Faces of Adoption. E Lynn Giddens. 1983. 106p. Amberly Publications. Faces of Adoption attempts to examine various questions related to the adoption process through contributions from adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, professionals and others, including: What motivates an adoptee to search? Is adoption a single event occurring in one’s life or an ongoing process? Have the majority of birth parents “forgotten” their relinquished children as they have often been instructed to do? Are professionals and adoptive parents now changing their views regarding openness in adoptions?

Family from Barra, A: An Adoption Story. Beryl Martin. 1998. 200p. Paul & Co. A Family From Barra is the true story of the author’s childhood in New Zealand, growing up as Pat Ridge, the daughter of a working man and his emotionally unbalanced wife. It is not until after years of abuse that the author learns that she was adopted and begins the search for her blood relations that eventually leads her back to the island of Barra in Scotland. The descriptions of her early years are captivating, not only because they are a window into the mind of her eccentric and sometimes brutally unfair step-mother, but also because they so clearly capture the spirit of the Depression era with its escapes through endless movies and its many economies. Eventually the author becomes acquainted with her brothers in New Zealand and finds a sense of belonging and happiness. This true story is a triumph of the human spirit, full of admitted failings, but never despairing that there is a place in the world for everyone. — A reader from Trenton, New Jersey, March 31, 1999

Family Secrets. David Leitch. 1984. 242p. William Heinemann (UK). When he was less than two weeks old, David Leitch was adopted through an advertisement in the Daily Express. Thirty-six years later, determined to find his real parents, he published God Stand Up For Bastards, in which he revealed the extraordinary details of his adoption and the effect it had had on his life. As a result of that first book, David Leitch was eventually reunited with his mother. But that reunion was not the end of his quest. In many ways, it was only the beginning. Family Secrets is the story of a man in early middle-age, confronting the past that has been hidden from him for so long. In it, David Leitch discovers the circumstances of his birth and his real mother—so different from his fantasies—but the fact that there are even more secrets in his family’s cupboard than he could have dreamed.

Family Wanted: True Stories of Adoption. Sara Holloway, ed. 2006. 320p. Random House Trade Paperbacks. Adoption, until recently a hidden subject, has become an open field of psychological study, policy debate, and ethical interest. Family Wanted is an honest, heartwarming, and heartbreaking collection featuring important authors personally involved in all sides of adoption. Here are more than twenty pieces, many published for the first time. Among the contributors are Paula Fox, an adoptee herself, who meets the daughter she didn’t raise and finds she is “the first woman related to me I could speak to freely”; Bernard Cornwell, adopted by a now-defunct religious cult, who responds by converting to “atheism and frivolity”; African author Hannah wa Muigai, who recounts being impregnated as a teenager by an older lover—whom she then found in bed with another man; Tama Janowitz, who to her comical shock learns to love the “hyperactive sweating lunatic” she adopted in China; and Daniel Menaker, who as an adoptive father becomes less concerned with the cause-and-effect of heredity and more content with “the lottery that to a large extent is everyone’s life.” Other Contributors: Meg Bortin • Sarah Cameron • Dan Chaon • Dominic Collier • Robert Dessaix • Matthew Engel • A. M. Homes • Lynn Lauber • Carol Lefevre • Priscilla T. Nagle • Sandra Newman • Mirabel Osler • Emily Prager • Jonathan Rendall • Martin Rowson • Abigail Rubin • Lise Saffran • Lindsay Sagnette • Jeanette Winterson • Mark Wormald

Fear of the Collar: My Terrifying Childhood in Artane. Patrick Touher. 2001. 272p. The O’Brien Press, Ltd (Ireland). Life in Artane Industrial School was an education in cruelty and fear. Run by the Christian Brothers, the school has become synonymous with the widespread abuse of children in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s and is currently under police investigation. Patrick Touher’s story bears testament to the courage and determination of the children who were forgotten by society. Sent there at age eight, Patrick Touher spent eight long years in Artane Industrial School under the oppressive rule of the Christian Bothers. Patrick Touher reveals shocking new material about physical and sexual abuse by the fearsome and brutal Christian Brothers who controlled the school and the boys who lived there. The story which couldn’t be told—until now.

Feathers of the Snow Angel: Memories of a Child in Exile. Lionel Pearce. 2002. 200p. Fremantle Arts Center Press (Australia).
     This is an unusual autobiography. It is in two parts; the first the fragmented memories of early childhood, the second a memoir of growing up an orphan and being transported from one side of the world to the other. The overriding quality of this book is its harrowing honesty. Lionel Pearce recounts painful memories of loss and abuse; and it is his willingness to lay his soul bare and face his demons that distinguish this work from more conventional memoirs.
     The book begins with glimpses of the infant Pearce and his experiences while living with his mother, his grandmother—a fierce matriarch—and his aunts. At this point in the text, it is the women, strong and disapproving, who hold the power in baby Lionel’s world. The men are peripheral figures who occasionally intrude into the women’s world. Lionel’s father is a tall stranger in a dark coat who occasionally takes his family or his son on outings, Lionel’s uncle a secret ally with little power in his marginal place as his wife’s husband. It becomes apparent that Lionel was an illegitimate child born in a time when such transgressions were not easily forgiven. Although tolerated in the family home, his mother is treated as a servant by her family, his father is not allowed to live with them, denied more than occasional access. The writing in this early part of the book is exquisite. Pearce’s use of language is poetic and emotive; he interlaces imagery and emotion with such skill that through shards of memory several worlds are evoked, that of matriarchal domesticity, of the working class, aspects of post-World War I England headed for the Depression and, most eloquently, the world of the very young child struggling towards awareness of himself and his place in life.
     It is in part one of the book that Pearce describes his mother’s death and the sorrow and confusion of a child too young to understand that he will never see her again. The prologue also sets up images and themes that can be followed throughout the work as a whole. For example, his ambivalence towards women is reflected in the iconic status of the angel. There is the snow angel, metaphoricising his grief and desire for his mother, perfect in her death, and there are the avenging angels—the powerful, authoritarian aunts and grandmother. Throughout his life, Lionel searches for the ideal mother-angel, yet time and again he comes into the terrible shadow of the avengers’ wings. Whether this vacillation between worship and loathing was a later construct through which Lionel viewed his early life will make a fruitful topic for discussion. Some other issues that can be seen in embryo in the prologue are Pearce’s class consciousness, his obsession with death and loss, and the blanket of grief and misery that seems to have wrapped about every aspect of his life.
     The second part of the book continues these themes and more in the telling of the events that made up Lionel’s life after his mother’s death, his rejection by her family and his institutionalisation at the age of five. He is adopted by a family in London and lives with them for several years. Unfortunately, although this began promisingly, his new “mother” metamorphosed from snow to avenging angel and Lionel was subjected to severe physical and sexual abuse before being “encouraged” to go to Fairbridge Farm, in Western Australia, at the age of twelve. This move to the other side of the world does not provide any release or independence for Lionel; he becomes part of an orphanage system that effectively controls him, body and soul, for several years to come.

Ferlinghetti: The Artist in His Time. Barry Silesky. 1990. 294p. Warner Books. Silesky tells the full story of Ferlinghetti’s Dickensian, fantastical beginnings: how Larry Monsanto Ferling was given away at the age of two, trundled around Europe, put in an orphanage at six, retrieved and abandoned again, and finally adopted by an extremely wealthy elderly couple who brought him to live on their great estate and send him to expensive schools. Silesky then shows us how Larry Ferling emerged from his unusual early years to become, in his early thirties, Lawrence Ferlinghetti: publisher , poet, novelist, painter, and spokesman for an age.

Finding Family: A Journalist’s Search for the Mother Who Left Him in an Orphanage at Birth. Rick Ouston. 1994. 213p. New Star Books. (Canada). A journalist’s search for the mother who left him in an orphanage at birth. Rick Ouston’s mother disappeared shortly after his birth, leaving him to be brought up by adoptive parents. More than 30 years later, armed with just a handful of clues, Ouston sets out to find her. Using skills and techniques he learned as an investigative journalist in television and newspapers, Ouston began the search for his mother and an older sister who was earlier given up for adoption. Finding Family is an engrossing detective story, but it’s also a story about what it means to find your family—whether it’s blood relatives, or the strangers who take you into their own family, or the communities we choose and make for ourselves to provide the love and support that family represents.

Finding Fish: A Memoir. Antoine Quenton Fisher, with Mim Eichler Rivas. 2001. 352p. William Morrow. Finding Fish is the memoir of Antwone Fisher’s miraculous journey from abandonment and abuse to liberation, manhood, and extraordinary success—a modern-day Oliver Twist. Baby Boy Fisher—as he was documented in his child welfare caseworkers’ reports—was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. After beginning his life in an orphanage, Antwone was placed in a temporary foster home until, around age two, he was transferred to a second foster home. It was there, over the next thirteen years, that he endured emotional abandonment and physical abuse. Removed from this foster home not long before his sixteenth birthday, Antwone found fleeting refuge in a boys’ reform school but was soon thrust into the nightmare of homelessness. Though convinced he was unwanted and unworthy, Fish, as he came to be known, refused to allow his spirit to be broken. Instead, he became determined to raise himself, to listen to social workers and teachers who intervened on his behalf, and to nurture a romantic heart along with a scathing sense of humor and a wondrous imagination—all of which sustained him with big dreams of a better day. Fatefully, just as Antwone’s life on the streets hit rock bottom, he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he remained for the next eleven years. During that time, Fish became a man of the world, raised by the Navy family he created for himself. Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born—first as the child who painted the feelings his words dared not speak, then as a poet and storyteller who would eventually become one of Hollywood’s most well-paid, sought-after screenwriters. But before he ascends those lofty steps, Antwone’s story takes us from the Navy to his jobs as a federal correctional officer and then a security guard at Sony Pictures in Hollywood. In its climactic conclusion, the mystery of his identity is finally unraveled as Antwone returns to Cleveland to locate his mother’s and father’s surviving family members. A tumultuous and ultimately gratifying tale of self-discovery written in Fisher’s gritty yet melodic literary voice, Finding Fish is an unforgettable reading experience. About the Authors: Antwone Quenton Fisher is a producer and screenwriter working in Hollywood. His credits include the screenplay for Finding Fish, the upcoming Double “O” Soul starring Mariah Carey, and Trigger Happy. His latest project is Jelly Beans, which is being produced by Will Smith. He lives with his wife and daughter in Los Angeles. Mim Eichler Rivas has worked as an author, coauthor, and collaborator on more than eighteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Pursuit of Happyness, with Chris Gardner; and Finding Fish, with Antwone Fisher. She is the coauthor of Start Where You Are, with Chris Gardner and is the sole author of the highly acclaimed Beautiful Jim Key, now in the works as a major feature film. Eichler and her family live in Hermosa Beach, California.

Finding Helen: A Navajo Miracle. Rose Johnson-Tsosie. 2008. 156p. Bluewater Publishing. The year was 1950. A terrified Navajo girl, only thirteen years old, travels to a small Hopi hospital to give birth to premature twins. With no formal education and unable to speak English, Helen unknowingly signs a paper by marking her “X” and thumbprint. She believes the hospital is asking for permission to leave her twin girls in their care until they are healthy enough to go home. When the young mother returns expecting to be reunited with her daughters, she finds that something has gone desperately wrong. Follow the miracle trail as destiny draws mother and daughter together again.

Finding Me in a Paper Bag: Searching For Both Sides Now. Sally Howard. 2003. 244p. Gateway Press. Left as an infant in a brown paper bag on a farmer’s porch and later, having to surrender her only daughter after being raped, the many layers of this powerful and inspiring story addresses: baby abandonment laws, rape, the results of an unsuccessful search and the great mystery that drives us to discover our origins. The reader will experience how it feel to never know a real birth date, nationality or genetic past. Foundlings and Safe Haven babies must live their lives alive, but unknown. The only book published written by both a foundling/adoptee and birth parent who does a duel search for both her mother and daughter at the same time using whatever means possible; psychics, angels, and an intermediary. The results will surprise you.

