AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. 1987. 329p. McMillan. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, renowned for her work with the terminally ill, now focuses her attention on AIDS, the devastating fatal disease that has reached epidemic proportions throughout the world. With enormous compassion and deep insight, Dr. Kubler-Ross uses her extraordinary gifts, as she has for more than two decades, to give comfort to those who are seriously ill and help them through the critical “stages of dying” as they face the end of their lives. AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge is a powerful and moving book in which Dr. Kubler-Ross recounts the tragic suffering of victims of AIDS and the remarkable way she reaches out to them so that they can die with dignity and with their loved ones around them. She has been a pioneer in the development of support systems and fighting for adequate medical care in hospitals, hospices, and prisons. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross also raises serious social and moral issues surrounding AIDS. In 1981, when the first cases were reported, the group most afflicted was homosexual men and the label “gay disease” was coined, a stigma that Dr. Kubler-Ross and many others have struggled so relentlessly to do away with. She warns that if we continue to discriminate against those with AIDS, we will end up lacking sufficient funds for research and for medical treatment when the caseload swells. She makes a special plea for women and children with AIDS and prisoners with AIDS, but most important she pleads for babies with AIDS. Unwanted by their mothers, shunned by foster families and adoption agencies, they are too often left—unmothered, unloved—to die alone in hospitals. When Dr. Kubler-Ross offered to care for these babies on her farm in Virginia, she was overwhelmingly turned down by the townspeople of the neighboring counties. By 1991 there will be between two million and three million carriers of AIDS, with 270,000 actual cases. Statistics of this magnitude present us with the moral dilemma of the century: Do we care for those who are severely ill or do we take no responsibility at all? Elisabeth Kubler-Ross says that this is a time when the wheat will be separated from the chaff. AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge is clearly one of the most important books of our time, to be read by each and every one of us.

Abandoned Child Within, The: On Losing & Regaining Self-Worth. Kathrin Asper. Translated by Sharon E Rooks. 1993. 359p. Fromm International Publishing Corp. Lack of self-worth is an affliction that has become of increasing concern in all industrialized societies. It is the main symptom of what psychiatry calls narcissistic disturbance, a phenomenon far more widespread than it was when Freud and Jung developed their concepts of depth psychology. The lack of commonly held values has contributed to it, but is not its cause. In this in-depth examination, Kathrin Asper, a noted psychotherapist and president of the Swiss Society for Analytical Psychology, addresses the real cause: lack of self-worth as a direct consequence of physical or emotional abandonment during childhood. The wounded inner child lives on in the adult, expressing himself in such symptoms as fear of abandonment, lack of feeling, grandiosity and depression, insufficient awareness of one’s own life, disproportionate rage, and unclear needs. However, those suffering from a lack of self-worth tend to forget the early-life incidents that hurt their inner self: the child within suffers, but is mute. To heal the early wounds, we have to get in touch with the inner child and make him/her talk. In The Abandoned Child Within, Dr. Asper shows how this is accomplished. Using concrete case histories from her own practice, paintings by patients, dreams, fairy tales, and myths, she vividly describes the consequences of abandonment, and ways to unleash the creative powers of the unconscious, which can initiate a healing transformation.

Adopt-A-Quote: Bridging the Adoption Experience (A Collection of Feelings). Compiled and edited by Lori Carangelo. 1999. 30p. Access Press. A collection of feelings.... because adoption has a language all of its own.... Includes 142 adoption-related quotes, slogans, poems.... alphabetical by subject....by adoptees, birthparents, civil rights activists....

