Sacred Connections. Mary Ann Koenig. Photographs by Niki Berg. 2001. 128p. Running Press. Clinical psychologist Mary Ann Koenig recounts 25 real-life stories of adoptees and their relationships with both birth and adoptive parents. Essays are graced by vintage and contemporary photographs. Koenig, an adoptee herself, has counseled adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents for more than 20 years.

Scattered Siblings: An Adoptee’s Search for His Biological Roots. Lawrence A Weeks. 2006. 180p. Authorhouse. This is a story about an adoptee’s search for his biological roots that lasted over 25 years. It relates how one little piece of information led to another, and then another, and how there eventually seemed to be no end to the amount of doors to open and things to find out. Yet there also seemed to be no end to the amount of brick walls, dead ends, and stumbling blocks in his path. The story of his search started in February of 1968, when he held his newly born daughter for the first time. After his search had ground to a halt a couple years later, there was an incredible coincidence in a small classroom in a large Cleveland college. At one point, a number of newly found cousins, aunts and uncles swore that they had seen pictures of him dead and in a coffin. The story continues to one sunny morning in July of 1996 on the top of a windy hill in a cemetery where he knelt in prayer at a lccong-forgotten grave. This story will inspire any adoptee or anyone searching for lost family members never to give up, to look around all corners, to be patient, and to use each piece of information with consideration for anyone who might be hurt by its being divulged. All the information that e uncovered was obtained without having to go to court. Persistence, prayers, common sense, curiosity, and patience paid off. About the Author: Lawrence A. Weeks, was born in Cleveland, OH, and was given up at birth to be adopted. Just before he was two years old, he was adopted by a family in Euclid, OH, where his adopted mother still lives. Despite being told that his parents died in a car crash after he was just born, Mr. Weeks embarked on a rather long search to find out things that most people take for granted: birth certificate, birth parents, birth siblings, etc. He graduated from Euclid High School and then got a Bachelor’s Degree from Cleveland State with a major in history. He now lives in Mentor, OH, with his wife of over 25 years. Mr. Weeks is a business skills instructor at a medical-vocational school near his home. He has been a speaker with the Greater Cleveland Right To Life and does volunteer work at his local chapter. His oldest daughter, the one whose birth initiated his long search, lives in Green Bay and has two children. His youngest daughter is an Occupation Therapist, and his son is finishing law school at Cleveland Marshall Law School in Cleveland.

Pictured: Covers of first edition, paperback; Florence Fisher circa 1973; reunion with birth father.

Search For Anna Fisher, The. Florence Fisher. 1973. 270p. Arthur Fields Books. “All I want to know is what everyone else knows and takes for granted—my roots.” This story of a young woman’s search for her real parents is one of the most dramatic and moving true-suspense stories ever written. From the time she was seven years old, Florence Fisher had known that she was different, but not how. At the age of 22, she began her search for the truth. And when she learned who she really was, there was only one thing to do. Find her real parents. Florence Fisher went on to found what is probably the best-known adoptee search support groups in the U.S.—Adoptees Liberty Movement Association, or A.L.M.A. Author Photo by Maurice Seymour.

Searching for Ann Marie: An Emotional Account of Adoption Discovery. Denise McKaig. 2008. 220p. Tate Publishing. How could she really have a sister she has gone her entire childhood without knowing? In Searching for Ann Marie, a life changing secret begins to control Edies every waking moment until she spends endless hours on the internet, making friends, meeting new people, and exploring until she can find the one person she never knew existed. New author Denise McKaig reveals the strength and faith of women within the most complex relationships of families in society. Searching for Ann Marie will keep the reader in suspense while providing a soft sense of humor that can be appreciated by any reader.

Searching for Charmian: The Daughter Charmian Clift Gave Away Discovers the Mother She Never Knew. Suzanne Chick. 1994. 361p. Macmillan (Australia). Only the name, I thought, I need only find out the name and do no more. But when 48-year-old Suzanne Chick discovers the identity of her birth mother, suddenly nothing will satisfy her but knowing everything. Her mother was a 19-year-old girl named Charmian Clift, who went on to become a novelist and essayist whose name was known to thousands in the 1960s. But for all her talent, intelligence and extraordinary beauty, Charmian’s life was marked by deep unhappiness, and ended in her suicide in 1969 at the age of forty-five. More than just a fascinating piece of literary history, Searching for Charmian is a moving account of the consequences of adoption and Suzanne’s search for identity.

Searching for Molly Parker. Richard Frayne. 2005. 268p. Egerton House Publishing (UK). How do you heal a disintegrated psyche? Were you ever abandoned? Searching for Molly Parker is intended as a call to all those who have been traumatized, to face with compassion that which they most fear. Initially written with adoptees in mind, it was only after this autobiographical work was completed that the author realized his outline of the initial psychological wounding and path to healing could be applied to victims of both abandonment and abuse.

Second Beginning: A Story of Adoption. Sharon Lyman Quinn. 2008. 156p. AuthorHouse. As Mia stood in the parking lot next to her shop, she and a customer discussed what it was like to be pregnant with your first child. Little did Mia know that this woman was her birth mother, and Mia the daughter she gave up for adoption 33 years ago. The baby Mia carried would be the woman’s first grandchld. After her birth in a San Francisco hospital in 1965, a Reno physician and his wife adopted Mia. She was raised with her brother and sisters in a happy loving home. Upon the death of her parents she decided to try and fill the deep longing and emotional gap now present in her life. She began a passionate search for her biological parents in hopes of discovering her medical history. Emotions are on edge as Mia’s quest begins, and she encounters files and documents outlining her past history. By daring to intrude into the lives of her birth parents, Mia disrupts an entire family, questions her actions and uncovers secrets of long ago. Mia’s story is a positive and uplifting account which will move, enrich and delight the reader. About the Author: Sharon Lyman Quinn grew up in Newport Beach, CA, and studied business at the University of Nevada, Reno. Developing an interest in writing at an early age, Sharon had her own weekly newspaper column in the Newport Harbor News-Press and was assistant editor of her college yearbook. A lifelong community volunteer, Sharon has served on the Truckee Meadows Community College Foundation of Nevada, Reno Philharmonic Board, co-developed the Reno Ronald McDonald House, member of Junior League, and is active in the arts. Married to Dave Quinn, Sharon has two children and five grandchildren. Besides taking time out from her 30 years as a Realtor to write about her daughter-in-law, Mia, in Second Beginning, Sharon enjoys travel, art muserms, gardening, and watching old movies. She is currently working on an historic novel set near Boston in 1675.

Second Choice: Growing Up Adopted. Robert Andersen, MD. 1993. 164p. Badger Hill. A psychiatrist looks at his own black market adoption. About the Author: Robert Andersen received his medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis and took his psychiatry training at St. Louis University. He is currently Chief of the Mental Health Clinic at the St. Louis Veterans Administration Medical Center and lives in the St. Louis metropolitan area with his son and a variety of animals. Dr. Andersen has published six articles, on a variety of subjects from prisoners of war to baseball. Two of the articles (in Child Welfare) deal with adoption. He also wrote a chapter on the psychology of runnig in the book The Complete Runner, Volume II. At age three days Robert Andersen was sold through the black market for $250.00.

Second Seduction, The. Frances Lear. 1992. 190p. Knopf. From Kirkus Reviews: The founder of Lear’s magazine and ex-wife of producer Norman Lear tells all and then some in a disturbing memoir that is searingly frank—though infuriatingly sketchy on biographical detail. Born in 1923 to an unmarried teenage mother in Hudson, N.Y., Lear was adopted by Herb and Aline Loeb. Aline was vain and deeply self-absorbed; Herb killed himself when Lear was ten. Sent as a teenager to a psychiatrist, Lear described how her new stepfather had been sexually abusing her for years. The psychiatrist told her mother and stepfather, her mother sided with the abuser, and Lear left home for good. Two failed marriages, retailing jobs in New York City, and a succession of men followed. In 1956, at age 34, Lear moved to Los Angeles and married Norman Lear. As a character, the famed TV producer is almost completely absent here, although an abstract meditation on infidelity in Hollywood reads as a veiled reference to an unhappy marriage. Frances Lear went on to raise two daughters, divorce, and begin her magazine—all while battling manic-depressive illness. No subject is taboo here: Lear describes lesbian affairs, a stint in a mental institution, sex with her therapist, a dependence on marijuana, and difficult and needy relationships with men. Her deepest probings are of the depressive cycles of her illness and her suicidal urges. But while her full-tilt pursuit of the uncomfortable, the painful, and the unsavory may be admirable, Lear’s eschewal of chronology, context, or any acknowledgement of her obviously considerable strengths detracts from her memoir’s accessibility. In all: an autobiography of abundant courage but only middling insight. — Copyright 1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter & the Mother Who Gave Her Away. June Cross. 2006. 320p. Viking Adult. Secret Daughter is a deftly drawn and moving portrait of a childhood spent in two very different worlds: one white, one black. In 1957, when June Cross was four years old, she was sent by her white mother to live with a black family in Atlantic City. Her mother, Norma, had left June’s abusive father, a comic in the well-known black vaudeville duo Stump and Stumpy, and gave June up when it became clear that her dark-skinned, kinky-haired child could no longer “pass.” Within her adopted family, June struggled with her identity as the black radicalism of the times collided head on with her family’s more traditional ideals. Summer vacations were spent with her mother, now in Hollywood and married to F Troop TV actor Larry Storch. For many years, Norma, afraid that Larry’s career would suffer if anyone discovered the truth about her illegitimate daughter, told friends and reporters that June was adopted. Secret Daughter, which grew out of Cross’s Emmy Award–winning documentary of the same name, traces this thorny story with poignancy and skill. It is both a vivid snapshot of race relations in America and an inspiring journey of understanding between a mother and daughter. About the Author: June Cross is assistant professor of journalism at Columbia University. She has been a television producer for Frontline and the CBS Evening News and was a reporter, producer, and correspondent for PBS’s MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