Finding My Father. Rod McKuen. 1976. 253p. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. Born in the depth of the Depression to a dime-a-dance hostess, McKuen never knew his father — a cruel ignorance that haunted him. His only fragment of information, calously revealed to him in adolescence, painfully shattered the father he’d forged of his own imagination: Neither wartime air ace nor movie hero, his father was a man just passing through — leaving behind him Rod, a bastard son. His deep involvement in Hello Again, a 1975 television documentary on adoptees, led him to renew the search that would finally end a lifetime of uncertainty.

Finding Our Place: 100 Memorable Adoptees, Fostered Persons, & Orphanage Alumni. Nikki McCaslin. 2009. 370p. Greenwood. This unique one-volume reference guide provides positive and empowering biographical sketches of 100 famous and well-known adoptees throughout time, serving to counter the many negative stereotypes that exist about people who were adopted, fostered, or lived in orphanages. This work looks at the lives of people who, despite circumstances in their childhood, were able to succeed in making important contributions to art, music, science, literature, politics, and entrepreneurship. This work answers the call to obtaining difficult-to-find information about well-known adoptees. High school students and general readers who are interested in learning more about positive role models in adoption and children’s issues will find this book invaluable. McCaslin outlines the parameters she used for inclusion in the book, and then discusses the history of adoption from ancient civilization to today’s society. Each entry focuses on the early life of the subject, as well as his or her career and achievements. Entries include Aristotle, Edward Albee, Ingrid Bergman, Oksana Baiul, Ella Fitzgerald, Faith Hill, Marilyn Monroe, Dave Thomas, Orson Welles and many more.

Five of Us: A Handful. Bettyjane Heller. 2006. 124p. Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc. Bettyjane Heller expresses human emotion at its greatest level in Five of Us: A Handful, a real-life autobiography of loss, love, and hope. Mrs. Heller, her two sisters, and her two brothers, unfortunately experienced the death of their young mother, followed then by heartbreaking turmoil after their father commits suicide. The children, although bonded by a strong love, are eventually separated; Betty and Shirley found their home at Bethany Orphan’s Home, their younger sister, Mae, was placed in foster care, and their brothers, Clark and Willard, were adopted to separate homes. Struggling to overcome the great distance apart, death, and the medical concerns of Shirley’s son, Clark, this fabulous five do not concern themselves with material objects. They just realize how important family really is. About the Author: Bettyjane Heller was born in Nazareth, PA, and has resided in Bethlehem, PA, for the past 26 years. Mrs. Heller has two daughters, Jonice and Kathy, and four stepchildren with her husband, Frederick. Aside from writing, Mrs. Heller’s hobbies also include traveling, collecting fine china and artwork, and watching sports games, especially the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL. She also has volunteered for the Historical Bethlehem Partnership for the past eight years. Five of Us: A Handful is Mrs. Heller’s first published book, which her children and grandchildren inspired her to write.

Follow Your Heart. Lori Paris. 2002. 333p. PublishAmerica. When a young woman discovers she was adopted as an infant, she makes a bold decision to seek out and find her birth parents. Little does she realize how it will forever change her life. Follow Your Heart is an exercise in love and compassion, a must read for all who believe in the power of love, and the strength of family.

Forbidden Family: A Half-Orphan’s Account of Her Adoption, Reunion & Social Activism. Joan Wheeler, BA, BSW. Foreword by Prof. Dr. Rene A.C. Hoksbergen. 2009. 664p. Trafford Publishing. State Law presumed her illegitimacy, sealed her birth certificate, issued a false one and changed her identity. With her new parents, she grew up an only child, until... Siblings she never knew found eighteen-year-old adoptee Joan Wheeler in 1974. Shocked, Joan immediately accepted that she had two sets of real parents. Knowing her adoptive parents lied to her and didn’t want her to ever know the truth, she also learned this closed adoption was anything but private. Secrets were traded across prohibited family lines—just don’t tell Joan or her father. Joan’s circumstances sparked her interest in the larger issues unique to adoptees. She became an activist in the International Adoption Reform Movement advocating for adoptees’ personal and civil rights in response to discrimination against, and segregation of, bastards and orphans. As Joan’s knowledge increased, her adoptive and natural families held onto stigma, myths and taboos of secrecy. No one approved of her “going public.” They labeled Joan as “obsessed” with adoption. She had to be silenced. This is Joan Wheeler’s incredible 35-year journey. About the Author: Joan M Wheeler’s opinion pieces have been published in The Erie Daily Times, (Erie, Pennsylvania) 1975-1976, and The Buffalo News, (Buffalo, New York) since 1976. She contributed to the publication of the United States Congressional Record, Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program, 1985. Her article, “Dual Identity”, appeared in Common Ground: WNY Women’s Newsjournal, Buffalo, New York, 1985. A revised version, “The Secret is Out,” was published in Adoption and Fostering Journal of the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering, 1990, and a Dutch translation was published in the book, Kind van Andere Ouders (Child of Other Parents), The Netherlands, 1991. Joan contributed to the New South Wales Law Reform Commission for their publication Report 69: Review of the Adoption Information Act 1990, Australia, 1992. Joan presented a paper entitled “Adoptees and Children of Reproductive Technologies” to The President’s Council on Bioethics, Washington, D.C., 2004 (http://bioethics.gov/transcripts/june04/session7.html). As a Social Worker, Joan worked in crisis counseling, suicide prevention, support services for the homeless, peer support for single mothers, and youth program development. In recent years, she divides her time between elder care, writing, and adoption reform advocacy. She enjoys reading, folk-rock music and theater. In 1978, Joan received a Bachelor of Arts from Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. In 1999, she received a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from State University of New York College at Buffalo, graduating Cum Laude. She resides in Buffalo, NY. This is her first book. Joan M Wheeler’s website: http://forbiddenfamily.com.

Fortress of the Heart...: The Story of Anna. Shirley Coleman-Wells. 1998. 230p. Hughes Henshaw Publications.

Foster Care Odyssey: A Black Girl’s Story. Theresa Cameron. 2002. 255p. University Press of Mississippi. Without signing the documents that would permit adoption, young Theresa Cameron’s mother placed her little daughter under the aegis of Catholic Charities, and then the mother vanished forever. During the 1960s and 1970s this abandoned, unadoptable child was shuttled through foster homes in the vicinity of Buffalo, NY. Insecure, desolate, and frightened, she was rotated through group homes and the houses of alien families, the victim of religious hypocrisy, racial prejudice, and insult. Theresa remained in this bleak, shame-imposing limbo until she was eighteen. Foster Care Odyssey is her candid story. “What little I owned,” she writes, “could have fit inside my usual moving-day luggage—a couple of shopping bags. Besides my clothing, I only had a few school supplies. Like the other girls at the group home, I attached very little sentimental value to the items I owned. ... The only thing of value that could not be taken away from me were my thoughts.” Theresa places her narrative against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in blue-collar Buffalo, where mixed-race foster homes were almost unknown and where she witnessed a welfare system that accorded only marginal benevolence to children, particularly black children, caught in the squeeze of bureaucratic machinery. As she passed through her turbulent teenage years, she acquired both a strong will and a tough veneer to shield herself from the many hurts in a restrictive world infused with racism and institutional segregation. Her coming-of-age narrative voices plainspoken criticism of the pernicious system which engulfed her and other helpless abandoned children. About the Author: Theresa Cameron is an associate professor of planning in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University. She has been published in the Journal of Health and Social Policy, Policy Studies Journal, and Landscape and Urban Planning.

Foster Kid: A Liverpudlian Childhood. Paul Barber. 2007. 320p. Little, Brown Book Group. Paul grew up in Liverpool in the 1950s and spent his childhood in a succession of children’s home and foster care after the death of his mother when he was twelve. Leaving care at the age of sixteen he made a living for himself until he got his first break into show business, by accident, and a part in the musical Hair brought him to London. Best-known for portraying memorable characters on TV and the big screen, Paul Barber has now produced a memorable account of his childhood. This is a memoir written with care and honesty about growing up in care—the cruelty and confusion, the happiness and the humour, the loss and the love. This memoir is frank, funny and unforgettable. About the Author: Paul Barber is an actor, best known for playing Denzil in Only Fools and Horses and Horse in The Full Monty. His other film credits include roles in Porridge, The Long Good Friday, The 51st State, and, most recently, Dead Man’s Cards.

Foundling: An Adopted Child’s Search for Her Identity. Mary Sturge. 2002. 159p. Xlibris Corporation. Abandoned as a baby in a London street, the author was adopted by an unmarried woman when she was about four years old. Her parents were never traced. Foundling: An Adopted Child’s Search For Her Identity, makes the connection between what happenedto the author—abandonment, her conflicts with her adoptive mother and other substitute parents—and the development of her inner life. The driving force behind the book is the need to record, analyze and explain her need for the phantom parents, and to describe her relations with her friends, mentors and, in particular, with the woman who adopted her. The flow of the writer’s daydreaming, memories and associations is expressed in the two distinct voices of prose and poetry, a technique inspired by Dante’s La Vita Nuova.

From Christmas to Christmas: A Autobiography About Adoption From Beginning to End. Jacques Polisoe. 2009. 100p. PublishAmerica. Jacques started looking for his birth mother in March 1992, and fifteen years later, he completed the search. From Christmas to Christmas details the many relationships, some of them good, some bad. “I think life is more adventurous when you have to rough it out a bit.”

Photo: Phil Aarrestad

Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee’s Return to Korea. Jane Jeong Trenka. 2009. 192p. Graywolf Press. Whenever she speaks to a stranger in her native Korea, Jane Jeong Trenka is forced to explain what she is. Japanese? Chinese? The answer—that she was adopted from Korea as a baby and grew up in the United States—is a source of grief, pride, and confusion. Trenka’s award-winning first book, The Language of Blood, told the story of her upbringing in a white family in rural Minnesota. Now, in this searching and provocative memoir, Trenka explores a new question: Can she make an adult life for herself in Korea? Despite numerous setbacks, Trenka resolves to learn the language and ways of her unfamiliar birth country. In navigating the myriad contradictions and disjunctions that have made up her life, Trenka turns to the lessons from her past—in particular, the concept of dissonance and harmony learned over her years as a musician. In Fugitive Visions, named after a composition by Prokofiev, Trenka has succeeded in braiding the disparate elements of her life into a recognizable and at times heartbreaking whole. About the Author: Jane Jeong Trenka has won numerous awards and fellowships for her writing. She is the author of The Language of Blood, called “original and beautifully written” by Publishers Weekly. She now lives in Korea.

Fumbling Toward Divinity: The Adoption Scriptures. Craig Hickman. 2005. 373p. Annabessacook Farm Books. At thirty-three, Craig, a black writer and artist, heeds the signs of his life and journeys into uncharted waters. After six years of searching, he shows up unannounced on his birth mother’s doorstep. Craig’s parents and sister are supportive of his search, as is Job, the Dutchman with whom Craig has shared the last four years of his life. Jennifer, a devout Seventh-Day Adventist, happy that her son has found her, attempts to allay her guilt and shame for giving him up and tries to make up for lost time. After all, she believes her son loves men because she abandoned him at birth. In an opportunistic turn of events, Craig plans a big family feast down in Georgia where England, the matriarch who forced her daughter to give him up at birth, lives in the apartment at the back of her son Joshua’s twenty-two room “castle in the sky.” Craig’s adoptive family meets Jennifer’s entire family and all sorts of sparks fly in the castle on Ella Lane. Craig struggles with whether or not he wants Jennifer to remain a part of his life and what kind of relationship, if any, he can have with his three biological sisters, all of whom growin up desperately wanted a brother. Part mystery, part history, part family saga, part divination—all of it true—Fumbling Toward Divinity bears witness to the transcendent power of spirit and love in an age of terror and madness. Borrowing from ancient oral traditions, the story is told in the third person, whereby the telling of the story becomes part of the story itself. From the opening pages to the poignant conclusion, Craig Hickman re-invents the memoir and proves himself a master storyteller. About the Author: Craig Hickman is a poet, performance artist, cultural activist and author of The Language of Mirrors and the bestseller Rituals: Poetry and Prose. He is the biological great grandson of Madree Penn White, co-founder of the Delta Theta Sigma sorority. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. He is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant, a Gertrude Williams Johnson Literary Award from Ebony, and the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement from the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance. He lives in Maine.

