life and then landing in a foster home where I felt safe, I already had abandonment issues. Then, by six, imagine remembering being taken away from a family that you thought would be forever. When my adoptive family came along, I was already attached to another family. Even though a dream had come true, I never really came to terms with my new family because I thought I already had one. Years later, I figured it out. Their intentions were only good, loving, and caring to a child who didn’t have any love left to spare.

Daughter of the Ganges: A Memoir. Asha Miró. Translated by Jamal Mahjoub. 2006. 320p. Atria. While growing up in an Indian orphanage, Asha Miró dreamed of someday being adopted. Her wish finally came true, but only at the misfortune of another. When Asha was six, a Catalan family was in the process of adopting twins but one of the children suddenly fell ill and died. This twist of fate led the family to adopt Asha instead. Leaving a life of poverty behind, Asha was given a second chance. Twenty-one years later, Asha takes a heart-wrenching trip back to India to uncover her native roots. Full of unexpected encounters, this adventure informs and touches Asha beyond her expectations. She visits her old orphanage, speaks with her former caretakers, explores the land that she might not have ever left, and comes to form a more solid identity. Yet one trip is not enough. Eight years later she returns. This time she journeys to the small rural village where she was born. As well as uncovering the details behind her adoption, she finds the only living member of her immediate Indian family: a sister she never knew she had.

Dave’s Way: A New Approach to Old-Fashioned Success. R David Thomas. 1992. Berkeley. Dave Thomas (founder of “Wendy’s” restaurant chain) uses commonsense language and lively anecdotes to reveal the secrets behind his success, as he tells the story of his fascinating life from an adopted child to the head of the three-billion-dollar Wendy’s empire [proceeds from book being donated to adoption programs].

Death in White Bear Lake, A: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town. Barry Siegel. 1990. 448p. Bantam. This is an account of Harold and Lois Jurgens, a Minnesota couple whoadopted two children and beat the younger one, Dennis, to death in 1963. The Jurgens later adopted four more children, all of whom were also abused. Lois Jurgens was successfully prosecuted for third-degree murder after Dennis’s natural mother came looking for her son and expressed suspicions about his death, 22 years after it happened. (2000 Ballentine paperpack edition pictured).

Don’t Ever Forget Me. Rose Alan. 1987. 119p. Libra Publishers. The heartbroken 11-year-old girl tearfully placed a blue corduroy hat on her three-year-old brother’s head, bent down, kissed him, and whispered, “Don’t ever forget me.” The words and the hat were to remain an emotional bond, as they weren’t to meet again for 20 years. This is the poignant story of Rose Alan’s long search, against incredible odds, to find and unite her seven brothers and sisters—a testimony to the strength of the human spirit driven by the need to “belong,” to be part of a family. But it is much more. It is a story that follows a trail of divorce, foster homes, alcoholism, drugs, seperation of twins, and incest. In this personal account of her experiences, the author exposes one of society’s most tragic mistakes—the mandatory removal of children from the family, not for reasons of abuse, but merely because they were poor. Poverty and ignorance were their “crimes,” and the punishment was devestating loneliness. Ms. Alan describes fond memories of a home where there was love without luxury, but as a result of alcohol abuse and divorce (commonly accepted today), her mother was left to raise seven children. Although living as the only white family in a slum area of Minneapolis was frightening, the family still felt secure in belonging to one another. But after a year and a half of adjusting, they were uprooted, the bureaucracy having determined that the answer to their problems of food, clothing, and shelter was to move them again, but this time the four older children were sent to seperate foster homes and the babies adopted. As a consequence, her mother turned to alcohol, remaining addicted for the next 25 years. Throughout her marriage, she continued the search for her family. Finding no legal way of finding the adopted children, she resorted to posing as a welfare worker. Through sheer luck she found the adopted name of one of her younger brothers, and thus encouraged, she called every major city in the country, every unit of the armed forces, every school and adoption agency, and every church in the county of his adoption, but to no avail. At one time she pretended to be an adoption agency supervisor; at another she claimed she was an employer attempting to locate a missing employee through Social Security headquarters. She even tried to bribe a judge—failing in every attempt. Eventually, through unswerving perseverance, she did succeed, and the family was reunited. But that was to be the beginning of a new trauma—one that brought even greater heartbreak and soul-searching; she and her brother, now a married man, the one to whom she had whispered, “Don’t ever forget me,” had fallen in love.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot: The Autobiography of a Dangerous Man. John Callahan. 1989. Illustrated. 219p. William Morrow & Co. You might have heard about John Callahan. Gary Larson wrote: “There are two basic reasons I enjoy Callahan’s work so much: First, I think his cartoons are just plain funny, and second, he makes my work look normal.” Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons says: “Rude, shocking, depraved, tasteless—Callahan gets called all the adjectives that cartoonists crave to hear.” You might have first heard about Callahan as “that paralyzed cartoonist,” but this misses the point. John is a hysterically funny cartoonist regardless of any handicaps he might have to overcome. John’s sense of humor is shaped in part by his being paralyzed, but also by his being an adopted child, having been educated in Catholic schools, and being a recovered alcoholic. Not funny subjects? Well, check out the cartoons of John Callahan and decide for yourself [emphasis added]. Visit his website at www.callahanonline.com.