Secret of M Dulong, The: A Memoir. Colette Inez. 2005. 24p. University of Wisconsin Press. A search for roots and identity has rarely been captured with such irony, unusual insight, and surprising humor as in this memoir of heartbreak and hope. Today a distinguished American poet, Colette Inez first came to the United States when she was eight years old, as an apparent Belgian orphan escorted by two complete strangers. Growing up in post-World War II America, a stranger to her own past, she survived a harrowing adolescence and an increasingly menacing, abusive adoptive family by learning to define her single solace: a developing passion for literature. Facing possible deportation in the 1950s, Inez set out to prove her claim to U.S. citizenship. The result, as she recounts in this eloquent, wrenching memoir, would span two continents, a trail of discovery, and a buried secret: one that ultimately allowed Inez to reconcile her past and present and finally come of age as an artist. About the Author: Colette Inez is associate professor in the writing program at Columbia University. Her nine books of poetry include The Woman Who Loved Worms, Alive and Taking Names, Clemency, and Spinoza Doesn’t Come Here Anymore. Inez is the recipient of numerous awards and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations and twice from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Serendipity Road: A Memoir. Catherine DeVrye. 2007. Mcarthur & Co Publishing Ltd (Australia). Born in Canada and abandoned as a baby, Catherine DeVrye was adopted by loving parents in Calgary. When she was 21, they died of cancer within a year of each other. An only child, Catherine packed her bags for Australia, arriving jobless and nearly penniless. This led to a lifelong journey to find her place in the world. She waited tables, taught school, worked on a mine site, and went on to work in public service. She then joined IBM, who sent her on postings to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and New York. Named Australian Executive Woman of the Year, Catherine found herself dining with princes, prime ministers, and Olympic athletes. She also cycled over the Andes, dived with sharks, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Yet, still something was missing. So eventually Catherine decided to return to Canada and search for her biological parents. And that’s when her adventures really began... About the Author: Catherine DeVrye was born in Canada and lives in Sydney, when she’s not travelling the world sharing her life experiences. Her previous bestselling books include Hot Lemon and Honey and Hope Happens.

Singing Creek Where the Willow Grows, The (The Rediscovered Diary of Opal Whiteley). Benjamin Hoff. 1986. 367p. Ticknor & Fields. From Publishers Weekly: In 1920, when the Atlantic Monthly Press published the childhood diary of Opal Whiteley (The Story of Opal), it became an immediate bestseller, acclaimed for the extraordinary expression of a child’s view of nature, life and family in her native Oregon. The view is joyfully pantheistic and anthropomorphic: the fields are a fairy land; the woods harbor a fir tree named Byron; a pig answers to Peter Paul Rubens; a young wife is “Dear Love” “angel parents” take care of Opal, who purports to be adopted. Childish spellings mingle with sophisticated foreign phrases. A year later the diary was declared a hoax, a fantasy, by the press, which deemed the book an adult-child collaboration. Opal, buffeted by ill fortune, retreated further into a fantasy world. Diagnosed a schizophrenic, she resided until her death in a hospital outside London, where Hoff, having rediscovered the diary, attempted unsuccessfully to interview her. Interjecting his frustration, he nevertheless succeeds in bringing about an understanding, 65 years later, of a tragically gifted child. Hoff is the author of The Tao of Pooh.

Single Square Picture, A: A Korean Adoptee’s Search for Her Roots. Katy Robinson. 2002. 312p. Berkley Publishing Group. One day she was Kim Ji-yun, growing up in Seoul, Korea. The next day she was Catherine Jeanne Robinson, living with her new American family in Salt Lake City, Utah. Twenty years later, Katy Robinson returned to Seoul in search of her birth mother—and found herself an American outsider in her native land. What transpired in this world—at once familiar and strange, comforting and sad—left Katy conflicted, shattered, exhilarated, and moved in ways she never imagined. A Single Square Picture is a personal odyssey that ascends to the universal, a story that will resonate with anyone who has ever questioned their place in the world—and had the courage to find the answers. About the Author: Katy Robinson is an award-winning journalist and speaker on adoption issues.

Someone’s Daughter. Aurette Bowes. 2009. 118p. Raider Publishing International. Someone’s Daughter is the author’s own true account of how, as an adult, she learned that she is not her parents’ biological child, but was adopted by them as a baby in a closed adoption. The book tells of the profound and permanent impact this discovery had on her life and that of her family. It documents the search for her birth mother, their reunion and the development of their relationship thereafter. Someone’s Daughter relates how the author found emotional healing and learned to embrace her dual identity. Concurrently with telling her story, the author deals with the ongoing, complex dynamics that surround adoption. Adoption is viewed by most as a happy, joyous event in which a childless couple takes an unwanted baby into their home, selflessly raises it as their own and everybody lives “happily ever after.” Sadly, this perception is far removed from the truth. The very act of adoption necessitates rejection, loss and considerable emotional pain. Few people, including many adoptees, birth mothers and adoptive parents fail to realise that without rejection or loss there can be no adoption. Someone’s Daughter is primarily aimed at adoptees who are struggling to find healing from the never-ending barrage of emotional issues they encounter throughout their lives as a direct result of their adoption. The book provides them with the information they need to conduct their own legal search for their birth parents. Birth mothers, adoptive parents, immediate families and depression sufferers will also benefit from reading Someone’s Daughter. It is not a self-help book, but a deeply personal account of the author’s own experience and how se came to find true healing. Whether readers decide to follow the same path is up to them.

Something Like Beautiful. Asha Bandele. 2009. 208p. Harper. When Asha Bandele, a young poet, fell in love with a prisoner serving a twenty-to-life sentence and became pregnant with his daughter, she had reason to hope they would live together as a family. Rashid was a model prisoner, and expected to be paroled soon. But soon after Nisa was born, Asha’s dreams were shattered. Rashid was denied parole, and told he’d be deported to his native Guyana once released. Asha became a statistic: a single, black mother in New York City. On the outside, Asha kept it together. She had a great job at a high-profile magazine and a beautiful daughter whom she adored. But inside, she was falling apart. She began drinking and smoking and eventually stumbled into another relationship, one that opened new wounds. This lyrical, astonishingly honest memoir tells of her descent into depression when her life should have been filled with love and joy. Something Like Beautiful is not only Asha’s story, but the story of thousands of women who struggle daily with little help and much against them, and who believe they have no right to acknowledge their pain. Ultimately, drawing inspiration from her daughter, Asha takes account of her life and envisions for herself what she believes is possible for all mothers who thought there was no way out--and then discovered there was. About the Author: Asha Bandele is an award-winning author and journalist. A former features editor for Essence magazine, Asha is the author of two collections of poems, the award-winning memoir The Prisoner’s Wife (1998), and the novel Daughter (2003). She lives in Brooklyn with her daughter.

Sound of Hope, The: A True Story of an Adoptee’s Quest for Her Origins. Anne Bauer. 2008. 296p. iUniverse. When children are kept in the dark regarding their origins, nobody wins. Only rarely does a memoir come along that taps into the heart of the human condition. The Sound of Hope is such a story, told by Anne Bauer, an adoptee who cannot pretend that she had another life and another family before being adopted. Much of Anne’s childhood was spent wondering about her other mother. She desperately wanted to know where she was, what she looked like and most importantly, why she placed her for adoption. Living in the closed-adoption system, her questions were met with a wall of silence. This aura of secrecy only intensified Anne’s quest to eventually discover her own story. Faced with anger and contempt, secrets and revelations, Anne sets out to uncover the truth. This powerful memoir traverses family and relationships and carries the unforgettable message that nobody should be cut off from their origins. About the Author: Anne Bauer is a Registered Nurse and Reiki energy healer turned author. She was inspired to write a true account of her life as an adopted individual in order to raise awareness and reform for the civil rights of adoptees. She lives in Northern New Jersey with her husband and their three children. Visit the Author’s website.