Freedom from the Inside Out: A Guide for the Wounded Self. Nathalie Goldrain. 1999. 206p. Medicine Bear Publishing. Freedom from the Inside Out: A Guide for the Wounded Self is a moving true story of a young woman who, after riding a tidal wave of trauma throughout her early life, finds a spiritual safe harbor within. The author was abandoned by her parents at birth and afterward endured abuse at the hands of her adoptive family. Then, without support, she fought a solitary battle with cancer as a teenager. Nathalie grapples with the “why” of our suffering, touching upon such concepts as reincarnation, soul advancement through wisdom, and healing by unconditional love. She demonstrates how even our deepest wounds can be overcome. This unpretentious drama unfolds bit by bit, revealing the emotion of her suffering and rebirth. It will be difficult, especially for those who have known abuse or tragedy, to remain unaffected by such a heartfelt tale of universal truth. The author offers a gift of hope with a universal message of interest to others from all walks of life. Crafted in a simple, lyrical style, Freedom from the Inside Out is about the journey to transformation and wholeness. The story uses snapshots of the author’s life, ways in which balance and a proper perspective lead to new beginnings. Through examples and encouragement, readers are empowered to embrace personal challenges with courage and grace. About the Author: Nathalie Goldrain is a visionary counselor who combines her expertise in the healing arts with her knowledge of parapsychology. She guides people to an understanding of self-healing, helping them realign with their soul. As a survivor on many levels, she views life as an opportunity to journey where we haven’t gone before. Throughout life, Nathalie has had one experience after another with the typically unseen world. She is sensitive to what the soul is trying to express and offers insight into the meaning of our wounds. By shedding light into dark and distant places, transformation can take place. Nathalie is a certified Domestic Violence Counselor, a Clinical Transpersonal Hypnotherapist, and a passionate advocate for humanitarian causes. Born in Switzerland, she resides in California. Freedom from the Inside Out: A Guide for the Wounded Self is the first book in a trilogy, concentrating on the development of individual consciousness. Forthcoming volumes take readers on a journey into social and planetary consciousness as well as unveil the dimensions of universal consciousness. For additional information, visit her website.

Freedom of Angels: Surviving Goldenbridge Orphanage. Bernadette Fahy. 1999. 222p. The O’Brien Press, Ltd (Ireland). At age seven, Bernadette Fahy was delivered with her three brothers to Goldenbridge Orphanage. She was to stay there until she was sixteen. Goldenbridge has come to represent some of the worst aspects of childrearing practices in Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s. Seen as the offspring of people who had strayed from social respectability and religious standards, these children were made to pay for the ’sins’ of their parents. Bernadette tells of the pain, fear, hunger, hard labour and isolation experienced in the orphanage. Can a person recover from such a childhood? How does the spirit ever take flight and gain the ’freedom of angels’? This is Bernadette Fahy’s concern. Now trained and working as a counsellor, she has had to dig deeply into her past to understand the patterns laid down by her upbringing. She has had to rebuild her life, and now she helps others to do the same. This book is a story of triumph over the harshest of circumstances. About the Author: Bernadette Fahy spent much of her childhood in Goldenbridge Orphanage. Now she is a therapist specialising in helping people overcome a childhood in care.

Garden Hopping: A Memoir of Adoption. Jonathan Rendall. 2006. 272p. Canongate Books Ltd (UK). Garden hopping was when you leapt through a line of people’s gardens in the dead of night. Only a few boys did it. The air rushed through you. You were like a phantom. You could have been anyone. It is an apt metaphor for the adoption business. Jonathan Rendall was adopted in the 1960s when it was easy. People could just pick out the children they wanted, right down to the colour of their hair. But what of the children themselves? And what happens when years later they trace their real parents? Garden Hopping is a harrowing, and often shocking, journey into the dark night of identity.

Gathering the Missing Pieces in an Adopted Life. Kay Moore. 1995. 201p. Broadman & Holman Publishers. The author’s successful search for her birthfamily brought answers to questions she had asked since childhood. Many other individuals are asking the same questions. Gathering the Missing Pieces in an Adopted Life guides anyone who might have some connection to the adoption process: adopted individuals who wonder whether finding missing relatives is right for them; adoptive parents who struggle with how to share information with their children; and birthfamily members who wonder whether they have the right to know children from whom they were once parted. Although the book is partially autobiographical, it also includes stories of at least sixty other individuals who have some adoption connection. Although her own search, and those of many quoted, had a positive outcome, Moore also references the various challenges and pitfalls that can occur during this emotionally charged process. She helps readers examine the pros and cons of finding birthfamily members and explores the long-term outcome of several reunion experiences. For adoptive parents, the book helps explain why some adoptees must search, no matter how loved and secure they have felt growing up—an insatiable need that evades most persons who have grown up knowing their biological families. It suggests ways to answer their adoptive children’s questions at age-appropriate stages and provides helps for people considering adoption. For birthparents, the book features the stories of several who have been found and how the process filled in important gaps for them as well. It shows how the sometimes lonely, staggering decisions that they made earlier impact their lives for years to come. Each chapter concludes with a handy reference on how the various members of the adoption “triad”—birthfamily, adoptees, and adopted persons—can relate to and use the information contained therein. The author contends that adoption presents lifelong challenges for all parties involved but encourages readers by enumerating a lifeline of helps available to families today as never before. Moore also gives attention to the rapidly changing laws, regulations, and expectations surrounding adoptions, and she includes a thorough listing of references, agencies, and other adoption resources.

Ghost Waltz. Ingeborg Day. 1980. 244p. Viking Press. Ingeborg Day was born in 1940, adopted by new parents in 1945, and knew very little about her wartime family and childhood. She grew up in pre-war Austria with a father who joined the Nazi party, and was then a member of the SS; when she came to the U.S. in 1957 as an exchange student, she learned for the first time what really happened during that era and had to make peace with her family’s involvment. Ghost Waltz tells of her efforts to understand the legacy of her Austrian past—one of unbearable horror mixed with ordinary human patrimonies of family loyalty and affection.

Girl in the Orange Dress, The: Searching for a Father Who Does Not Fail. Margot Starbuck. 2009. 195p. Intervarsity Press. “Chosen.” “Special.” Those are the words Margot Starbuck used to describe herself as a child adopted into a loving family. And when her adoptive parents divorced, her dad moved east, and her mom and dad each got remarried, she told herself that she was extra loved, since she had more than two parents and people in different times zones who cared about her. But the word she really believed about herself was rejected. First by her birth parents. Then by her adoptive father—when he moved away. Then by her stepfather. Then by her birth father a second time, when she tried to invite him into her life. Most of all, Margot felt rejected by God the Father, who she also suspected could not be trusted. With a good dose of humor and a willingness not to take herself too seriously, Margot Starbuck offers us an exuberant, frank and, at times, poignant romp as she searches for the Father who will not fail. You are invited to come along. About the Author: Margot Starbuck (M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary) is a popular speaker at conferences and retreats and on college campuses. Previously, Starbuck worked for six years as the Director of Spiritual Development at the Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat in Wyckoff, NJ, serving women and men living with disabilities. She also served as the interim pastor at Ponds Reformed Church in Oakland, NJ. Starbuck’s recent activities include writing for a variety of publications such as Rev!, Pray and Neueserving as a volunteer with Reality Ministries, where she has the privilege of being friends with teens living with disabilities.

God Squad, The: The Bestselling Story of One Child’s Triumph Over Adversity. Paddy Doyle. 1988. 236p. Corgi. His mother died of cancer in 1955. His father commited suicide shortly thereafter. Paddy Doyle was sentenced to an Irish district court to be detained in an industrial school for 11 years. He was four years old. This title is a testament of the institutionalized Ireland of only 25 years ago, as seen through the bewildered eyes of a child. During his detention, Paddy was viciously assaulted and sexually abused by his religious custodians, and within three years his experiences began to result in physical manifestations of trauma. He was taken one night to hospital and left there, never to see his custodians again. So began his long round of hospitals, mainly in the company of old dying men, while doctors tried to diagnose his condition. This period of his life, during which he was a constant witness to death, culminating in brain surgery at the age of 10 - by which time he had become permanently disabled. This title is the true story of a survivor, told with a lack of bitterness for one so shockingly and shamefully treated. In Paddy Doyle’s own words: “It is about society’s abdication of responsibility to a child. The fact that I was that child, and that the book is about my life, is largely irrelevant. The probability is that there were, and still are, thousands of ‘me’s.’” Visit the Author’s website.

God Stand Up For Bastards. David Leitch. 1973. 232p. Andre Deutsch (UK). When David was seven days old, his parents placed an advertisement in The Daily Express. People who answered the ad were invited to view him at a hotel in Bloomsbury, and he was soon snapped up. The little gaffer went on to become a reporter for The Sunday Times, covering Lord Thomson’s interview with Khruschev, the Pope’s Holy Land visit, the Six-Day War, the Russian take-over of Czechoslovakia, the fighting at Khe Sanh during the Vietnam war, and many other events. A rather comic look at life by a British newspaperman with a cast of characters “I don’t want to lose.” By the same author: Family Secrets: A Writer’s Search for His Parents & His Past.

Guess Who’s Adopted?. Laura Kowalczyk Richards, BA, MEd. 2007. 48p. AuthorHouse. Guess Who’s Adopted? is a fun-filled book celebrating the lives and achievements of famous adoptees! You will discover fun facts and trivia about adopted celebrities, including Faith Hill, Bill Clinton, Steve Jobs, football great Daunte Culpepper and even the one and only Superman! There is also a special page reserved for your “superstar” adoptee! Just follow the directions on our website www.guesswhosadopted.com and you can add a personalized page to your copy of the book honoring your very own celebrity! Guess Who’s Adopted? celebrates diversity. It’s pages are filled with postive facts, trivia and heartwarming adoption quotes. Children and adults will marvel at all of the “superstars” in our world who are adopted...including themselves! Your child will enjoy learning about a variety of famous adoptees and their personal successes...and may even dream of what his or her own future holds! About the Author: Laura Kowalczyk Richards is a former elementary school teacher and the blessed mother of four children Jolie, Caroline, Caelin and Jake. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations with a minor in Marketing and a Master’s degree in Education with a Teacher Certification for grades Preschool through 8th. As an adoptive mother, Guess Who’s Adopted? was a labor of love created for the sole purpose of celebrating the world of adoption. What began as a verbal game of “guess who else is adopted” with Laura’s firstborn and adopted daughter, Jolie, Guess Who’s Adopted? evolved into a fun-filled, positive book for children and adults alike! Not only will they marvel at such a variety of superstar adoptees, they will also be thrilled when they see their very own personalized page right there along with the celebrities! In her family and in her classroom, Laura believes teaching children to celebrate and honor diversity is the first step in creating a more peaceful, accepting world. Guess Who’s Adopted? is not only a fun-filled book for pleasure, it is also a tool that can be used to teach children that diversity is a beautiful thing and it really does make the world an exciting place!