After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges. Diane Cole. 1992. 208p. Summit Books. From Publishers Weekly:A series of severe personal losses and crises prompted freelance writer Cole’s examination of grief as a transforming experience. While a college senior, she discovered the lump on her lover’s jaw that signaled his immediate, harsh bout with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy; within that year her mother’s terminal cancer was diagnosed. Not long after her mother’s death in 1975, Cole was held hostage by Muslim terrorists in her B’nai B’rith Washington, D.C., office; in the years that followed her marriage, she suffered through two lost pregnancies and a lengthy struggle with infertility. These events provide the framework for Cole’s examination of the grieving process and the possibility it offers—or its imperative—that one acknowledge sorrow but also let go of negated dreams and dashed hopes to make room for “a new life.” While some readers may object to the repetitive, detailed depiction of Cole’s personal travails, most will find wisdom in her nonprescriptive distillation of the psychological literature on grieving and its rendering in literary works. One is inspired by her ultimate willingness to cast off the burdens of regret and sorrow to embrace new, unexpected joy. © 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live With Unresolved Grief. Pauline Boss. 1999. 192p. Harvard University Press. Frozen sadness: this is what we have when we cannot really know what we have lost. And this is what Pauline Boss illuminates, and helps to ease, in Ambiguous Loss, an original and humane account of the ravages of uncertainty. A loved one is still alive, perhaps, yet lost to us: a soldier son missing in action, a mother in a distant country, a constantly traveling spouse. This is one kind of ambiguous loss that Boss describes, touching most movingly on the experience of immigrants, rooted in their new countries but forever homesick. In another kind of ambiguous loss, the loved one may be physically present but beyond our reach. Boss’s most vivid example here is Alzheimer’s disease, with its wrenching impact on patients’ families. With sensitivity and lucidity, Boss explores the tumultuous emotions stirred up by such losses, especially the wide fluctuations between hope and hopelessness. These ups and downs, suffered too long, can completely deaden feeling. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous losses and manage to move on, including those who have lost family members to divorce, adoption, addiction, chronic mental illness, and brain injury. The critical question arising from these lives in emotional limbo is: How do we live with ambiguous loss? Guiding us toward a solution, Boss’s eloquent book shows us the strength required to yield to the unanswered questions.

British First Edition

American Way of Birth, The. Jessica Mitford. 1992. 322p. Dutton. This provocative book shows how and in what circumstances Americans give birth. It is not about the miracle of life, but about the role of money and politics in a lucrative industry; a saga of champagne birthing suites for the rich, and desperate measures for the poor. It is a colorful history— from the torture and burning of midwives in medieval times, through the absurd pretensions of the modest Victorian age, to this century’s vast succession of anesthetic, technological, and “natural” birthing fashions. And it is a comprehensive indictment of the politics of birth and national health. Explores conventional and alternative methods.

Anatomy of Evil, The. Michael H Stome. 2009. 384p. Prometheus Press. The crimes of Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, and other high-profile killers are so breathtakingly awful that most people would not hesitate to label them ’evil’. In this ground-breaking book, renowned psychiatrist Michael H Stone—host of Discovery Channel’s former series Most Evil—uses this common emotional reaction to horrifying acts as his starting point to explore the concept and reality of evil from a new perspective. In an in-depth discussion of the personality traits and behaviour that constitute evil across a wide spectrum, Dr Stone takes a clarifying scientific approach to a topic that for centuries has been inadequately explained by religious doctrines. Basing his analysis on the detailed biographies of over 600 violent criminals, Stone has created a 22-level hierarchy of evil behaviour, which loosely reflects the structure of Dante’s Inferno. He traces two salient personality traits that run the gamut from those who commit crimes of passion to perpetrators of the worst crimes—sadistic torture and murder. One trait is narcissism, as exhibited in people who are so self-centred that they have little or no ability to care about their victims. The other is aggression, the use of power over another person to inflict humiliation, suffering, and death. Stone then turns to the various factors that, singly or intertwined, contribute to pushing certain people over the edge into committing heinous crimes. They include heredity, adverse environments, violence-prone cultures, mental illness or brain injury, and abuse of mind-altering drugs. All are considered in the search for the root causes of evil behaviour. What do psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience tell us about the minds of those whose actions could be described as evil? And what will that mean for the rest of us? Stone discusses how an increased understanding of the causes of evil will affect the justice system. He predicts a day when certain persons can safely be declared salvageable and restored to society and when early signs of violence in children may be corrected before potentially dangerous patterns become entrenched.

Ancient Tear, An. Carol Schaefer. 2004. 176p. Authorhouse. In An Ancient Tear, years after her first born dies at birth, Sophie embarks on an unpredictable and rich inner journey in search of her daughter’s spirit and, in the process, rediscovers Sophia. An Ancient Tear is a compelling story of how a mother’s wounds of losing a child through death, miscarriage, abortion, and adoption can be healed through a connection to and with spiritual realms. Carol Schaefer is a brilliant writer and brings her readers right into the experience she shares. This book is filled with love, compassion, and healing words. In a time where so many women and men are searching for answers that can’t be answered through ordinary means, Schaefer lets us know that we can turn to the spiritual realms for comfort, answers and healing.