Spiritual Journey: Story of an Adopted Child. Christine Guardiano. 2006. 285p. Written by a 55-year-old woman in New York reflecting on her own extraordinary life experiences, Spiritual Journey: Story of an Adopted Child creatively uses narrative, illustrations, photos, and poetry to convey a message of universal hope and joy extending far beyond Christine Guardiano’s own struggles and triumphs. Reading the book is an emotional and spiritual learning adventure that well exceeds even the broad boundaries of its title words. If you enjoy stories that effectively use flashbacks, vivid description, and many specific personal examples to reveal an individual’s most personal history and to demonstrate human feelings across the entire socio-emotional spectrum, then this is a book for you. It is hard to walk away from reading (and viewing) this work, without feeling a heightened connection to All That Is. About the Author: Christine is a divinely and emotionally inspired writer. Her love and compassion for life has no boundaries. Christine’s many talents—or as some would say “gifts” from Spirit—extend far beyond her writing ability: She is an artist, dancer, poet, choreographer, director, stage prop and scenery designer, and so much more. It seems her talents are endless as is her kind and friendly personality. She is also a nature-lover and on many occasion, she and I have communicated with nature on a physical and spiritual level. Christine’s spiritual corona not only glows in this, her latest work, but in every facet of her being. It seems that many incarnations could explain her diverse spiritual persona and achievements in this present lifetime and only Spirit knows what new challenges lay ahead for her. —Bob Guardiano, Christine’s husband

Stewing in the Melting Pot: The Memoir of a Real American. Robert Sanabria. 2001. 228p. Capital Books. Through the eyes of one of its sons, Stewing in the Melting Pot will touch the hearts of all who have lived between two cultures and who have never felt completely accepted by the mainstream American culture. It is the true story of a Mexican-American family struggling to survive in pre- and post-World War II America. Born in El Paso, Texas to Mexican immigrants in 1931, Robert Sanabria was four years old when his mother took her four children and fled from an abusive husband to Los Angeles. There, unable to care for her children, she was forced to place them in an orphanage, founded by the Methodist Church in Sierra Madre, CA. In “The Home,” Robert learned that his heritage as a Mexican was not welcome and he was required to abandon his language, his religion, and his culture to become a “real” American. Robert Sanabria tells a powerful story of “The Home,” its policy of assimilation and how it led to his own development as a confused and identity-starved adult. Through the experience, he became estranged from his siblings and even his mother. Robert Sanabria, a retired Army officer and successful sculptor, is still searching for his identity, as are all Americans in our increasingly diverse society. About the Author: Robert Sanabria is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. His military decorations include two awards of the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars and three Air Medals. Born during the Great Depression in El Paso, Texas to immigrant parents, he received in Bachelor of Arts in political science and economics from the University of Maryland in 1965 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Maryland. He has been a professional sculptor for the past 25 years with works in museums, universities and public spaces in Lexington, Kentucky; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Prince George’s County, Maryland and Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Sanabria is founder of the Touchstone Gallery and the Loudoun Arts Council and has served as President of the Artist Equity Association in Washington, DC. He and his wife, painter Sherry Zvares Sanabria, live and work near Hamilton, VA.

Still Waters. Jennifer Lauck. 2001. 416p. Pocket Books. Readers who breathed a sigh of relief at the end of Blackbird, when 12-year-old orphan Jennifer Lauck was rescued from an abusive stepmother, will have to grit their teeth all over again for the second volume of her memoirs. Jennifer is adopted by her father’s sister Peggy and her husband Dick Duemore: he’s bullying and mean; she means well but doesn’t want to hear anything negative and responds with cold anger to Jennifer’s unwanted confidences and insufficiently cheerful behavior. She never feels wanted in a house where she seems valued only for the chores she performs—never well enough for Mom and Dad (as the Duemores insist she call them after the adoption), who remind her constantly how grateful she should be. In prose as stark as if it had been scraped with a scalpel, Lauck recounts an adolescence scarred by lovelessness and haunted by unfinished emotional business from her parents’ deaths and separation from her older brother, Bryan. She’s honest about her rage and inability to trust: we see her rejecting a sweet high school boyfriend and holding Bryan at arm’s length during two brief reunions. Bryan’s suicide is a low point, but it starts the healing process; she leaves a failing marriage, and the happiness she finds with her second husband helps her come to terms with her past. No one reading this pitiless book will think Lauck has forgiven the relatives whose lies and selfishness had such disastrous consequences for her and Bryan; she’s bitter and she has reason to be. “I know there is a power to anger, the kind of power that helps you survive,” she muses in a crucial passage that shows her moving on to acknowledge the necessity of “pulling [anger] back in order to make room for the good things like love and understanding and joy.” — Wendy Smith.

Stolen Prince, The: Gannibal, Adopted Son of Peter the Great, Great-Grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, & Europe’s First Black Intellectual. Hugh Barnes. 2006. 300p. Harper Collins. In the spring of 1703, a young African boy stepped off a slave ship in Constantinople, the gateway between East and West. Huddling in chains, with other frightened captives, the seven-year-old claimed to be a prince of Abyssinia, a “noble Moor” kidnapped and stolen out of Africa. His tragedy was shared by millions of black people caught up in the Islamic slave trade, but his destiny was unique: rescued by Peter the Great, the young African became Abram Petrovich Gannibal. Russia’s westernizing tsar adopted the child and, in a bizarre nature-and-nurture experiment, lavished on him the best education available in the new “European” capital of Saint Petersburg. Gannibal, the “Negro of Peter the Great,” soared to dizzying heights as a soldier, diplomat, mathematician and spy. He was fêted in glittering salons, from the Winter Palace to the Louvre, and came to know Voltaire and Montesquieu, who praised him as the “dark star of Russia’s enlightenment.” At the same time, his military exploits, from northern Spain to the icy wastes of Siberia—to say nothing of his marital problems—sealed Gannibal’s reputation as the Russian Othello. African prince or not, the ex-slave founded a dynasty of his own in Russia, where he came to embody the strengths and weaknesses of the country itself—volatile, courageous, handsome, gifted and always astonishing. His descendants included not only Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s greatest poet, but also, in England, several Mountbattens and others close to the royal family.

Stones Cry Out, The: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980. Molyda Szymusiak. Translated by Linda Coverdale. 1986. 245p. Hill & Wang. In 1975, Molyda Szymusiak, the daughter of a high Cambodian official, was twelve years old and leading a relatively peaceful life in Phnom Penh. Suddenly, on April 17, Khmer Rouge radicals seized the capital and drove all its inhabitants into the countryside. The chaos that followed has been widely publicized, most notably in The Killing Fields. Murderous brutality coupled with raging famine caused the death of more than two million people, nearly a third of the population. What has not been adequately documented in the unalleviated horror Cambodians experienced in daily life, told for the first time in this remarkable memoir. From the start, the author kept her identity a secret, assuming a “revolutionary” name to avoid being branded as an aristocrat. Her father, mother, aunt and uncle struggled to save the twenty members of their two families, but one by one they starved or were executed, until only Molyda and three younger cousins survived. Through it all, she watched and remembered, and her child’s-eye view—unencumbered by doctrine or statistics—vividly communicates the total breakdown of her society. Perhaps most striking is Molyda’s ability to retain her humanity despite the innumerable atrocities she witnessed. The Stones Cry Out is a testament to the courage and resiliency of the Cambodian people, and to the “astonishing spiritual strength that kept the survivors going.” The time period covered here extends from Gerald Ford’s assumption of the presidency in 1975 (following Richard Nixon’s Watergate-related resignation) through Jimmy Carter’s term to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980—a time of American retrenchment from Asia after the debacle of Vietnam. The author fled the country in 1980, at the age of 17, and was adopted by a Polish family. Title was first published in France as Les pierres crieront by Editions La Decouverte in 1984.