Hand Me Down: The Autobiography of an Illegitimate Child. Leigh Bonheur. 1972. 358p. Ure Smith (Australia). This is the story of a childhood and what a childhood! It was Leigh Bonheur’s fate to experience almost every wrong that can befall an illegitimate child. Passed from family to family, a human hand-me-down, she found little love and no understanding. Only her innate humour in recounting these experiences makes them bearable reading. Some of her adventures were hilarious, some grotesque, some horrendous; but through them all one hears the ring of truth, and sees the development of an unusual mind against a background that would have reduced most children to permanent nonentity. Her portraits of “parents” and others are vivid and unsparingly true-to-life: Hand Me Down is less like a conventional autobiography than like some new kind of documentary novel. Equipped with a wealth of talent and the gift of total recall, Leigh Bonheur has written more than a fascinating book: it is a vivid portrayal of human irresponsibility and a plea for the perpetual Lost Generation—the innocent victims of inconvenient birth. (Jacket illustration by Michael Johnson) — Dust Jacket Copy.

Hannah Minska: Adoption, Challenge and Triumph 1902-1988. Eleanor Mennim. 1999. 208p. William Sessions Ltd.

Hard Candy: Nobody Ever Flies Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Charles A. Carroll. 2005. 520p. Sourcebooks, Inc. Charles Carroll and his brother, Bobby, had the misfortune of being hard-to-place foster children and New Jersey in the 1950s. So the “powers that be” simply reclassified them from “orphan” to “retarded” and exiled them to a state-mental institution. There they remained for nearly ten years, deprived of their civil liberties, devoid of their right to an education, and denied any semblance of a humane existence. Beneath the sanitized façade of the institution’s administrative offices and visiting rooms were cramped dormitories and dank basement hellholes. Lazy and inept personnel foisted off supervision of these children to ruthless monitors-children themselves-who maintained order through methods so sadistic and horrific that “child abuse” seems a chillingly inadequate label. Charles was a victim of an uncaring, ignorant, and underfunded system-one that was kept just out of the view of polite society. But the differentiating aspect of Charles’s incarceration in this “nuthouse” is the ironic, cosmic hook in this story: he was not nuts. He was, in fact, a sensitive and perceptive child with a normal IQ. Moreover, Charles was consciously and painfully aware of every moment of his own abuse as well as the torment of his mentally defective fellow patients. Enduring their collective plight and clinging to his sanity, as one would a tiny glimmer of hope, he vowed to one day write this remarkable story of survival-not for his sake, but for the sake of society’s outcasts and those too helpless to help themselves, then and now. About the Author: Mr. Carroll has devoted much of his life to telling his story in an effort to create public awareness, curb child abuse wherever it may exist, educate the uninformed, and dispel the public myth that these things don’t happen anymore. “They do,” writes Mr. Carroll. “Only today, such improprieties are better hidden.”

He Really Is My Father. Susie Aseka Brooks. 2006. 192p. Pleasant Word. A gripping, personal journey toward becoming a daughter leads to the discovery of a true father.

Healing the Adoption Experience. Nancy Parkhill. 2004. 147p. Bookman Publishing & Marketing. A book about adoption that has proven techniques for improving the life of the adult adoptee, helping to remove the “shame” and grief connected with being adopted. Healing the Adoption Experience tells the story of the early life of Peggy Barnes, and moves the adopted child through leaving the orphanage to life with her adoptive parents, where she was renamed Nancy Parkhill. Written for the adult adoptee, the therapist who works with adult adotpees, the adoptive family, and the birth mother, the exercises presented help the adoptee reach closer concerning the adoption experience so as to dispell the shame of being adopted. About the Author: Nancy Parkhill MA, LPCC, NCC, who died suddenly in 2005, was a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Albuquerque, NM. She had been in private practice for ten years, specializing in Adoption, Attachment, Adoption search and reunion, Relationship counseling, Birth mother and Adoptee reunion, family counseling, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Counselor training, Adoptive parents therapy, Adoption workshops. She spent the first two and a half years of her life in the Christian Children’s Home in St. Louis, MO. Her book recounts her life and her journey for psychological and emotional healing.

Hebrew National Orphan Home: Memories of Orphanage Life. Ira A Greenberg, Richard G Safran, & Sam George Arcus, eds. 2001. 328p. Bergin & Garvey. Some two dozen “boys” tell of growing up in the Hebrew National Orphan Home. Though punishment was often brutal and where a few boys were victims of sexual predators, residents had many religious, recreational, educational, cultural, and athletic opportunities. Most agree that the good far outweighed the bad.

Her Mother’s Daughter: A Memoir of the Mother I Never Knew & of My Daughter, Courtney Love. Linda Carroll. 2006. 320p. Doubleday. The daughter of esteemed writer Paula Fox and the mother of Courtney Love relates “the curse of the first-born daughter” that has haunted four generations of her family. As an adopted child, Linda Carroll created a magical world of her own, made up of dramatic adventures and the abiding fantasy that her real mother would come and take her away. When she finds herself pregnant at the age of eighteen, she is determined to have the perfect understanding with her child that she lacked with her adoptive mother. But readers will know better, for that baby grows up to be Courtney Love, desperately attention-seeking, deeply troubled, and one of the most talented women in rock. Even as a baby, Courtney is beset by mood swings that no doctor can explain or cure. Her dark moods and paranoia escalate as she grows up, driving mother and daughter apart. When Courtney has a daughter of her own, Linda finally decides to find her own biological mother, and end the estrangement of generations of first-born daughters. Her Mother’s Daughter is Linda Carroll’s story of self-discovery as an adopted daughter, a childlike hippie mother and a woman determined to find herself before finding her roots. Set apart from the typical celebrity memoir by Carroll’s gifted storytelling, Her Mother’s Daughter gives a fresh perspective on the elusive yet enduring connections between mothers and daughters, and reveals the true history of the wildly confabulatory Courtney Love. About the Author: Linda Carroll was adopted at birth, raised in San Francisco and only later discovered that her biological mother is the writer Paula Fox. Married at eighteen, and twice more before she was thirty, she is now the mother of five grown children, including singer/songwriter Courtney Love. She is a therapist and writer and lives in Corvallis, OR, with her husband of seventeen years.

Heritage of Deceit. Elizabeth Sarant. 1981. 75p. Exposition Press. The gripping story of the denial of a young woman’s parentage—the agony of not knowing one’s true heritage—a subject much in the news as thousands of adopted children search for their true parents.

Hidden One, The. Cyrus Nowia-Pahlavi. 2009. 266p. BookSurge Publishing. In 1971, an Iranian boy was hastily adopted by an American military family stationed in Teheran. The family was secretly paid thousands of dollars to swiftly get the boy out of Iran. After coming to America and enduring years of abuse by his adoptive father, the young man fled his adoptive family in 1997 and began a twelve-year quest to discover his true identity. The Hidden One is an autobiographical memoir which chronicles the events and discoveries that bring the author to the realization that he is the first, or less possibly the second, biological son of the Shah (King) of Iran. Exactly where the author stands in the line of succession to Iran’s former Peacock Throne remains a mystery. No one with knowledge of his royal lineage will speak because billions of dollars are at stake and the Iranian royal family remains very powerful. Join the author as he searches for his birth mother, for the truth about his identity as a prince, and as he discovers that he is The Hidden One.

His Purpose For Me: A Story of Adoption, Abuse, Recovery, Salvation, Blessing & Reunion. Gene Ling. 2006. 260p. Pleasant Word. This is my story of personal and spiritual renewal, of God’s sovereign hand on my life; bringing me through a bad adoption, abuse, and separation. It includes being reunited with both biological and adoptive family after more than fifty years separation. It is a vivid and precise illustration that it is God who is in control and not man; a fascinating example of how the Lord has orchestrated the events in my life for His own purpose and Glory. This book is written for: The adopted—particularly the abused, who may think God has forgotten them; and the assurance that He has not. The discouraged—Christian and non-Christian alike, who may wonder if God cares about their individual struggles, the “Where is He when I need Him?”-type feelings; and revealing the certainty that He is very much involved in our lives, whether we can see it or not. The lost—I share my salvation experience; the incredible patience of “The Hound of Heaven,” and the working of the Holy Spirit in bringing an angry rebellious individual (me) to Christ. Indeed, this book is for anyone interested in the popular current topics of adoption, child abuse, personal identity issues, and anyone seeking an answer to the question, “Does God care?”

Visit the author’s website

Home, The: A Memoir of Growing Up in an Orphanage. Richard McKenzie. 1996. Basic Books. Like other children of the fifties, Richard McKenzie remembers pillow fights and pea shoot-outs; Tarzan-like swings across wooded ravines and carefully camouflaged forts; and later, slicked back hair and an Elvis-inspired cool calculated to impress the girls. But for McKenzie, the son of alcoholic and abusive parents, these happy memories came after years of violence and fear. Placed at the age of 10 in a home for children in North Carolina, he was given a chance to make a new beginning. This poignant memoir, written with heartfelt immediacy, tells the story of his life there more than four decades ago. Neither the idealistic world of “Boys Town” nor a cold and loveless Dickensian institution, The Home, as everyone called it, provided its charges with the stability they needed to build character and self-respect. “We had the knowledge,” he writes, “that The Home would always be there, no mean advantage for children whose families had failed them.” Nestled on 1,500 acres of pastures and forests, The Home provided plenty of space to grow and dream. Young Richard and his buddies—some full orphans but most victims of poverty and abandonment—worked hard and played hard. And while at times they longed for a mother’s kiss or a father’s embrace, they recognized that The Home provided them with a shelter that their own families could not.

Home Before Night: Memories of an Irish Time & Place. Hugh Leonard. 1979. 202p. Andre Deutsch. In the realm of theatrical memoirs, no book ranks higher than Home Before Night, the funny and bathetic story of his youth by Hugh Leonard. Leonard’s story captures the poetry and drama of a child’s experience of Dublin in the 1930s and 1940s and presents recollections of his life recounted with humour and insight. About the Author: Hugh Leonard (John Keyes Byrne) was born in Dublin in 1926 to an unmarried woman named Annie Byrne. He was adopted as a baby by a gardener and his wife, Nicholas and Margaret Keyes and raised in Dalkey. He won a scholarship to grammar school and then worked in a film rental office and the Irish Land Commission. He was involved in amateur dramatics, including writing plays. He sent one play to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin which was rejected, but his second attempt, under the pen name Hugh Leonard, in 1956, was successful. In the 1960s he moved to London, but returned to live in Ireland in 1970 after a change in the tax laws. He is the most commercially successful playwright in modern Ireland. His many plays include Stephen D, Patrick Pearse Motel, Da (which won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award), and Widow’s Peak. He writes mostly for the stage, but has also written and adapted books for television. The second volume of his autobiography, Out After Dark, was published in 1989. [Pictured: Methuen edition, 2002]

Home We Shared, The: History & Memoir of the North Dakota Children’s Home at Fargo, North Dakota. Dorothy A Lund Nelson. Photographt by Amil J Lund. 2004. 205p. Davies Printing Co. The Village Family Service Center began in 1891 as the North Dakota Children’s Home. Learn a piece of The Village history through the writings of Dorothy Lund Nelson, who grew up in the North Dakota Children’s Home as the daughter of the house-parents.

Hope’s Boy: A Memoir. Andrew Bridge. 2008. 320p. Hyperion. From the moment he was born, Andrew Bridge and his mother, Hope, shared a love so deep that it felt like nothing else mattered. Trapped in desperate poverty and confronted with unthinkable tragedies, all Andrew ever wanted was to be with his mom. But as her mental health steadily declined, and with no one else left to care for him, authorities arrived and tore Andrew from his screaming mother’s arms. In that moment, the life he knew came crashing down around him. He was only seven years old. Hope was institutionalized, and Andrew was placed in what would be his devastating reality for the next eleven years—foster care. After surviving one of our country’s most notorious children’s facilities, Andrew was thrust into a savagely loveless foster family that refused to accept him as one of their own. Deprived of the nurturing he needed, Andrew clung to academics and the kindness of teachers. All the while, he refused to surrender the love he held for his mother in his heart. Ultimately, Andrew earned a scholarship to Wesleyan, went on to Harvard Law School, and became a Fulbright Scholar. Andrew has dedicated his life’s work to helping children living in poverty and in the foster care system. He defied the staggering odds set against him, and here in this heart-wrenching, brutally honest, and inspirational memoir, he reveals who Hope’s boy really is. About the Author: Formerly the CEO/General Counsel of The Alliance for Children’s Rights, Andrew Bridge lives in New York City. He remains a dedicated and vocal advocate for children in foster care.