8 Ball Cafe. Lori Carangelo. 1999. 200p. Access Press. Noah Stone and Tom McGee were both declared child geniuses. Noah and Tom never knew each other, yet their stories are alarmingly alike. Both survived decades of drug addiction while institutionalized most of their lives in mental hospitals and state prisons, their mental abilities and sense of humor still remarkably intact. Noah’s adoptive parents told him he was part Native American and that they purchased him when he was age 3, for $350, at the 8 Ball Cafe. Tom’s adoptive parents told him he is part Hispanic, Asian and Caucasian and that they found him in foster care when he was age 5. Noah and Tom have lived behind an 8-ball, trapped inside their own brains where children hide, their birth-families a vague shadow- memory. The tangled web of their lives and the results of their searches for their birth-families is a study on what was and still is wrong with America’s foster care, adoption and prison systems.

Eleanor’s Rebellion: A Mother, Her Son, & Her Secret. David Siff. 2000. 320p. Knopf. In 1975, when David Siff was 40 years old, his world turned upside down. Not only was he adopted, he learned, he was adopted by his own birth mother. Eleanor Segal had been forced to place her son in an orphanage for 14 months after his birth, but moved heaven and earth to get him back; when her son was three, she even married a man she didn’t love, just because Benjamin Siff promised to be a good provider and a good father. David’s natural father, she told him, was the actor Van Heflin, dead for several years by this time. This bombshell revelation helps explain to the middle-aged Siff the tensions that simmered in his childhood home, and his own difficult behavior as a kid. But it also triggers major disruptions: he resumes the acting career he had abandoned in his 20s, begins drinking heavily, and shoplifts compulsively. His honest, meditative memoir traces a journey toward understanding his mother, a teenage rebel who squeezed herself unhappily into the mold of traditional wife and mother. His own wife and children bear with David during this trying period, and the story ends on an affirmative note, as documents from the Home for Hebrew Infants prove to him that his mother “lost friends, alienated her family, gave up her plans to be an actress ... to make sure she held on to her child. Her devotion to me was absolute.” — Wendy Smith

Emotional Impact of Adoption. Mardie Caldwell. 2008. Audio CD. American Carriage House. What is it like to be adopted and then later reunited with your birthmother? Learn directly from an adult adoptee. Learn the issues and emotional vulnerabilities distinctive to adoptees, how adoptees can improve their outlook, and the resources available for adoptive parents and adoptees.

Eugène de Beauharnais: The Adopted Son of Napoleon. Violette M Montagu. 1913. 383p. John Long, Ltd (UK). Biography of Napoleon’s adoptive son (the son of Josephine by her first marriage).

Explication: One Adoptee’s Experience. Jen Bryan. 2001. 172p. Writers Club Press/iUniverse.com. Shocking illustration of what happens when adoption produces psychological conflict and confusion instead of a happily ever after ending. Honest and gut-wrenching. What happens to adoptees that emerge as half a person from the closed adoption system of yesteryear? Jen Bryan takes the reader along with her from the moment she remembers knowing she was adopted as a young child to her harrowing adolescence, and finally to a search for truth that leads only to more questions. About the Author: Jen grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, living briefly in New York City while she attempted the life of a starving artist and found that she appreciated fine food far too much. Finally settling in Austin, Texas, she now lives on the outskirts in a small suburban house with her husband, son, and lots of cats.