Stories of Adoption: Loss & Reunion. Eric Blau, ed. Foreword by Annette Baran. 1993. 124p. New Sage Press. This book reveals compelling personal stories by adoptees, birthmothers and fathers, and adoptive parents who experience reunions. The individuals in this book are of varying ages, backgrounds, and lifestyles, but they share similar emotional mazes characteristic of the adoption triangle. these are stories of profound loss, as well as joyful reunions and resolution. Stories of Adoption acknowledges that there are no easy answers to this complex situation and honors the diversity of experience for each individual in the adoption triangle. About the Author: Eric Blau, M.D., combines his skills and sensitivities as a professional photographer and as a medical doctor. He spent three years interviewing and photographing individuals for this book. Annette Baran, M.S.W., is considered one of the foremost experts in the field of adoption and child welfare. Baran’s books include The Adoption Triangle and Lethal Secrets.

Strange Fowl. Mark Dapor. 1994. 403p. M Dapor Publisher.

“Stuck in the Middle... But Never Alone”. Tonya DeNise. 2009. 112p. AuthorHouse. This book is centered around adoption and the realistic aspect of the “dysfuctional family syndrome.” These very real and ackward situations can be the cause of severe consequences within the family. At some point, “family” must realize that the “big cover-up,” is not always for the “best”...but in most cases it happens to, “save face,” from the opinion of the community, at large. All things happen for a reason...in the end, it depends on how we handle the reality of it all.

Sudden Fury: A True Story of Adoption & Murder. Leslie Walker. 1989. 384p. St. Martin’s Press. Abandoned by his natural mother at an early age, Larry had been heartlessly abused by an unfeeling foster-care system when a miracle occurred: Bob and Kay Swartz, an outwardly warm, church-going couple, adopted him. But soon, a darker side to the Swartz family life revealed itself. And then, on the night of January 16, 1984, something happened which ignited an unimaginable rage in the affection-starved child. It would take investigators months to piece together what really caused one family to erupt in a moment of sudden fury.

Suddenly Jewish: Jews Raised as Gentiles Discover Their Jewish Roots. Barbara Kessel. 2000. 135p. Brandeis University. One woman learned on the eve of her Roman Catholic wedding. One man as he was studying for the priesthood. Madeleine Albright famously learned from the Washington Post when she was named Secretary of State. “What is it like to find out you are not who you thought you were?” asks Barbara Kessel in this compelling volume, based on interviews with over 160 people who were raised as non-Jews only to learn at some point in their lives that they are of Jewish descent. With humor, candor, and deep emotion, Kessel’s subjects discuss the emotional upheaval of refashioning their self-image and, for many, coming to terms with deliberate deception on the part of parents and family. Responses to the discovery of a Jewish heritage ranged from outright rejection to wholehearted embrace. For many, Kessel reports, the discovery of Jewish roots confirmed long-held suspicions or even, more mysteriously, conformed to a long-felt attraction toward Judaism. For some crypto-Jews in the southwest United States (descendants of Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition), the only clues to their heritage are certain practices and traditions handed down through the generations, whose significance may be long since lost. In Poland and other parts of eastern Europe, many Jews who were adopted as infants to save them from the Holocaust are now learning of their heritage through the deathbed confessions of their adoptive parents. The varied responses of these disparate people to a similar experience, presented in their own words, offer compelling insights into the nature of self-knowledge. Whether they had always suspected or were taken by surprise, Kessel’s respondents report that confirmation of their Jewish heritage affected their sense of self and of their place in the world in profound ways. Fascinating, poignant, and often very funny, Suddenly Jewish speaks to crucial issues of identity, selfhood, and spiritual community. About the Author: Barbara Kessel is Director of Administration of the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York. A freelance writer of nonfiction and poetry for 25 years, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Hadassah Magazine, and Midstream.

Suitcases, The: Three Orphaned Sisters in the Great Depression in the South. Anne Hall Whitt. Illustrated by Richard Thompson. Foreword by Charles Kuralt. 1982. 184p. Acropolis Books. The moving, true story of three sisters who were placed in an orphanage (Thompson Orphanage in Charlotte, NC) and foster homes after the death of their mother in the 1930s. On the death of their mother, the three little girls—at ages five, six, and almost eight—are taken from their father to become wards of the state. With the cardboard suitcases given them by the social worker, they are moved from Catholic Home to orphanage to foster homes, waiting for their father to come and claim them. But they realize at last this will not happen and the hope that had sustained them turns to grief and anger. Betty, the oldest, is their uncomplaining leader. Carolyn is the youngest, tiny and doll-like. Anne is the middle sister, striking out whenever she thinks that she or the others have been wronged. It is Anne who tells the story. The suitcases are the anchors in their lives.The story moves in time, not distance, from the Depression through the 1940 war years, into and beyond the 1960s. The locale is the North Carolina Piedmont and later the mountains of the Blue Ridge.

Surviving High Society: Lots of Love Trumps Lots of Money. Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland. 2008. 184p. Bascom Hill Publishing Group. To the outside world, Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland had it all. Adopted into a wealthy New England family, the young Elizabeth was afforded the luxury many people only realize in their dreams. She joined her family on lavish European vacations, lived in a finely decorated home, grew up in a world heavily infiltrated by power and money, and hob-knobbed with celebrities. As a close friend of Katherine Hepburn’s niece, she gained an inside look into Katherine Hepburn’s guarded inner life, which she details in Surviving High Society. Her real life, however, was not the fantasy it seemed to others. Elizabeth grew up in a volatile household. Her adopted brother attempted to murder her mother and remained estranged in the decades to follow. Her father, who was her strongest ally, died suddenly when she was twenty-two. And, until her death, Elizabeth’s mother used all means possible to exert control over her life. Her mother bounced Elizabeth in and out of psychiatric facilities and used her wealth to persuade doctors to keep Elizabeth locked up and medicated. Throughout, Elizabeth struggled to keep the pieces of her life together. After her mother disinherits Elizabeth, she successfully seeks to find freedom and a life of her own away from her mother s ever-watchful gaze. Her life becomes a life without fantastic riches, filled with its own obstacles and triumphs. But it is now her life. About the Author: Born in Chicago to Maxie Fannie Hawthorne and Charles Lynn Terrel, Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland was adopted by Kathryn Caine Marvin and Edwin Waldo Marvin and was brought up in Connecticut. She has also lived in Arizona and Virginia, and now resides in Florida. Educated at Phillips Andover Academy and Briarcliff College, she was married in 1987 and has one stepson. Active as a volunteer in various political campaigns and hospital work, her interests also include bridge, golf, and anthropology. She has traveled to Scandinavia, Poland, Greece, and throughout greater Europe, as well as the Caribbean, and is a member of the Junior League and the DAR.

Swimming Up the Sun: A Memoir of Adoption. Nicole J Burton. 2008. 208p. Apippa Publishing Co. At age 22, the author set out to find her English birth parents, a Jewish father and a mother believed to be an artist. The adventure led to parents, grandparents, and siblings, a kaleidoscope of relationships with one dark secret at its center. As an adoptive child in Britain, playwright Nicole J. Burton always wanted to find her birth parents. After immigrating with her adoptive family to the United States, she pursued the elusive characters haunting her imagination. With an appointment with one of Her Majesty’s social workers and her birth mother’s name in hand, she returned home to Britain. There she began a search that led to more drama than any play she could possibly conceive. Visit the Author’s webiste.

Taking Down the Wall. Christine Murphy. 2008. 148p. Xlibris Corp. To find a solution, a person must first admit there is a problem. Taking Down the Wall is a chronicle of one woman’s journey to the painful and reluctant admission that there is indeed a problem, her refusal to let an old wound heal. The journey takes twists and unexpected turns but eventually arrives in a place of peace. Issues involving adoption, reunion, addiction, death and grief are addressed in the context of real life, humor, spirituality and healing. Taking Down the Wall will make you cry, make you laugh and most of all, make you think. About the Author: Christine Murphy lives in Saratoga Springs, NY, with her husband and three children. She works as a Speech Language Pathologist helping special-needs children. Christine was adopted by a loving family in 1969 in a closed adoption. In 1992, she received an unexpected phone call from her birth mother. Shaken by the situation, Christine chose not to meet. In 2007, after a health scare and some words from God, Christine contacted and met her birth mother and half-brothers. Their reunion continues to evolve.

Tell Me—No More Secrets, No More Lies: Life As an Adoptee. Ginni D Snodgrass. Trans fr Eng & Ger by IR Jacobsen. 1990. 150p. GS Enterprise.