I Lived in His Shadow: My Life With General Smuts. Kathleen Mincher. 1965. 169p. Timmins (South Africa). Author was adopted daughter of Smuts. A close inside look at the Smuts family, prewar, through the war, and until the deaths of Oubaas and Ouma.

I Never Got to Be His Brother. John Russell. 2005. 187p. PublishAmerica. John Russell was born to a large family in 1951. After facing many hardships, his mother made the heart-wrenching decision to place her seven children up for adoption. In their attempt to insure that he bonded to his new family, John’s adoptive parents never allowed him to mention his former life. Memories were suppressed, and only after 34 years passed were the siblings reunited. Shortly after their reunion, Joe, John’s younger brother, was taken by cancer, having had only three meetings between the reunion and Joe’s death. John made one final visit to Joe’s home in Colorado to assist with chores before he passed away. These would be their last moments together. Revisiting in his mind the moments they shared as children began a healing exercise that would ultimately lead to this account of a life spent without siblings and a search for answers, resolution, and peace.

I Never Looked for My Mother & Other Regrets of a Journalist. Joseph P Ritz. 2006. 184p. Booklocker.com. “I was born a bastard and I’ve been one all my life. I became a journalist.” So begins Joseph P. Ritz’s story of his search for his background and his career as a journalist and playwright. In a 40-year career, Ritz worked for six daily newspapers. Most of those years was spent at the Buffalo Courier-Express and The Buffalo News. He tells stories about reporters and editors at those papers and the end of The Courier. The title of the book comes from a journey he makes discovering what he owes the troubled man and woman who raised him and what he owes the mother who gave him birth. He describes a Catholic childhood with a foster mother who disguised her voice when she answered the telephone because she believed callers thought she has secrets and a volatile foster father who occasionally threatened suicide and other violent acts. The book tells of family funerals at which mourners debated whether police were justified in shooting the deceased and the son of the man in the coffin arrived with a prison guard. There is brutality in the book. There is also humor, madness and mischief. It also describes the failures and frustrations of a daily newspaper reporter and his impressions of some of the famous people he encountered such as Harry S Truman, Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King. It tells of interviewing a multiple murderer and the agony of questioning ordinary men and women who are in the news because of a terrible misfortune such as killing their child. It describes days spent with a mob-connected news source hiding from his associates in Costa Nostra and using a ruse to enter the home of a Mafia godfather. About the Author: Joseph P. Ritz is an award-winning journalist and a published author and playwright. In a long career he has worked for six daily newspapers He was a correspondent for the United Press and been a stringer for such newspapers as The New York Post, The New York Herald-Tribune, The Detroit Times, The National Catholic Reporter, The Chicago Tribune and The London Express. Ritz wrote part of a series of articles entitled The Road to Integration, which won a Pulitzer Prize for the Gannett Group of newspapers. He has also won several national and state awards in his own right for his newspaper stories. He was one of four finalists in the prestigious Drama League of New York’s 1987-88 Plays in Progress Competition for Abbey of the Monongahela, a play set in a Trappist monastery focusing on the conflict between a feminist reporter wishing to find out the truth about a famous monk’s illicit romance and the abbot who wants to keep the story hidden. It also won an award from the University of Massachusetts’ Theater Department, where it was further developed and renamed Trappists. opened in April, 2001 in New York City. It is published in an anthology entitled: Incisions: Award Winning Plays from the Stage and Screen Book Club. In 2002 he was awarded a playwriting fellowship by the New York Foundation for the Arts.

I Want My Mommy. Robin R Shaw. 2003. 146p. Dorrance Publishing Co. After three years in foster care, Robin R. Shaw is adopted by an unusual family: His new mother is wheelchair-bound, as is one of his new brothers. The other brother is Japanese. Two sisters are Japanese, too, and two more are Korean. Despite the love of his new family, Robin desperately wants to find his birth mother – had she really abused him when he was an infant? As soon as he turns eighteen, Robin sets out to search for her. This book details that relentless, passionate search and its unexpected denouement. About the Author: Robin R. Shaw was a battered child, who was placed for adoption and put into foster care. Although he was adopted by loving parents, he never stopped longing for his birth mother and went to extraordinary lengths to find her. He now lives in southern California, working in vitamin retailing. He is particularly interested in martial arts, chess, and spirituality.

I Was That Baby. Joseph Albert Tringali. 2005. 240p. Calkins Harbor Publishing Co. This is the incredible but true narrative of a lawyer who respected his adoptive mother’s secret while she was alive, and who, the day after her funeral, found his birth mother’s best friend—who led him to find two sisters and a brother he did not know existed. More than just the chronicle of an adoption by the adoptee, it is the saga of two women who each had the courage to pick themselves up after their own heartbreaking tragedies, and the man—the son of both of them—who was destined to tell their stories. About the Author: Joseph A. Tringali is admitted to the practice of law in Florida and New York. He is the former Mayor of North Palm Beach, and was elected to three terms on the Village Council. He served as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Buffalo; Assistant District Attorney for Erie County, New York; and Assistant State Attorney for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida. He is currently a Florida Assistant Attorney General and regularly appears in all federal and state appellate courts. A lifelong yachtsman, Mr. Tringali is Commodore of the Palm Beach Sailing Club, a past commodore of North Palm Beach Yacht Club, a past commodore of Great Lakes Chapter, Matthews Boat Owners Association, and a past commander of Buffalo Power Squadron. He is also a past president of District 8 (Florida), International Order of the Blue Gavel, a past commodores’ association. He currently serves on the National Flag and Etiquette Committe of United States Power Squadrons and represents the State of Florida on Blue Gavel Executive Board. While living in Buffalo, Mr. Tringali held the rank of Major in the Civil Air Patrol and served as commander of TAK (Tonawanda-Amherst-Kenmore) Squadron which was accorded the honor of Squadron of the Year. He also served as deputy commander of Western New York Group, C.A.P.

Identical Strangers. Elyse Schein & Paula Bernstein. 2007. 288p. Random House. Elyse Schein had always known she was adopted, but it wasn’t until her mid-thirties while living in Paris that she searched for her biological mother. When Elyse contacted her adoption agency, she was not prepared for the shocking, life-changing news she received: She had an identical twin sister. Elyse was then hit with another bombshell: she and her sister had been separated as infants, and for a time, had been part of a secret study on separated twins. Paula Bernstein, a married writer and mother living in New York, also knew she was adopted, but had no inclination to find her birth mother. When she answered a call from the adoption agency one spring afternoon, Paula’s life suddenly divided into two starkly different periods: the time before and the time after she learned the truth. As they reunite and take their tentative first steps from strangers to sisters, Paula and Elyse are also left with haunting questions surrounding their origins and their separation. They learn that the study was conducted by a pair of influential psychiatrists associated with a prestigious adoption agency. As they investigate their birth mother’s past, Paula and Elyse move closer toward solving the puzzle of their lives. In alternating voices, Paula and Elyse write with emotional honesty about the immediate intimacy they share as twins and the wide chasm that divides them as two complete strangers. Interweaving eye-opening studies and statistics on twin science into their narrative, they offer an intelligent and heartfelt glimpse into human nature. Identical Strangers is the amazing story of two women coming to terms with the strange and unbelievable hand fate has dealt them, an account that broadens the definition of family and provides insight into our own DNA and the singularly exceptional imprint it leaves on our lives.

If You Could See Me Now. Michael Mewshaw. 2006. 240p. Unbridled Books. From Publishers Weekly: Mewshaw records the eerie, somewhat manipulative tale of being forced back into his personal experience of giving up a child for adoption. “Amy,” an adopted woman seeking her biological parents, comes to Mewshaw, thinking that he is her father, after she received “nonidentifying information” from the Children’s Home Society in L.A., which arranged for her adoption in 1964, after she was born to an unmarried mother. Concerned about health issues on the eve of her marriage, Amy seeks information on her personal history. Skirting her questions until he ascertains whether Amy is truthful, Mewshaw is plunged back into a time of emotional trial, when he followed his pregnant college girlfriend, the beautiful and politically ambitious Adrienne Daly, from his college in Maryland to L.A. to help arrange for her infant’s adoption. As it happened, Mewshaw was not the father; he and Adrienne soon split up and they had no further contact for 30 years. Out of sympathy for Amy’s plight, though, Mewshaw contacts Adrienne, now a top-level Republican official, and attempts to strong-arm her into answering Amy’s queries; he also tracks down Amy’s biological father and tries to weave the family threads together—and exonerate himself. — Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. About the Author: Michael Mewshaw is the best-selling author of ten novels and six previous non-fiction books. He has won awards for fiction, travel writing, investigative reporting, and sports journalism. His work has been translated into a dozen languages. He and his wife Linda live in Key West in winter and London in summer.
          If You Could See Me Now is a vivid and powerful story of first love, with a twist. Mewshaw’s deep personal involvement in the story offers a rare perspective—a male point of view on pregnancy, the relinquishment of a child, and a woman’s search for her biological parents. This true story reads like the best novels—once you get into it you won’t be able to put it down. — Judy Blume

In Search of a Mother. Julie Leek. 2004. 262p. Trafford Pubilshing Co. (Canada). A surprise letter from an aunt she has never met motivates Julie to search for Audrey, the mother she last spoke to 30 years ago, only to discover that she took her own life 17 years earlier. Matters are made more difficult as Julie finds herself drawn into a bitter legal dispute between her mother’s surviving siblings over their deceased sister Dorothy’s estate. Overwhelmed with feelings of sadness, anger and guilt, and realizing for the first time how little she really knows about her mother, Julie begins an obsessive search for answers—answers to the many questions she would now ask Audrey, were she still alive. Will the satisfaction of finally uncovering the truth, against all the odds, be worth the price she has to pay mentally and emotionally? About the Author: Julie Leek was born in Nottingham in 1954 where, apart from five years spent in Ireland and four years in Scotland, she has lived all of her life. Raised as an only child by her grandparents following the breakup of her parents’ marriage when she was five years old, Julie later learned that she had a younger sister who was adopted at birth. She and her sister were reunited in 1982 when both were in their 20s. Julie has been married for over 30 years to her husband, Stephen. They have a daughter, Emma.

In Search of Connection: An Adoptee’s Quest. Nancy Sitterly. 1982. 45p. [Available from the author: 1203 Hill Street, Suffield, CT 06078.] “It was not until I began my own search that I recognized the need for more sensitive adoption practices than those we have at present. Throughout my search I was met with obstavles impeding my connection. Thos obstacles still remain. Through the counmtless number of searches I have since become familiar with, I have repeatedly seen other searchers encounter these same obstacles. It is my hope through a more perceptive understadning of the needs of adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents a more humanistic approach will be realized and change will result allowing a more facile connection for thos affected by adoption” (From the Forward [sic])

In Search of Mom: Journey of an Adoptee. Michael C Watson. 1998. 215p. Gallery of Diamonds. At the age of seventeen, Michael Watson began a search for his birth mother that lasted nearly twenty years. From only a handful of clues, Watson takes the reader on a voyage from his childhood to adult, vividly describing his roller coaster ride of triumphs and frustrations. Watson details his wondrous adventure, including his horrific discovery—Michael Watson was born dead!—according to his birth mother. In Search of Mom offers inspiration to adoptees who live in the darkness of not knowing their origins, and provides insight for adoptive parents, those planning to adopt, and anyone touched by adoption. This thrilling true story gives a new sense of wonder about adoptees who undertake the challenge of searching. Included is a special photo section of the author and other members of his adoptive triad and extensive resources for those who seek more information on the subject of adoption.