Temporary Child: A Foster Care Survivor’s Story. Edward J. Benzola, with Neva Beach. 1993. 144p. Real People Publishing. From Publishers Weekly: On March 3, 1991, Eddie Benzola, who had been raised in a foster home, learned that he had two half-sisters and a half-brother born to his remarried natural father. Upon hearing this news, he contacted one of his sisters and began to piece together his origins and identity. Abandoned by his birth mother, Eddie grew up in the home of Henrietta Butler, a loving foster mother who constantly took in babies from the Child Welfare service until they could be matched with adoptive families. From childhood, Eddie seemed withdrawn. This was due, perhaps in part, to Butler’s husband, a violent alcoholic, and to a series of attachments quickly made and then severed in the rapid turnover of other foster babies in the Butler home. In his research into his own life history, the author’s contacts with the foster care bureaucracy led him to several conclusions regarding the need for greater supervision of the foster care system. While compelling as an account of the alienation that can result from a foster care childhood, Benzola’s book is undermined by amateurish writing, scant insight and excessive introspection. Beach is a freelance writer. © 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Tennessee Tears: An Autobiography. George John Curtis, with Ira L White. 1994. 189p. ARM Press. This is the story of one of the surviving victim’s of one of the largest and most notorious black-market baby-selling scandals: Georgia Tann’s Tennessee Children’s Home Society.

That Mean Old Yesterday. Stacey Patton. 2007. 226p. Atria. That Mean Old Yesterday is an astonishing coming-of-age memoir by a young woman who survived the foster care system to become an award-winning journalist. No one would ever imagine that the vibrant, smart, and attractive Stacey Patton had a childhood from hell. Once a foster child who found a home, she was supposed to be among the lucky. On a rainy night in November 1999, a shoeless Stacey, promising student at NYU, headed down a New Jersey street toward her adoptive parents’ house. She carried a gun in her pocket, and she kept repeating to herself that she would pull the trigger. She wanted to kill them. Or so she thought. This is a story of how a typical American family can be undermined by its own effort to be perfect on the surface. After all, with God-fearing, house-proud, and hardworking adoptive parents, Stacey appeared to beat the odds. But her mother was tyrannical, and her father, either so in love with or in fear of his wife, turned a blind eye to the abuse she heaped on their love-starved little girl. In That Mean Old Yesterday, a little girl rises above the tyranny of an overzealous mother by channeling her intellectual energy into schoolwork. Wise beyond her years, she can see that her chances for survival are advanced through her struggle to get into an elite boarding school. She uses all she has, a brilliant mind, to link her experience to the legacy of American slavery and to successfully frame her understanding of why her good adoptive parents did terrible things to her by realizing that they had terrible things done to them.

They Cage the Animals at Night. Jennings Michael Burch. 1985. NAL-Dutton. One rainy day in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch’s mother, too sick to care for him, left him at an orphanage, saying only, “I’ll be right back.” She never returned. Shuttled through a series of bleak foster homes and institutions, he never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend. Instead, Jennings clung to a tattered stuffed animal, his sole source of warmth in a frightening world. This is the poignant story of his lost childhood. But it is also the triumphant tale of a little boy who finally gained the courage to reach out for love-and found it waiting for him.

Three Trips Home. Jean Paton. 1960. Life History Study Center.

Through the Eyes of an Adoptee: One Man’s Compelling Search for His Beginnings. Frank Law. 1996. 130p. Gann Publishing. This book is about the search of an adoptee to find the missing part of his life, his birth family. Read how Frank Law searched and found his birth family, and the struggles and success he faced while searching.

Through Yup’ik Eyes: An Adopted Son Explores the Landscape of Family. Colin Chisholm. 2000. 336p. Alaska Northwest Books. This haunting and profound memoir seeks to define so many dimensions of the human drama—adoption, motherhood, alcoholism, childhood, death, separation—and it does so with a poetic quality that will make you remember this story long after you finish the book. Author Colin Chisholm’s provocative exploration into the life of his mother, Doris, begins with her youth in a small Eskimo village, where she lived until her Yup’ik mother died and she was adopted by a Swedish family near Seattle. While growing up, she struggled with her mixed ethnicity, denying her origins until late in life, when poor health prevented her return to Alaska. In his efforts to understand his mother’s life, Chisholm also explores the complex issues of adoption. After giving birth to two children, Doris adopted three more, including the author himself. Writing with a maturity and self-awareness that is rare, author Colin Chisholm has a breathtaking sense of fairness, compassion, and deep interest in his subject. About the Author: Born in 1967, Colin Chisholm lived in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains until he was eighteen. He received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana, has published stories and essays in numerous magazines and journals, and was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 1995. Through Yup’ik Eyes is his first book. He divides his time between Prescott, Arizona, and Missoula, Montana.

To Whom It May Concern: A Search for Truth. Kay Cervetti. 2000. 79p. Camel Knee Publishing. A story of love, and sacrifice, and wholeness. Experience first-hand the letters written by a mother in 1958 and finally discovered by her twin daughters in 1996. This story is told by the twin daughters as they search for their biological family, leading to the discovery of three sets of twins, separated by adoption, and the reunion with their family of origin.

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, & the Search for Home . Kim Sunée. 2008. 400p. Grand Central Publishing. When Kim Sunée was three years old, her mother took her to a marketplace, deposited her on a bench with a fistful of food, and promised she’d be right back. Three days later a policeman took the little girl, clutching what was now only a fistful of crumbs, to a police station and told her that she’d been abandoned by her mother. Fast-forward almost 20 years and Kim’s life is unrecognizable. Adopted by a young New Orleans couple, she spends her youth as one of only two Asian children in her entire community. At the age of 21, she becomes involved with a famous French businessman and suddenly finds herself living in France, mistress over his houses in Provence and Paris, and stepmother to his eight year-old daughter. Kim takes readers on a lyrical journey from Korea to New Orleans to Paris and Provence, along the way serving forth her favorite recipes. A love story at heart, this memoir is about the search for identity and a book that will appeal to anyone who is passionate about love, food, travel, and the ultimate search for self. About the Author: Kim Sunée is the founding food editor of Cottage Living. She was born in South Korea and adopted and raised in New Orleans, and lived in Europe for ten years. She now resides in Birmingham, AL.

Transported Life, A: Memories of Kindertransport: The Oral History of Thea Feliks Eden. Irene Reti & Valerie Jean Chase, eds. 1995. 88p. Down There Press. While numerous oral histories of Holocaust survivors have been collected, few have been the stories of those who were children at the time. The popular misconception is that child survivors were “too young to remember.” The stunning detail of this oral history is testament to the fallacy of that assumption. Thea Feliks Eden was born in Cologne, Germany in 1926. She became a refugee who escaped to England in the Kindertransport program which saved 10,000 Jewish children by bringing them to England before war broke out. In her oral history she powerfully articulates the seldom talked about effects of the Holocaust on child survivors. In this time of war displacing millions of people, many of them children, this time of exile, this time of Holocaust revisionism, Thea Feliks Eden’s courageous words are essential. — Synopsis from Herbooks Lesbian Feminist Press website

True Likeness, A: A Personal Story of Adoption. Paul Arnott. 2000. 280p. Little, Brown (UK). Paul Arnott has two very early memories. One is as a two-year-old having a bath in a hotel sink in Tenby; the other, a Bromley afternoon, when Mr. and Mrs. Arnott told Paul that “his real Mummy and Daddy couldn’t keep him”—and that they had adopted him. Then, for 30 years, he barely gave his adoption a moment’s thought—until the observation of the likeness between his son and himself provoked a quest to find his own biological parents. What he discovered was a near-complete family in Ireland—his parents had later married and since had four other children, lighting a candle in his name every day for 33 years. His biography weaves historical, political, religious and psychological thought into a personal narrative of the hopes, “what-ifs,” and discoveries of the author’s quest. He talks to those of his parents’ generation who did not yield to the pressure to abandon the illegitimate, and to the children with very different stories to tell, as well as priests and politicians, newfound families and the supportive or unreconciled adoptive relatives. About the Author: Paul Arnott was born in 1961. He has contributed to publications such as the Independent and Time Out, before becoming Series Editor of the C4 daily arts programme. He has since evolved into a television producer and director, filming at Cannes, across India and Johannesburg and with the RSC.

Truth Book, The: Secrets of a Jehovah’s Witness Family (A Memoir). Joy Castro. 2005. 240p. Arcade Publishing. From Kirkus Reviews: An uneven look back at an abusive childhood. Castro, an English professor at Wabash College, in Indiana, grew up in horrific, and unusual, circumstances. She was adopted by parents who were Jehovah’s Witnesses. When they divorced, she lived with her astoundingly irresponsible, and emotionally absent adoptive mother. (When Mom goes out for a night on the town and Joy begs her to come home at 11:00 p.m., mom angrily replies, “Do you have to ruin everything for me?”) Then Castro’s mother remarries, and things go from bad to worse. Castro’s stepfather beats everyone in the family, and forbids Castro and her younger brother to talk to their father. Castro’s church community is aware that things are not harmonious in Joy’s home, but no one steps in. Eventually, Castro escapes and moves in with her adoptive father. Living with him is a decided improvement, even though he has a disturbing habit of commenting on the figure of every woman they meet and refuses to pay for his children to go to college. Castro has plenty of raw material for a powerful story, but the book is seriously flawed. The narrative veers back and forth, from adulthood to childhood to adolescence and back again: The opening eight pages skip from a first-person monologue from the mouth of Joy’s birth mother, to a thickly sensory description of Marrakech and San Crist-bal de las Casas, to a four-page reminiscence about Castro’s interviews for academic jobs in 1997. In a Cormac McCarthy novel, this episodic style is a strength. Here, it is a confusing distraction, likely to deter all but the most committed reader. The final 85 pages, which follow a clearer chronology, and include a carefully crafted account of Castro’s reunion withher birth mother, are stronger...but one wonders whether anyone will get that far. Reads like a first draft.