Indelible Ink: A Memoir. Mary Lenore Quigley. 2008. 181p. PublishAmerica. In this beautiful and touching book Mary Quigley takes us into the world of adoption, from the perspective of the one adopted and from that of the parents who adopt. Your heart will be moved by this story and by the poignancy with which Mary portrays her life and the lives of those whom she cares about. Mary draws us into the events of her life and makes us companions on her journey. — Father Paul Keenan, host, “As You Think,” Monday through Friday on The Catholic Channel/Sirius 159

Mary Quigley masters the art of navigation through history in her fleeting read, Indelible Ink. With precise attention to voice, she transports the literary traveler through the portals of the past, engaging a universality that will mark all passports PRESENT. An indeed read for the person who prefers dynamic to static.” — Patricia Ellyn Powell, author, Louisiana in Words

Let Mary Lenore Quigley’s journey from First Communion to reuniting with her birth mother take you on an enlightening adventure! Her story is rich, passionate, and heart warming. For all genealogy researchers and adopted children, this book is a must-read! — June Cotner, author, Graces, House Blessings and other books

Innocence Lost. Carlton Stowers. 1990. 291p. Pocket Star. From Publishers Weekly: This is a disquieting, involving account of the murder of an undercover police officer by two teenagers in Midlothian, TX, regarded as an idyllic town in which to raise children. Officer George Raffield posed as a high school student to infiltrate Midlothian’s drug culture, which he did with some success. After a time, however, the student drug abusers grew suspicious of him, especially Greg Knighten, adopted son of a police officer, and Richard Goeglein, whose parents had moved from Arizona following his involvement in a bizarre suicide pact. The two lured Raffield into the country and Knighten shot him. Goeglein turned state’s evidence and his cohort was sentenced to 45 years after a trial which, Stowers suggests, revealed the district attorney as a mediocre prosecutor. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Inside the Mind & Life of a Foster Child. Shirley Crump. 109p. 2004. Xlibris Corporation. I was inspired to write this book. I hope that every mother that is thinking of or know someone who is taking any other way out beside caring for their own child/children will read my book. If a mother can no matter how much of her pride that she will have to swallow to go to the father are the grandparents of her baby/ies on either side to seek help. I hope and pray that they will see that it’s worthwide for them to come together. So that another child won’t have to grow up without knowing the true love of his or her parents. I’m sharing my feeling that I had growing up as a foster child. I know that I’m not alone. But it doesn’t make my pain any less real or painless. I have found someone who has been with me and didn’t ever leave me. He is The Almight GOD... I give thanks also to God for Blessing me with such a wonderful Husband. A husband that has patients and understands my needs for his love. Thank you for buying my book. I hope that you will see the need to encourage someone else to buy and read it also.

Ithaka: A Daughter’s Memoir of Being Found. Sarah Saffian. 1998. 256p. Basic Books. A vividly realized memoir by an adoptee who was eventually “found” by her birth parents. Journalist and former New York Daily News reporter Saffian shared a comfortable, upper- middle-class life with a loving, supportive family. Though her adoptive mother died when she was only six years old, within a few years her father remarried; her new mother, too, was thoroughly devoted to her. To her parents’ credit, she feels as bonded to them as do her siblings, who are their biological offspring. By the time she was 24 and a graduate of Brown University, Saffian had a comfortable apartment, a caring boyfriend, and an engaging job. But when she was contacted by her natural mother, her entire life was thrust off course. Feeling cheated that she was not the one to conduct the search, she wasn’t ready to welcome her birth parents into her life. Even though they were loving and open, Saffian couldn’t help but view them as intruders; she was determined to get to know them, yet on her own terms. She questioned, for example, how they could claim to love her before they’d even met her as an adult. During the three-year period leading from her birth mother’s initial phone call to Saffian’s meeting with her birth parents, she involved herself in a painful journey of self-discovery. Sharing letters, memories, and insights, the author takes us with her on this sometimes torturous yet ultimately satisfying trip. Also included here is an appendix listing organizations and support groups for those involved with the adoption process, along with a bibliography of books about adoption. Saffian’s record is a tribute to both families, who behaved sensitively throughout. — Kirkus Reviews

Jefferson’s Adoptive Son: The Life of William Short, 1756-1849. George Green Shackelford. 1993. 250p. University Press of Kentucky. “Short was more than a protege; to all practical purposes he was a son,” writes Dumas Malone in his biography of Thomas Jefferson. Yet William Short has remained a shadowy figure in the history of the early American republic. He was a founder of Phi Beta Kappa at the College of William and Mary and a member of the Virginia Council of State, and he served as Jefferson’s secretary in France and became chargé d’affaires when his mentor returned to America. Later he was minister to the Netherlands, Spain, and Russia. Luck cheated Short of fame, although he was one of the most successful diplomats after Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson. His astuteness during the war crisis of 1789-1790 went unrecognized. Bad transatlantic communications led the Washington administration to think he was making no headway in Spain, and he was replaced by Thomas Pinckney. Short’s last humiliation was the Senate’s refusal to confirm his recess appointment as minister to Russia. The great romance of Short’s life was with Rosalie, widow of Duc Louis Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld, who was assassinated in 1792. From 1796 to 1802 she and Short lived as husband and wife, but she refused to marry him or accompany him to America. When she married a French nobleman in 1809, Short was crushed. The correspondence between Jefferson and Short is as important in revealing the thoughts of our third president as is Jefferson’s correspondence with John Adams. George Shackelford’s study provides new insights on the lives of many figures of the early republic and on this country’s diplomatic relations with European powers.

Jesus Land: A Memoir. Julia Scheeres. 2005. 288p. Counterpoint Press. Sinners go to: HELL. Rightchuss go to: HEAVEN. The end is neer: REPENT. This here is: JESUS LAND. Julia Scheeres stumbles across these signs along the side of a cornfield while out biking with her adopted brother, David. It’s the mid-1980s, they’re sixteen years old and have just moved to rural Indiana, a landscape of cottonwood trees and trailer parks—and a racism neither of them is prepared for. While Julia is white, her close relationship with David, who is black, makes them both outcasts. At home, a distant mother—more involved with her church’s missionaries than with her own children—and a violent father only compound their problems. When the day comes that high-school hormones, bullying, and a deep-seated restlessness prove too much to bear, the parents send Julia and David to the Dominican Republic—to a reform school there. In this riveting memoir, first-time author Scheeres takes us with her from the Midwest to a place beyond our imagining. Surrounded by natural beauty, the Escuela Caribe is governed by a disciplinary regime that demands its teens repent for their sins under boot-camp conditions. Julia and David’s determination to make it through with heart and soul intact is told here with immediacy, candor, sparkling humor, and not a note of malice.

Jody. Jerry Hulse. 1976. McGraw Hill. Jody was an adopted child. She never knew her real parents. But now, years later, she is desperately ill. To save her life, her husband must uncover her heritage. In this inspiring and moving book, Jerry Hulse, Jody’s husband, tells of his search for the mother she never knew. It is a race against time, a journey into the past that will change not only Jody’s life, but the lives of others. For, against all odds, Jody’s quest has a happy ending, and her story is a real-life drama as mysterious and miraculous as a fairy tale, or a dream come true.

Journeys: Sequel to “Deja Views of an Aging Orphan”. Sam George Arcus. 2002. 341p. Xlibris Corp. All the stories in this volume are “free-standing” short stories, but the first eight can be regarded as “sequels” to the author’s prvious work, Deja Views of an Aging Orphan since they pick up on characters and themes first introduced in that book. The remaining stories are rooted in the United States, albeit in different cities as the author climbs the ladder of greater responsiblilties in his social work career.

Just Chris. Christopher Shiveley Welch. 2008. 64p. Saga Books. Just Chris is more than a boy telling of his life. It is a story that surely will bring encouragement to many who face challenges, feel worthless due to some physical handicap, or face rejection in anyway. It is a story of hope, courage and steadfast love. Christopher has an exciting life ahead of him, and he will fly to heights that even he cannot imagine at this time. A great read, from a great young man. Christopher Shiveley Welch is the sone of Debra Shiveley Welch, who tells her own story in A Very Special Child (2005) and Son of My Soul (2007).

Keeping the Faith: An Autobiography. Terri Stonecipher. 2004. 206p. Trafford Publishing Co (Canada). In this book, you will walk with me as I go down some very troublesome paths that are both painful and inspiring. You will walk with me as if you were there for the experience yourself. I was physically, emotionally, mentally and sexually abused as a child. I will share with you my pain and thoughts of being abused as a child, through a child’s eyes. What it felt like to tell the authorities. What it was like to be adopted for the second time. And what it was like to finally have a happy life. Just when I was starting to put all the pain behind me and get on with my life, I started going deaf. As if that wasn’t enough for me to bear, I am now dealing with depression and anxiety disorders. Through all of this, I am a survivor, ad I credit my faith in God for getting me through all the rough paths in my lifetime. I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that He answers all prayers in his time frame. Sit back, as I take you on a quick journey through my troublesome life. It is definitely filled with emotion. When you finish this book, you will be both mad at the statistics of child abuse, and inspired yourself to keeping the faith. About the Author: Terri Stonecipher resides in Northern Michigan with her husband of 20 years, and her two teenage children. She currently stays home and takes care of her family. She has had many articles published, but this is her first book that she has ever written. She was inspired to write the book, when one night she seen what she now describes as angels. It was time for her to remain silent no longer. It was now time for her to tell her story, in hopes of inspiring someone else.

Kindred: A Childhood Lost. FH Broxton. 2005. 62p. iUniverse, Inc. I asked myself why I came here to this wretched place. Why did I surround myself with death, insanity and decay? Like everyone else who dwelled there, I had been discarded. I had no choice, nowhere else to go. Kindred is a literary portrait of the difficulties author Fatimah Broxton faced as a young girl who grows up feeling like an outsider in her own family. The product of a drug-addicted biological mother and a ruthless adopted mother, differences in bloodlines and emotional sensibilities make for the near destruction of a fragile girl’s self-esteem. A childhood filled with abuse leads to eating disorders, nightmares, and thoughts of suicide. The only bright spot in her life is the happy, sweet, and, above all, religious grandmother, who brings some sense of normalcy. From being beaten with broom handles and whipped with the branches of a forsythia bush to becoming a talented young writer, Broxton’s life makes for a chaotic blend of self-hatred, emotional longing, and an unexplainable will to triumph. The stories in Kindred illuminate the miracle of the human capability to love and forgive despite the brutal treatment from the one person Broxton loves most—her mother.

Kiri: The Authorized Biography of Kiri Te Kanawa. David Fingleton. 1982. 192p. Wm Collins & Sons & Co (UK). The story of Kiri Te Kanawa’s rise to international fame is one of which dreams are made. The daughter of a Maori father and European mother, she was adopted as a baby and raised in the small town of Gisborne, New Zealand, and she is now the youngest and brightest star of opera. She could easily have remained in New Zealand, basking in her celebrity as a pop singer. Instead, her driving ambition—and supportive parents—took her to the other side of the world, to a lonely and demanding apprenticeship with the London Opera Centre. There she braved a discouraging and unpromising beginning until her extraordinary talent was recognized, first in London and then throughout the world, culminating in her solo at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and the DBE. David Fingleton’s sparkling biography vividly relives her struggles and triumphs, and reveals Dame Kiri to be full of spirit and fun, and intensely dedicated to her work.