Twenty Life-Transforming Choices Adoptees Need to Make. Sherrie Eldridge. 2003. 288p. Pinon Press. No matter how loving your adoptive home, growing up adopted presents unique challenges—challenges the majority of adoptees don’t talk about. Were you adopted as an infant or child? If so, imagine what it would be like to attend a gathering of all adoptees. What would you ask them? Author Sherrie Eldridge says adoptees might ask each other:
•   Do you ever feel alone?
•   Do you struggle with fears of rejection?
•   Do you have a special place in your heart for your birth parents?
•   Do you know who to trust?
•   Do you have a good self-image?
•   Do you feel like you don’t belong?
•   Do you ever think about a reunion with your birth family?
Sherrie Eldridge has interviewed more than seventy adoptees, who transparently share their stories in Twenty Life-Transforming Choices Adoptees Need to Make, a book for adoptees and by adoptees. This book is a celebration of adoption based on the fact that adoption can teach some of life’s deepest and richest lessons. Upon hearing the stories of others, you will realize you’re not alone but are instead in the company of an incredible bunch of people who will inspire you to make life choices that propel you to become all you were created to be. See also the updated edition published in 2009: Questions Adoptees Are Asking. Visit the Author’s website.

Twice Adopted. Michael Reagan, with Jim Denney. 2004. 332p. Broadman & Holman Publishers. Michael Reagan’s life is much more than just an interesting story. It is a testimony of how Christ allowed him to find healing from many of the issues that confront our culture today, such as sexual abuse, divorce, loneliness, the feeling of rejection, and the belief that God does not care about us. Michael Reagan’s first adoption gave him an identity (see, On the Outside Looking In, 1988), but he did not find his true identity until he found Christ. In this book, Mike Reagan shows how others can meet a God who loves them, and who wants to embrace them and bring them healing, salvation, and meaning to life.

Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter. Betty Jean Lifton. 1975. 281p. McGraw Hill. In this significant and lasting account, Betty Jean Lifton, acclaimed author of several books on the psychology of the adopted, tells her own story of growing up at a time when adoptees were still in the closet. Twice Born recounts her early struggle with the loneliness and isolation of not knowing her birth parents; her identification, as a journalist in the Far East, with the orphans left behind by American soldiers in Japan and Vietnam; and the guilt she experiences over what feels like a betrayal of her adopted parents as she sets off on a forbidden quest to find her roots. With the mounting suspense of a detective novel, Twice Born explores the difficulty of searching for one’s past when records are sealed, and the complexity of reuniting with a birth mother from whom one has been separated by both time and social taboos. More than a vivid and poignant memoir, Lifton has given us a story of mothering and mother-loss, attachment and bonding, secrets and lies, and the human need for origins.

Twins Found in a Box: Adapting to Adoption. Jeannine Joy Vance. 2003.  300p. AuthorHouse. Twins Found in a Box is an inspirational memoir told by Jeannine, using a Generation-X voice on the subject of life as an adoptee and the way adoption influences the sense of worth in a child into adulthood. The journey begins in 1984 prior to her father’s accident when Jeannine and her twin begin junior high. Before the accident, the twins were merely adapting to school. After the accident, they were forced to prove their worth to their mother, society and God. Hidden dynamics within the family are revealed, testing their adaptive skills and forcing them to question their beliefs. The story continues through a maze of uncertainty, inner turmoil and mysterious triumphs, ultimately causing them to view life from an unusual perspective. Every so often news of an abandoned baby finds its way into newspapers or on television. Updates about the baby’s life are generally not explored. How does loss of roots affect that child into adulthood? What can parents do to help or hinder an adopted child’s self worth? In Twins Found in a Box, adopted twins search for a sense of belonging. The journey begins with their father’s accident. How do they find peace of mind? About the Author: Jeannine Vance, a Generation-X voice and author of Twins Found in a Box: Adapting to Adoption writes her story for anyone who has ever felt out of place. As a Korean adoptee, she has first-hand experience dealing with loss of roots and feelings of self-doubt. At a young age, Jeannine has had to adapt to adoption, challenging relationships, her father’s injury, and her mother’s death. Today, Jeannine is married with two daughters. She meditates, interprets dreams and writes automatically and hesitantly. She views life with a sarcastic sense of humor, yet at the same time she is passionate about her purpose. “It’s okay to pursue truth by questioning our beliefs. In fact, asking questions is our responsibility.”

Twins Who Found Each Other, The. Bard Lindemann. 1968. William Morrow. On a mild January night in 1963, a young man named Tony Milasi stepped from a jetliner at Miami International Airport for the most important encounter of his life. Waiting for him was Roger Brooks. It was a moment neither will ever forget. They were identical twins. Yet, at the age of 24, they were meeting for the first time. The two brothers were separated shortly after birth and were raised more than 1,000 miles apart—Tony by an Italian family in Binghamton, NY, and Roger by a Jewish family in Miami. This is the absorbing story of the separate lives of the twins, how they grew up wondering about each other, and how, finally, they were reunited through a series of incredible coincidences. (Text and cover illustration from Pocket Books’ 1971 paperback edition)

Two Thousand Minnows: An American Story. Sandra Leigh. 2003. 464p. The Lyons Press. A testament to human resilience and the power of hope, Two Thousand Minnows is the extremely moving story of an American family. Sandra, the oldest of three, was only eight when she first protected her mother against her father’s fury, helping her escape the house in the midst of winter, and later retrieving her through an open window. They had just moved to the isolated mountains of West Virginia to begin their new life. A city girl, Sandra soon lost herself in the magic of the long hot summer days full of discovery, from rope swinging into the clear river to catching minnows, all while navigating around her abusive and unpredictable father. Then her mother, pregnant again, went to the hospital to give birth—only to return without the baby. For the next ten years, her family—with her alcoholic father at the helm and her mother battling depression—traveled across the country from West Virginia to California and back again in search of stability, each destination holding out the elusive promise of “making it.” As we travel with Sandra and her family on their cross-country journey, we come to realize that in chasing a dream, they are actually running from reality. The truth about the mysterious death of the baby gradually unfolds, and with every move and adjustment, Sandra becomes more convinced that the baby her mother claimed had died is in fact alive, and that somewhere out in the world, a sister waits to be found. In a memoir full of stunning honesty, Sandra displays both fortitude and frailty. Her dogmatic belief in her lost sister propels her into the realm of magic, for it is truly a miracle when, twenty years later, the secret is finally revealed—and Sandra, performing a feat of bravery and hope, makes contact with her sister.

Uncommon Knowledge. Judy Lewis. 1994. 430p. Pocket Books. From Kirkus Reviews: For 23 years Judy Lewis lived as the adopted daughter of Loretta Young. Now in her mid-50s, she reveals that she is the natural child of Young and Clark Gable. Young and Gable became lovers in 1935 while costarring in Call of the Wild. Gable was married and Young divorced, though still in her early twenties. When Young and her mother told Gable that she was pregnant, he offered little help. To understand the bizarre nature of what ensued, one must know that Loretta Young’s family had a history of drinking fathers who abandoned their families. The actress and her mother saw men as no good. Loretta, a childhood convert to Catholicism, viewed God himself as her absent father. Pregnant, she would have to live with her “mortal sin”—abortion was no option. While filming The Crusades for Cecil B. De Mille, Young kept her fetus hidden under secret straps. Judy Lewis was born at home, just as the milkman arrived, and Loretta covered her mouth to silence her, apparently at her first breath, so that he wouldn’t hear. Lewis, a therapist and family counselor, makes much of her early traumas with Loretta. Loretta wore a mask of virtue, would never play an immoral person on screen, and to this day will not publicly admit the truth about Gable. Highlights include Judy’s long meeting with Gable when she was 15, not knowing he was her father; her fiancé’s telling her of her parentage, which all Hollywood seemed to know; Judy’s big showdown in her mid-30s with a still evasive Loretta; and her confrontation with her own daughter about Gable. Loretta’s posture of morality is placed in the context of her own abandonment as a child, her dread of censure by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and her fear of being blacklisted under the film industry’s Hayes Code. Gripping throughout. — Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Under Gemini: A Memoir. Isabel Bolton. 1966. 128p. Harcourt, Brace & World; 1999. 133p. Steerforth Press. An exquisite memoir celebrates the undying bond of twin sisters more than half a century after one of their deaths. Long before the loss of her twin sister Grace, Isabel Bolton’s parents both died of cholera and their five children were raised by relatives. Bolton’s prose captures the chaotic and unstructured life she and her siblings led, finding comfort in each other among the violet-scented meadows of their uncle’s estate in New London—until Grace’s untimely death. First published in 1966, this extraordinary memoir is a classic evocation of childhood at the turn of the century.