Landing It: My Life On & Off the Ice. Scott Hamilton, with Lorenzo Benet. 1999. 340p. Kensington. From Publishers Weekly: Readers seeking a peek at the world of competitive figure skating will be more than satisfied with Hamilton’s book. Like Peggy Fleming, Hamilton is a cancer survivor. He opens his story with the diagnosis of his testicular cancer, but the illness is just one aspect of Hamilton’s difficult but ultimately satisfying life. An adopted child, Hamilton was quite ill as a child and spent much of his early years in and out of hospitals, on intravenous feedings, weak and falling behind in school. Gradually, as Hamilton gained strength, his mother suggested he try to ice skate. Whether Hamilton’s various illnesses had run their course or the skating cured him, Hamilton was healthy enough to pursue skating. His route to the Olympics is familiar to skating fansAliving away from home with other families, constant practice sessions and the nervous tension and rivalries. Hamilton is far more willing than Fleming to write about his relationships with other skaters and his feelings about the skating world. He addresses the confusion over his sexuality: “Frankly I was sick of people constantly assuming I was gay because I was a figure skater.” Hamilton also writes about how critical reviewers were of his early appearances as a skating commentator and how he finally had to do the best he could rather than try to measure up to one of his idols, Dick Button. A little more brassy than Fleming, Hamilton strikes a nice balance between the personal and the professional. © 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Other Related Titles: Scott Hamilton: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Life and Competitive Times of America’s Favorite Figure Skater by Michael Steere (St. Martin’s Press, 1985); Scott Hamilton: Figure Skater by Kristine Brennan (YA) (Facts on File, 1999); and The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (Even When You Have Every Reason to be Miserable) by Scott Hamilton, with Ken Baker (Thomas Nelson, 2009).

Photo: Phil Aarrestad

Language of Blood, The: A Memoir. Jane Jeong Trenka. 2003. 226p. Minnesota Historical Society Press. For years, Korean adoptee Jane Jeong Trenka tried to be the ideal daughter. She was always polite, earned perfect grades, and excelled as a concert pianist. She went to church with her American family in small-town Minnesota and learned not to ask about the mother who had given her away. Then, while she was far from home on a music scholarship, living in a big city for the first time, one of her fellow university students began to follow her, his obsession ultimately escalating into a plot for her murder. In prose that ranges seamlessly from pure lyricism to harrowing realism, Trenka recounts repeated close encounters with her stalker and the years of repressed questions that her ordeal awakened. Determined not to be defined by her stalker’s twisted assessment of her worth, she struck out in search of her own identity—free of western stereotypes of geishas and good girls. Doing so, however, meant confronting her American family and fighting the bureaucracy at the agency that had arranged for her adoption. Read the Aothor’s Blog.

Late Delivery, a Memoir. Al Lucero Mascareñas. 2009. 226p. CreateSpace. It’s the same reflection I’ve seen in mirrors for decades, only now it’s different. I don’t know who the face belongs to. The confusion swimming in those eyes, which they say are windows to the soul, takes away my breath and breaks my heart. In April 2003 I first hear that I was switched at birth. The mother who takes me home sees the mistake as soon as I’m placed into the wrong woman’s arms—her arms. Many close relatives have always known that I’m only in the family by accident. I try to wrap my head around such a life-changing mix-up, and how and why it has been kept secret from me for fifty years. The family secret I randomly discovered would challenge and demolish my most basic understanding of the world, which is to say everything I needed to know before I started kindergarten, facts as pre-ordained and pre-programmed as my name and who my parents are. At age fifty my life had been not so much filled with accomplishments and stability as with variety, change, and challenge. It was at that point in my life’s journey, the mid-century mark, that I made the discovery of a lifetime, my transformational event. I had been switched at birth.

Leopards on the Loire. Robina Beckles Willson. Illustrated by Gwyneth Cole. 1961. Victor Gollancz (UK). The story of an orphan girl adopted into a family of professional musicians.

Letter Never Sent II, The: Korean Adoptees’ Letters to their Birth Families. The Adoptees’ Homecoming Support Center at IECEF, eds. 2005. 175p. IECEF. The Letter Never Sent II is a collection of letters and poems written by Korean adoptees to their birth families and published in both English and Korean. The letters express the complexity of emotions related to birth family and vividly present the lingering questions that adoptees often carry throughout their lives regarding family and loss. Letters from adoptees and one birth family that successfully searched for and reunited with family members are also included in the book. About the Editor: The Adoptees’ Homecoming Support Center at the International Educational and Cultural Exchange Foundation (IECEF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing services to Korean adoptees who want to visit or live in Korea. IECEF assists adoptees who are searching for their birth families. IECEF published The Letter Never Sent I andII as part of the ongoing effort to help support adoptees in their search for birth family.

Letters to My Birth Mother: An Adoptee’s Diary of Her Search for Her Identity. Amy E Dean. 1991. Pharos. About the Author: Amy E. Dean is the author of more than a dozen books, including her memoir Letters to My Birthmother: An Adoptee’s Diary of Her Search for Her Identity. Her nonfiction books also include Night Light: A Book of Nighttime Meditations (Hazelden/Harper & Row); First Light: Morning Meditations for Awakening to the Living Planet (Berkley); Proud to Be: Daily Meditations for Lesbians and Gay Men (Bantam); Natural Act: Reconnecting with Nature to Recover Community, Spirit & Self (M. Evans); Caring for the Family Soul (Berkley); and Growing Older, Growing Better (Hay House). She is also the author of several novels, including Between Girlfriends and The Perils of Sisterhood, both published by Kensington. Amy has worked as a writer, editor, and marketing/communications executive at the National Fire Protection Association, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Boston University, where she has been a guest lecturer in the Writing Program. Amy is based in Grafton, MA.

Lies in the Family Album. Paddy Joe Miller. 1994. 288p. Larksdale Press. A man seeking the truth about his parentage finds deceptions by the church and family protecting a dark secret. He was born his sister’s son. Paddy Joe Miller was denied the truth of his birth by a conspiracy of family members, the lawyers, and the Catholic church. To this day there are members of his family who will not admit the truth of the matter. At the age of 24 he discovered the truth. And it was 14 years later before he was able to meet his biological father, thanks to no help from the family members.

Life For Death. Michael Mewshaw. 1980. Doubleday. True story of Harold and Shirley Dresbach, a wealthy couple with a picture-perfect life, whose 15-year-old adopted son murdered them after years of physical and sexual abuse that had been ignored by the authorities.

Life of a Lily, The: Growing in His Strength, Blooming in His Love. Lily L Ratliff. 2008. 128p. Tate Publishing & Enterprises. Are you going through life s ups and downs alone? Are you a victim of the foster system or adopted and want to know, Why me? Can there ever be life after abuse or abandonment? If you have experienced opposition or neglect, this book is for you. In her autobiography, The Life of a Lily, author Lily L. Ratliff shows you that through all of your mess, God can bring you to a point of acceptance of what life has given you, with the vigor to carry on. A catalyst for hope and restoration in your life, with easy-to-read vignettes and relevant corresponding Scriptures, The Life of a Lily shows how a young girl triumphs by discovering what so many others failed to realize: that God had a plan for her life.

Life Through the Eyes of Candy: Adoption, Trials & Happiness—“Life is What You Make It!”. Candice Williams. 2001. 80p. Trafford Publishing Co (Canada). Life Through the Eyes of Candy: Adoption, Trials and Happiness—“Life is What You Make It!” is the story of Candy’s personal life journey of adoption that started 34 years ago, from the time learning about her adoption, coping with struggles and many “blows” in her time as a young child, teenage years to her late 20s. Having to deal with her peers, once they had learned that Candy was adopted. Poems that Candy has written over time...photos of both sides if the family.... What a magnificent feeling, meeting your birth family for the very first time is. It is a feeling that you can not possibly express...but not all went smoothly at first! In sharing my personal journey, I hope that I may be able to answer some questions that many may have with their own adoption. Also, I want to shine some light, but most importantly to show that there is happiness and nothing is impossible—believe in yourself. Not only can you read a real life journey about an adoption that was meant to be, you can go beyond and meet the faces, on DVD, with interviews on both sides. There is family that I was raised with and my birth family. They too go into depth about their emotions and relate how I was in my younger years, and how proud they are now about what their daughter was able to achieve in life. About the Author: Candy is 34 years of age, lives on the Sunshine Coast, Australia,  with her family, partner and children, loves life and spending as much time with her family as she can. Candy has two children who have special needs, and attend special school. Candy helps others who have been adopted who want to know more about dealing with their own adoption. Being raised as an adopted child and experiencing many different emotions and experiences, Candy very much wants to reach out, help and let them know that there is happiness and that there is light. Also to let them know to believe within themselves and that nothing is impossible. Candy relaxes by: fishing, going to the beach, ten pin bowling (league), having fun with family, reading, horse riding and also spending time with her two best mates (they are known as “The Three Amigos”).

Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses. Paula McLain. 2004. 288p. Back Bay Books. In the tradition of Jo Ann Beard’s Boys of My Youth, and Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club, Paula McLain has written a powerful and haunting memoir about the years she and her two sisters spent as foster children. In the early 70s, after being abandoned by both parents, the girls were made wards of the Fresno County, CA, court and spent the next 14 years in a series of adoptive homes. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of the freshest memoirs to be published in recent years. McLain’s beautiful writing and limber voice capture the intense loneliness, sadness, and determination of a young girl both on her own and responsible, with her siblings, for staying together as a family. About the Author: After leaving California in 1987, Paula McLain spent the next decade in personal and professional vagabondage. She has worked in auto plants and hospitals and has been a cocktail waitress, a Christmas tree salesperson, a pizza maker, and an English teacher. In 1996, she received her MFA from the University of Michigan. Since then she has been in residence at Bread Loaf, Yaddo and The MacDowell Colony. At work on a novel, she lives in Madison, WI.

Limb of Your Tree, A: The Story of an Adopted Twin’s Search For Her Roots. Doris D Smith. 1984. 158p. Exposition Press. Doris, and her twin brother, David, were born in 1933 in North Carolina and given up for adoption by their natural mother. After David died of kidney disease (a disease doctors suggested could be passed to future generations), Dr. Doris Smith embarked on her quest to secure the medical information necessary for the health of her children. Despite setbacks at every turn (some may be surprised at the stubborn, unenlightened attitude of bureaucrats; others will not), Dr. Smith was ultimately reunited with her birth parents, proving that determination will often yield the desired results. [Compiler’s Note: See also, Out of My Arms, But Never Out of My Heart].

Little Bit Wicked, A: Life, Love, & Faith in Stages. Christin Chenoweth, with Joni Rodgers. 2009. 240p. Touchstone. From Publishers Weekly: Currently seen as waitress Olive Snook in ABC’s Pushing Daisies, the Tony Award–winning singer-actress Chenoweth looks back at her multifaceted career, which has encompassed recordings (As I Am), films (Four Christmases), television (The West Wing), Broadway (Wicked), solo concerts, animation (Tinker Bell), opera and Opryland. Beginning with the intriguing speculation that her unknown birth mother could be watching her career rise, she recalls her Oklahoma childhood and vocal training when she learned “[t]he music didn’t come from notes and lyrics; it came from life and mileage.” Personal revelations, such as her experiences with Ménière’s disease, are balanced with bubbling backstage anecdotes. A chapter about her on-and-off relationship with writer-producer Aaron Sorkin includes a section written by Sorkin himself. With digressions, detours and words like “whack-a-noodle,” the book is busy with show-biz flip quips and writing reminiscent of Julia Phillips’s You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again (minus the drugs and invective). Chenoweth has a frenzied, free-associative style; it’s as if she’s speaking breathlessly into a tape recorder between sitcom scenes. To use her phrase, this book is “a hoot and a holler”—a fast-paced frolic that her fans will appreciate. © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Little Orphan Boy: Through His Eyes. RK Feeney. 2002. 230p. Authorhouse. This is a story about a boy named Bobby who spent the first eleven years of his life in an orphanage system. He also spent part of those eleven years with a family that loved him and yet could not adopt him. As seen through the eyes of Bobby, the story takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride as he learns to cope with life in the orphanage with his three older sisters, and with the joys of living with and the sorrows of separation from the family who took this orphan boy into their hearts. This is a story that has an abrupt bittersweet ending. It is NOT the typical orphan’s story. Bobby’s sisters did live the typical orphan’s life, but Bobby did not. He was the exception: part time foster child, part time orphan boy. The story was written as fiction, though it is based on a true story. The names of the characters were changed for the usual reasons. The only name not changed is Bobby. Each story did happen. Some of the circumstances surrounding each story are fictional. With the emphasis being put on children and child welfare today, as was evidenced by the President giving a special award to a family that had taken into foster care and had adopted many children, I think this book is JUST IN TIME!