Unforgotten War, The: Dust of the Streets. Thomas P Clement. 1998. 139p. Truepeny Publishing Company. Autobiography of a half-Korean boy born in the middle of the Korean War. “I was born in the middle of the Korean War. At the age of four, my mother brought me to a street corner and told me to look in one direction and not look back. That was the last time I saw her. I lived on the streets of post-war Korea and was found by a Methodist Missionary Nurse who brought me to an orphanage and a year and a half later, I was adopted by the Clement family into the U.S. In 24 hours, after boarding an airplane, no one could understand me and I could no longer understand anyone else. I thought I had grown instantly stupid over night. Throughout out my teenage years, the feeling of inferiority stayed with me until I attended college and acquired a degree in Psychology from Indiana University and two Engineering degrees from Purdue. I am an inventor with almost two dozen medical patents and am the owner, President/CEO of Mectra Laboratories, Inc., which manufactures surgical instruments that have literally touched the lives of millions of people. We manufacture devices used in laparoscopic surgery and brain surgery. I have traveled to North Korea on humanitarian medical missions and train surgeons in current surgical techniques. Often times, I wonder, how in the world did I go from being a homeless street urchin to training surgeon.” — Thomas Clement

Unlocking the Adoption Files. Paul Sachdev. 1989. 247p. Lexington Books. This book contains the results of a thorough and methodical study of adoption in one Canadian province. Adoptive parents from around 1958, 1968, and 1978, birth mothers from 1968 and 1978, and adoptees from 1958 were interviewed, as well as adoption personnel (social workers, senior officials, and administrators) with respect to their attitudes toward open adoption records. Sachdev, whose work is highly respected worldwide, found that 69.7% of all adoptive parents surveyed, as compared with 88.5% of birth mothers and 81.8% of adoptees, said that adult adoptees should be able to receive identifying information.

Unlocking the Past. Joanne Higginson. 2003. 160p. Anyo Pub Co. Joanne Higginson’s story reveals the plight of many Korean-American children who were abandoned after the U.S. withdrew from Korea after the Korean war. Jeff Higginson, her husband, was a product of a wartime romance between a U.S. married captain and a young Korean women enamored with the kindness and generosity that she did not know before her American hero. After Jeff was merely two months old, this Army captain would leave Korea after the Korean war ended, returning only one more time to assist the Korean women he onced loved when she became ill. As he grew up, Jeff would never know his birth father, this American GI, and would witness his mother struggle to keep him to no avail. She would have to give him up for adoption to America at the age of seven because there, she knew, Jeff would have a better life than what she could provide because he was very American looking and was not accepted in the Korean Society. His eyes were too round. More than thirty years later, Joanne Higginson shares with us her three-year journey to reconnect her husband with his birth mother and father, a reunion to heal the wounds of war rather than ignore the trauma of separation and loss.

UnSweetined. Jodie Sweetin. 2009. 256p. Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Jodie Sweetin grew up in front of America, melting our hearts and making us laugh for eight years as the cherub-faced middle child on Full House. Her ups and downs seemed not so different from our own, but more than a decade after the popular television show ended, the star we knew as goody-two-shoes Stephanie Tanner publicly revealed her shocking recovery from methamphetamine addiction. Even then, Jodie still kept a painful secret—one that could not be solved in thirty minutes with a hug, a stern talking-to, or a bowl of ice cream around the family table. The harrowing battle she swore she had won was really just beginning. In her deeply personal, utterly raw, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Jodie comes clean about the double life she led—the crippling identity crisis that began at her birth, the hidden anguish of juggling a regular childhood with her Hollywood life, and the vicious cycle of abuse and recovery that led to a relapse even as she wrote this book. Jodie traveled the country speaking to college kids about her triumph over substance abuse, yet she partied nightly, spending tens of thousands of dollars on her habit. Her addiction tore her family apart and alienated her from her former Full House cast mates until becoming a mother gave her the determination and the courage to get sober. Today, Jodie’s life is a work in progress. Resilient, charming, and funny, she writes candidly about taking each day at a time. Hers is not a story of success or defeat, but of facing your demons, finding yourself, and telling the whole truth—UnSweetined. About the Author: Jodie Sweetin is best known for her role as Stephanie Tanner on ABC’s long-running, hugely popular sitcom Full House, which still airs in syndication. She has shared her story on Good Morning America, The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, and Chelsea Lately, and hosted Pants-Off Dance-Off on Fuse. She lives in California with her daughter, Zoie.

Voice from the Voiceless & Forgotten, A: An Anthology of a Foster Care System Child Survivor. Lawrence P Adams. 2005. 178p. (gr 4-7). PublishAmerica. The author grew up within the quagmire of the foster care system. He was voiceless and forgotten. His voice was regained in his first book, Lost Son? A Bastard Child’s Journey of Hope, Search, Discovery and Healing, the story of his life. Through poetry, articles, and letters the painful, most intimate feelings during those years are shared. Tribute is paid to the heroes of the system—foster parents—and a letter of encouragement offered to the children within the system today. Problems within the system and the need for reform are not only clearly stated but also detailed potential solutions are offered. The nation is called to action in the best interest of the children. His voice, once lost, has been found and will not be silenced.

WAHH 1, WAHH 2, WAHH 3 and WAHH 4. Henry Wolyniec. 1997. #1/36p. #2/44p. #3/44p. #4/28p. Frank & Hank Books. These books for adults use the unusual style of graphic novels (sort of like comics, but for grownups) in order to tell the author’s experiences of being adopted. WAHH 1 starts with his birth in a foundling hospital. Thirty-five years later, a man in a diaper searches for his birth parents and the meaning of life while exploring his feelings of abandonment. WAHH 2 revisits these issues as he reaches adulthood. These books represent the author’s feelings about adoption and show his understanding of how the baby, Francis Grimaldi, came to be the adult, Henry Wolyniec.  WAHH 3 and WAHH 4, which complete the series and detail Mr. Wolyniec’s reunion experiences, are also now availble from Frank and Hank Books, 24 Taylor Street, Portland, ME 04102. (Pricing is as follows: WAHH 1, $2.95; WAHH 2 & 3, 3.25 each; and WAHH 4, $2.25; or get all four for just $10.00. Add $1 for postage and handling for each order. Tell them you read about WAHH on this website.  Also visit Mr. Wolyniec’s website at http://www.maine.com/eric/fetalpos).

Ward of the State, A. Ron Huber. 2003. 118p. PublishAmerica. Hunger, alcoholism, and neglect were constant factors in the life of young Ronnie Somerville and his brothers. Living in a poverty-stricken area of Chicago and spending most of his days at home, alone on a dirty floor, was the existence he had come to know by the age of three. And then came the Covenant Children’s Home. As a ward of the state, Ronnie was shuffled from one house to the next, and greeted by couples that were ill-equipped to accommodate the emotional needs of a child. A Ward of the State chronicles the true experiences faced by Ron Huber as a little boy growing up in the foster care system of Chicago, Illinois in the late 1940s. It speaks volumes about the tragic realities of a system that was supposed to be for the kids, but instead failed kids like Ronnie severely. But like any good Cinderella story, the triumph uproots the storm when the warmth of one particular family encompasses Ronnie and teaches him what being loved is all about - and shows us all that the power of love can take us to heights that our beginnings never would have forecast.

We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel & Julius Rosenberg. Robert & Michael Meeropol. 1975. 419p. Houghtin Mifflin Co. One can only guess at the damage done to these two young boys as they lived through the last days of their parents’ lives, seeing appeal after appeal fail to keep them from the electric chair. Then to be shunted from reluctant relatives to children’s shelters, until they were finally adopted by a caring couple who gave them a new name and a new life. Many letters to them from their parents and letters their mother and father wrote each other in prison are included.