Little Orphan Boy Part II: Bobby’s Adoption—A True Story. RK Feeney. 2003. 230p. Authorhouse. Bobby’s Adoption is the rest of Bobby’s story, starting with his adoption. This book takes you through the sudden and unexpected chain of events, which brought about his adoption. Follow Bobby as he struggles to cope with a world totally new to him, which included his adoptive parents. Bobby’s teen years were full of experiences that the kids he went to school with, could only dream about. While Bobby reached heights that he had never dreamed possible a few years earlier, he never forgot his roots. While he lived his new life the way most Americans lived theirs, there was always that question, “Where are they now? Will I ever see them again?” After getting his college degree, Bobby found himself drafted into the Army, where he had an unexpected adventure. Bobby’s adoptive years ended with the death of his foster mother. However the story does not end here. It would be many years before he would have the answers to those questions that were tucked away in his memory. It would be many years before the longed for happy ending would become a reality. To be exact, it would be forty-seven years for Bobby’s life to come full circle, to that longed for happy ending, with the two families he loved and who loved him. But even here there was a touch of the bittersweet, as he now must for that final and complete reunion. The two people, he especially wanted to see—his brother, whom he hardly knew at all and the lady, who started this whole improbable story—had gone on to their reward. This reunion will have to remain on hold till Bobby joins them. About the Author: Born in Jermyn, Pa., he spent the first almost eleven years in the Catholic orphanage system in Scranton, PA. John and Helen Curley adopted him, in 1950. He grew up in New York City, where he got his BS Degree in Education from Manhattan College. He spent the next two years in the Army and was stationed most of that time up in Alaska. After his time in the service, he started his teaching career in the public schools of New York City. After sixteen years, he left the City schools and continued teaching in the town of Kearny, NJ, for another ten years. He left teaching and worked in sundry jobs, which included computer graphics, real estate, office management in a court reporting firm and finally some retail. He retired to Tampa, Fl., where he completed his first book, Little Orphan Boy.

Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots. Yvette D Melanson & Claire Safran. 1999. 240p. Avon Books. While growing up as an adopted child in a Jewish family, the author of this compelling memoir never quite fit in with expectations of who she was supposed to be. She didn’t look Jewish. She wasn’t the boy that her father wanted — though she tried to be. Even her adoring mother found something to nudge her about: “Be a lady. Sit still. Don’t act like a wild Indian.” On the Internet, with help she attributes to both kind strangers and the Great Spirit, Melanson discovers the reason she didn’t fit in, uncovering the bizarre truth that she is, in fact, Navajo. “Funny,” everyone says to her, “you don’t look Indian.” This memoir of an extraordinarily eventful life is crafted like the rugs that Melanson has learned to make in the tradition of her birth family. First, she strings the warp of her story; her adoptive father’s abandonment and his new wife’s rejection of her; the tragic loves, deaths and separations that scarred her life; the happiness she finds with her far-from-perfect husband, Dickie; and the love she receives from her newfound birth family on a Navajo reservation. As she weaves, the patterns emerge, and, each time she reintroduces a thread, she explains that aspect of her life in more detail. The present tense from which she looks back is always moving forward in time as Melanson writes about her efforts to try to integrate the person she had been with the person she is becoming.

Lost & Found: A Memoir of Mothers. Kate St Vincent Vogl. 2009. 304p. North Star Press of St Cloud, Inc. I swore I would never let my birthmother into my life, but then Mom died of ovarian cancer and my birthmother, Val, found me through the obituary. Hard to argue with fate. Harder still to let go of childhood promises. This memoir explores what it is to be a mom and what it is to lose one. And so Lost and Found: A Memoir of Mothers is for anyone who has ever loved and lost (or maybe even found) a mother. About the Author: Kate St. Vincent Vogl teaches a variety of courses at the nationally acclaimed Loft Literary Center, and her writing has been honored in international competitions. She has spoken at the national adoption convention, and she has presented her work on NBC TV and CBS radio. She was graduated from Cornell University cum laude and from the University of Michigan Law School. She serves as Distinguished Faculty at the Minneapolis/St. Paul campus of the University of Phoenix for her coursework in writing, religion and sociology.

3rd Edition, 2009

Lost & Found: The Adoption Experience. Betty Jean Lifton. 1979. 303p. The Dial Press. The struggle for a sense of identity is common to all of us. For an Adoptee it takes on an uncommon dimension. Cut off from blood roots, the Adoptee is often deeply troubled by feelings of abandonment and alienation. There is a sense of non-existence, of never having been born. This powerful, eloquently moving book is a plea for the right of the adopted to know their true origins. It is a book that sets out to break through the taboo of secrecy and guilt surrounding the information that is crucial to the emotional well-being of every individual. To help in achieving that breakthrough, the author has included a list of Adoptee search groups and a bill of rights and responsibilities for everyone involved in adoption. Betty Jean Lifton, herself an Adoptee, has drawn upon her own experiences as well as those of adult Adoptees, birth mothers and fathers, and adoptive parents to bring to life every stage of the psychological journey of the Adoptee—from the moment the “chosen baby” story is told to the young child, and the plunge into the shadows begins. Finally, Lost and Found is about the extraordinary human drama of reunion—the search of children for their natural parents, the search of birth mothers for their lost children (a story that no previous book has told). At a time when the controversial issue of opening birth records to the Adoptee is before the courts in many states, Betty Jean Lifton is fast becoming the spokesperson for the adopted in America. She is the author of Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter, and of several books for young readers. She has lectured and held seminars on adoption throughout the country. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Saturday Review, and Seventeen. She lives in New York City with her husband, psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, and their two children.

Lost & Found: The Search for My Family. Stephen Richardson. 2001. 110p. The Book Guild Ltd. Stephen Richardson had always known he was adopted, and the fact did not concern him; it was only in his fifties that he began searching for his biological parents and relatives. Initially he used official records as a source of clues about his family, and this led to meetings with government officials, a chance meeting with an avid genealogist, and an art dealer who put him in touch with a biological aunt. The search then led to other members of his biological family and enabled him to put together a history of his birth mother and her family. But there was still little known about his father, and why did his aunts hint at secrets not to be revealed? The book reads like a detective story, but without a murder. As well as being intriguing read in its own right, Lost and Found has valuable information for anyone seeking to find out more about their families.

Lost Boy, The: A Foster Child’s Search for the Love of a Family. David J. Pelzer. 1994. 203p. Omaha Press Pub Co. The Lost Boy is the harrowing but ultimately uplifting true story of a boy’s journey through the foster-care system in search of a family to love. This is the long-awaited sequel to Pelzer’s A Child Called “It”. The Lost Boy is Pelzer’s story—a moving sequel and inspirational read for all. By the Same Author: A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph & Forgiveness, the final volume in Mr. Pelzer’s autobiographical trilogy; Help Yourself: Celebrating the Daily Rewards of Resilience and Gratitude, a self-help book based upon his experiences and life lessons; and The Privilege of Youth, the story of Mr. Pelzer’s adolescence.

Lost Cause, The. Udara Soysa. 2006. 108p. Wasteland Press. What is the distance between dream and nightmare? Sri Lankan born, Canadian raised, James shared a dream with most adopted children – finding his biological parents. The killer wave which devastated Sri Lanka on Boxing Day of 2004 gave James the impetus and the opportunity to finally embark on his quest for identity. Long before nature turned against her, Sri Lanka, Land of Serendipity, had turned against herself. Her own quest for identity had led her into a hell where neighbor attacked neighbor and brother killed brother. The search for his roots led James to Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka, once famed for its singing fish, but today a place synonymous with death and destruction by man’s inhumanity and nature’s ferocity. What he did not know was that forces beyond his control or understanding – the ethnic conflict, the Karuna Rebellion and the Tigers’ practice of child conscription – had already determined the final outcome of his journey and his own destiny.

Lost in the System: Miss Teen USA’s Triumphant Fight to Claim a Family of Her Own. Charlotte Lopez & Susan Dworkin. 1996. 192p. Simon & Schuster Trade. In Lost in the System, Charlotte tells her inspiring story. A foster child from the age of two, she bounced around foster homes until she went to live in a home that she expected to be permanent. But while this house was safe and secure, it never became her home, because her foster parents wouldn’t adopt her. After 11 years of waiting, Charlotte moved to an emergency shelter for children in crisis. Although the house rules were tough—especially for a teenager—Charlotte kept up her grades, participated in sports and school activities, and even entered the Miss Vermont Teen USA pageant. In August 1992, she was crowned Miss Teen USA, an achievement she had always dreamed of. Still, she felt incomplete. It wasn’t until she was legally adopted by Jill Charles and Al Scheps, at age 17, that she found a real home and family. Lost in the System describes her journey through the foster care system—but more important, through that minefield called adolescence—in search of an emotional home and solid family ties.

Love Child: A Memoir of Adoption & Reunion, Loss & Love. Sue Elliott. 2005. 320p. Vermilion (UK). Adoption is one of the great, untold stories of our recent past. It is a truly epic tale of loss, guilt, identity, family feuds, reunion and redemption. It is a subject, until very recently, surrounded by secrecy and taboos. In this enthralling memoir, Sue Elliot tells her own story of growing up as an adopted child. She details her emotional search for and meeting with her birth mother, Marjorie, the heartbreaking tale of how Marjorie came to give up Sue for adoption in 1950s England, and the shock of finding that she, Sue, wasn’t the only child given away by Marjorie. Woven throughout is the vivid, emotional history of adoption in the UK. Drawing on a wide range of intimate personal experiences, it outlines the forces that shaped 20th century adoption practice, from baby-farming, the stigma of illegitimacy, incest and the bastardy laws, to children taken by force, the Magdalene laundries, mass emigration schemes without parental consent, to modern day adoption practices, buying babies from abroad, sperm donor fathers and tearful reunions on Trisha.

Lucky Girl: A Memoir. Mei-Ling Hopgood. 2009. 244p. Algonquin Books. In a true story of family ties, journalist Mei-Ling Hopgood, one of the first wave of Asian adoptees to arrive in America, comes face to face with her past when her Chinese birth family suddenly requests a reunion after more than two decades. In 1974, a baby girl from Taiwan arrived in America, the newly adopted child of a loving couple in Michigan. Mei-Ling Hopgood had an all-American upbringing, never really identifying with her Asian roots or harboring a desire to uncover her ancestry. She believed that she was lucky to have escaped a life that was surely one of poverty and misery, to grow up comfortable with her doting parents and brothers. Then, when she’s in her twenties, her birth family comes calling. Not the rural peasants she expected, they are a boisterous, loving, bossy, complicated middle-class family who hound her daily—by phone, fax, and letter, in a language she doesn’t understand—until she returns to Taiwan to meet them. As her sisters and parents pull her into their lives, claiming her as one of their own, the devastating secrets that still haunt this family begin to emerge. Spanning cultures and continents, Lucky Girl brings home a tale of joy and regret, hilarity, deep sadness, and great discovery as the author untangles the unlikely strands that formed her destiny. About the Author: Mei-Ling Hopgood is an award-winning journalist who has written for the Detroit Free Press, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, National Geographic Traveler, and the Miami Herald, and has worked in the Cox Newspapers Washington bureau. She lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with her husband and their daughter. A newspaper feature she wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the reunion with her birth family won a national award from the Asian American Journalists Association.