Wealth of Family, A: An Adopted Son’s International Quest for Heritage, Reunion, & Enrichment. Thomas Brooks. 2006. 256p. Alpha Multimedia, Inc. Brooks grew up as the only child of a struggling single mother in inner-city Pittsburgh. He was battling racial stereotypes at school and searching for a place among his peers. Then he was told at age eleven that he was adopted. He did not know it at the time, but Brooks had actually been born to a white biological mother who descended from Lithuanian Jews and a black Kenyan foreign student father. Years after that stunning revelation, Brooks escaped the ghetto and traveled to search for his heritage. He found his biological mother in London with his previously unknown British siblings. He then located his biological father and extended family in Nairobi. His international search and the resulting reunions have profoundly affected three families in the United States, England, and Kenya.

When Adoption Fails. Theresa Rodriguez Farrisi. 2001. 107p. Homekeepers Publishers. From the Back Cover: We would like to believe that adoption is a win-win situation in which an otherwise “unwanted” child is altruistically matched with parents who long to raise her. We want very much to believe that anyone can give birth but because those who adopt make a choice based on a deep desire to parent, they are less likely to abuse. Stories such as Farrisi’s remind us that adoption is not always a fairytale with a happy ending. As Farrisi states early on, adoption is a second-best choice for all parties involved. Adoptive parents would prefer to bear their own children; birth parents would prefer to be able to raise the children they bear; and all children would prefer to be biologically connected to the parents who raise them. Differences in temperament and expectations lead more often to abuse than the public is ready admit (e.g. “Mommie Dearest”). It is through brave personal accounts such as these that we can shatter the myths of adoption and begin to see the real-life problems with which adoption is fraught and stop promoting it to birth and adoptive parents unrealistically. — Marsha Riben, Author of Shedding Light On The Dark Side of Adoption, Former Director-at-Large for the American Adoption Congress

When Evil Strikes. Lila Wold Shelburne. 1992. 238p. Hannibal Books. Eugene Morrow grows up belittled and abused by an alcoholic father and weak mother. He can never do anything well enough to earn either parent’s favor. Finally he quits trying, but his internal rage and frustration approach an explosion. Fifteen-yesr-old Twila Herrod’s parents rear their three children in a loving, Christian home. When they move to a new church in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, they buy a house next door to the Morrows. Eugene secretly watches Twila through the windows and longs for the loving relationships she has. One night Twila is home alone, and Eugene sees a way to prove himself—to get even for the abuse he suffered. Twila struggles but is overpowered by Eugene. Afterward, she feels too ashamed to tell her parents what happened and tries to purge the terrible experience from her mind. Then Twila realizes, to her horror, that new life is growing inside her. What should she do? What will her parents think? Abortion seems like a way out, and her parents would never have to know. How could she provide the home and family a baby deserves? Why didn’t God prevent this?

Who Is My Mother?: Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, & Adoptees Talk About Living With Adoption & the Search for the Lost Family. Clare Marcus. 1981. 214p. MacMillan (Toronto). Birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees talk about living with adoption and the search for lost family.

Whose Child?: An Adoptee’s Healing Journey From Relinquishment Through Reunion... & Beyond. Kasey Hamner. 2000. 308p. Triad Publishing. Whose Child? is an account of one adoptee’s life story written for members of the adoption community, helping professionals, or anyone touched by adoption. It spans from relinquishment through reunion to help the reader develop a better understanding of the lifelong emotional aspects of adoption and reunion. From the Author: I grew up in the Los Angeles area and now reside in La Crescenta, CA. I have a master of science degree in counseling and I am a practicing school psychologist and a licensed educational psychologist. I work with special-needs children, many of whom have been abandoned in some way. I was adopted in the closed-adoption system over 32 years ago and have been in reunion since 1994. I decided to write this book in order to promote my own healing and to help bring healing to all those touched by adoption.

Will Squires: A Miracle of Grace. William H McDowell. 2002. 192p. Providence House Publishers. On a clear day in March 1926, a middle-aged Irish woman arrived in Boston to retrieve a most unusual package: a baby boy, orphaned by his unwed mother and desperate for the care of a loving family. Christened Will Squires by his adoptive parents, the young boy soon discovers that the reasons for his adoption and the unwarranted kindness of his benefactor, the local judge, are shrouded in mystery. Struggling to make sense of his origin and identity, Will Squires stumbles upon an even greater mystery—the work of God’s hand in his life. As his horizons broaden through education and travel, Will is exposed to many influential people who shape his character as God guides his destiny. Romance blooms as Will finds his calling and seeks to do the work of God wherever he finds himself. Enriched with biblical allusions and the author’s own poetry, this biographical account of one man’s incredible journey will delight readers with its fascinating array of characters, wonderful sense of place, and most of all its surprising plot twists. Ultimately, William McDowell seeks to convey the message of God’s unfailing grace, as revealed to an orphan whose life story has become his most treasured testimony.

Will You Be Here When I Get Home?. Claire Cashin. 2006. 222p. The Mercier Press, Ltd (Ireland). Claire Cashin was adopted. In her youth, she experienced many personal challenges because her birth mother gave her away. This led her in search of her biological mother. This is a true and very honest account of adoption, search and reunion. It examines in depth how adoption can affect the individual and their loved ones. It does not shy away from the reality of what a reunion can mean and how hard it can be at times, or indeed what joy it can add to peoples lives. The story describes in fascinating detail what the reality can be like for many adopted people and what challenges their families may face as they mature and wonder about the circumstances of their adoption. It attempts to offer advice to anyone considering searching for their own answers, from someone who has gone through the process, made the mistakes, learned some lessons along the way and is still smiling. This book describes the mistakes and triumphs she made along the way and how the news of a new birth family has affected her adopted family in Cork, and changed Claire forever. It gives hope and advice to families who wish to help and understand the dynamics involved in adoption and reunion. About the Author: Claire Cashin lives in County Cork in Ireland. She is adopted and began the search for her birth mother ten years ago. She qualified in hotel management and personnel management, and now works as a legal secretary. This is her first book.

Women Who Raised Me, The. Victoria Rowell. 2007. 352p. William Morrow. Born as a ward of the state of Maine—the child of an unmarried Yankee blueblood mother and an unknown black father—Victoria Rowell beat the odds. Unlike so many other children who fall through the cracks of our overburdened foster-care system, her experience was nothing short of miraculous, thanks to several extraordinary women who stepped forward to love, nurture, guide, teach, and challenge her to become the accomplished actress, philanthropist, and mother that she is today. Rowell spent her first weeks of life as a boarder infant before being placed with a Caucasian foster family. Although her stay lasted for only two years, at this critical stage Rowell was given a foundation of love by the first of what would be an amazing array of women, each of whom presented herself for different purposes at every dramatic turn of Rowell’s life. In this deeply touching memoir, Rowell pays tribute to her personal champions: the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, mentors, teachers, and sisters who each have fascinating stories to tell. Among them are Agatha Armstead, Rowell’s longest-term foster mother, a black Bostonian on whose rural Maine farm Rowell’s fire to reach for greatness was lit; Esther Brooks, a Paris-trained prima ballerina, Rowell’s first mentor at the Cambridge School of Ballet; Rosa Turner, a Boston inner-city fosterer who taught Rowell lessons of independence; Sylvia Silverman, a mother and teacher whose home in a well-kept middle-class suburban neighborhood prepared Rowell for her transition out of foster care and into New York City’s wild worlds of ballet and acting and adulthood. In spite of support from individuals and agencies, Rowell nonetheless carried the burden of loneliness and anxiety, common to most foster children, particularly those “orphans of the living” who are never adopted. Heroically overcoming those obstacles, Rowell also reaches a moment when she can embrace her biological mother, Dorothy, and, most important, accept herself. Ultimately, The Women Who Raised Me is a story that belongs to each of us as it shines a glowing light on the transformational power of mentoring, love, art, and womanhood. About the Author: At age eight, Victoria Rowell won a Ford Foundation grant to study ballet and later went on to train and dance professionally under the auspices of the American Ballet Theatre, Twyla Tharp Workshop, and the Juilliard School before becoming an actress. She is the founder of the Rowell Foster Children Positive Plan, which provides scholarships in the arts and education to foster youth, and serves as national spokesperson for the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services. Rowell is an award-winning actress and veteran of many acclaimed feature films and several television series, including eight seasons on Diagnosis Murder, and has starred for the past thirteen years as Drucilla Winters on CBS’s #1 daytime drama The Young and the Restless.

Yea! I’m an Orphan. Ruth McCarson Bowen. 1985. 73p. Wright Publishing, Inc. The author of this was an orphan in Arkansas. She wrote this book for her grandchildren in Atlanta Georgia. The book gives a moving account of growing up in an orphanage in the early 20th century.