Area Code 212. Tama Janowitz. 2004. 368p. St Martin’s Press. From Kirkus Reviews: From novelist Janowitz (Peyton Amberg, 2003, etc.): an uneven but not unappealing collection of short nonfiction written primarily for magazines. The 78 pieces included here are all over the map-mostly the map of New York City, though the author takes a couple of side excursions, such as her trip to China to pick up her adopted daughter. Janowitz is ready to tackle almost any topic in her trademark prickly, deadpan manner; strangely, that very flatness gives these articles their life. Chronicling everyday travails is her strong suit. She can grouse with the best of them, noting indignantly that despite being tempted at every corner by a fabulous restaurant, “the modern New York woman is expected to have the same shape as that of a really tough villager who lives in a primitive place and spends the day hunting and gathering.” She can explain what it’s like to live with a dog that gets depressed after losing a fight, and she can make her ferret-fixation scarily palpable: “I thought I had to smell a ferret or I would go mad. It was even worse than the six months or so that I obsessed with eating sand.” Some of the pieces are too short, most notably a narrative about being “raped” by butterflies, intertwined with the story of a horrible traffic accident she’s involved in. That’s a piece that cries out for more detail. A surfeit of material bemoans Janowitz’s failures in dress, hairstyle, and comportment, and she works the jaded angle awfully hard. (On her mothering abilities: “It wasn’t that I didn’t love being with her-I did, for up to fifteen minutes at a time.”) The highlight here is an overarching portrait of her home borough, Brooklyn, so sensitive that it’s hard to believe she everlived in Manhattan. How to find pleasure and fault here and there about the city, delineated with a pleasingly naked candor.

Attachment, Trauma, & Healing: Understanding & Treating Attachment Disorder in Children & Families. Terry M Levy, Michael Orlans & Kathryn Brohl. 1998. 313p. CWLA. Attachment is the deep and enduring connection established between a child and caregiver in the first few years of life. It profoundly influences every component of the human condition: mind, body, emotions, relationships, and values. Attachment, Trauma, and Healing examines the causes of attachment disorder, and provides in-depth discussion on effective solutions—including attachment-focused assessment and diagnosis, specialized training and education for caregivers, the controversial “in arms” treatment for children and caregivers, and early intervention and prevention programs for high-risk families.

Avoiding the 15 Biggest Mistakes Parents Make: A Pediatrician’s Perspective. John J Mangoni, MD. 2007. 124p. BookSurge Publishing. Author John Mangoni, M.D., tells parents the short and skinny on the nuts and bolts to parenting in the modern world. He provides guidelines, recommendations and tells it like it is on a wide range of topics. From the formula to good health to issues concerning the overly active and overly pampered child to combating childhood incidences of obesity, here is the template to good parenting. Refreshingly candid and at times brutally honest, this book examines the child-parent relationship with the goal to help good parents be aware of issues and help prevent difficulties affecting today’s children. Chapter 15 addresses the subject of adoption. About the Author: A graduate of the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago, John Mangoni, M.D. is board-certified in pediatrics and has been involved in his specialty for over 30 years. Currently in private practice, he has served as Chairman of Pediatrics and is on active staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, CA. As a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, Dr. Mangoni has been an on-camera spokesperson for Abbott Laboratories and appeared on ABC and CBS network television as a medical spokesperson. Featured in many newspaper articles including the Los Angeles Times and Pasadena Star-News as well as radio segments on various timely pediatric topics, Dr. Mangoni was recently presented an award by the city of Pasadena for outstanding immunization services and his commitment to keeping children healthy. The American Cancer Society has given Dr. Mangoni a certificate of appreciation for notable service in the crusade to conquer cancer.

Baby Richard: A Four-Year-Old Comes Home. Karen Moriarty. 2004. 556p. Open Door Publishing Inc. Millions across the country were captivated by the heart-wrenching events taking place in Chicago. An innocent boy, known to the world only as “Baby Richard,” became the object of the most controversial custody battle and failed adoption in history. The media furor—spanning four years during the mid-nineties — would prompt the passage of new laws and spread to other countries. This book reveals the myths of this notorious case, the unreported events since, and the unique challenges of living through it all for “Baby Richard.” It’s the true, inside story that will reshape your thinking today! You Will Discover How: Danny (“Baby Richard”) survived the frenzied media, lies, public hysteria, and death threats; the conflict raged through the courts and state legislatures; powerful and prominent people, including First Lady Hillary Clinton, jumped into the controversy; the Baby Richard Curse felled most of the major participants, including Bob Greene (“the Baby Richard columnist”); Danny talks about his dramatic past, today, and his future. This is a reality book ... about people’s passions, struggles, failings, and victories, by Danny’s therapist, Dr. Karen Moriarty, licensed clinical psychologist. Disclosed with her clients’ permission, this comprehensive narrative—by the only continuous eyewitness—provides the exclusive update on the child and all of the players. No matter how much or how little you know about Baby Richard, you will be surprised by this behind-the-scenes, intimate journey through the epic case.

Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love. Robert Karen. 1998. 512p. Oxford University Press. This book offers fresh insight into some of the most fundamental and fascinating questions about emotional life. Starting with the history of attachment theory, it continues through to contemporary issues. Becoming Attached is an eye-opening presentation of the fierce debates that have transformed the way that we think about human bonds.

Beyond Consequences, Logic, & Control: A Love-Based Approach to Helping Attachment-Challenged Children With Severe Behaviors. Heather T Forbes & B Bryan Post. 2006. 127p. Beyond Consequences Institute, LLC. Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control covers in detail the effects of trauma on the body-mind and how trauma alters children’s behavioral responses. The first four chapters help parents and professionals clearly understand the neurological research behind the basic model given in this book, deemed, “The Stress Model.” While scientifically based in research, it is written in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-grasp format for anyone working with or parenting children with severe behaviors. The next seven chapters are individually devoted to seven behaviors typically seen with attachment-challenged children. These include lying, stealing, hoarding and gorging, aggression, defiance, lack of eye contact, and yes, even a chapter that talks candidly about how parents appear hostile and angry when they work to simply maintain their families from reaching complete states of chaos. Each of these chapters talks in depth on these specific behaviors and gives vivid and contrasting examples of how this love-based approach works to foster healing and works to develop relationships, as opposed to the fear-based traditional attachment parenting approaches that are being advocated in today’s attachment field. The authors end with a Parenting Bonus Section. True testimonials from parents who have been able to make significant changes in their homes with this model of parenting, giving real-life examples of how they have been able to find the healing, peace, and love that they had been seeking prior to working through the techniques outlined in this book. About the Authors: Heather Forbes, LCSW, is co-founder of the Beyond Consequences Institute, LLC. Ms. Forbes has been training in the field of attachment and trauma with nationally recognized, first-generation attachment therapists since 1999. She has been active in the field of adoption with experience ranging from pre-adoption to post-adoption work, including domestic and international adoptions. Ms. Forbes is a published author and presents workshops both nationally and throughout the State of Florida. Much of her experience and insight on understanding trauma, disruptive behaviors, and adoption related issues has come from her direct mothering experience of her two adopted children. She has a passion for helping families to find the peace in their homes that they deserve. More information can be found on Ms. Forbes at: www.HeatherForbesFL.com B. Bryan Post, Ph.D., LCSW is the founder of the Post Institute for Family-Centered Therapy based in Oklahoma and co-founder of the Beyond Consequences Institute, LLC. Dr. Post is the author of For All Things A Season, Dr. Post’s New Family Revolution System, and co-author of “The Forever Child” series. He is an internationally recognized specialist in the treatment of emotional and behavioral disturbance in children and families. Dr. Post specializes in a holistic family-based treatment approach that addresses the underlying interactive dynamics of the entire family, a neurophysiologic process he refers to as, “The secret life of the family.” As an adopted, and well-known disruptive child himself (“I’ve set fires, killed animals, and stolen compulsively.”), Dr. Post has made it his primary work to speak to parents and professionals from a perspective of true-life experience and in-the-trenches therapeutic work. More information can be found on Dr. Post and the Post Institute at: www.PostInstitute.com

Biological Clock, The: Reconciling Careers & Motherhood in the 1980’s. Molly McKaughan. 1987. 342p. Doubleday. From Publishers Weekly: With psychologist Wiliam Gerin of Barnard College, McKaughan devised a questionnaire that was printed in Working Woman in 1985. The responses formed the basis for an article by the author in the magazine and this book: an impressive study of motherhood today. Approximately 100 women interviewed here illustrate the problem of reconciling careers and motherhood, as women in their 30s feel their reproductive years passing. The book presents data on older, first-time mothers; single women with children; and finally, the results of the decisions by so-called “clock-watchers.” It is engrossing to read about how mothers feel about their children, how they oversee their care as well as the demands of a job and other aspects of domestic and social life. McKaughan concludes with her personal story as a wife and the family’s main breadwinner who risked her position to bear a child (a son) when she was 34 and another one at age 41 (a daughter), creating what she considers a happy family and, for her, a more rewarding professional and home life. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Based on 1000 responses to a questionnaire entitled “How Do You Feel About Having a Child?,” which appeared in Working Woman Magazine in May 1985, this book provides an analysis of the attitudes of women approaching the end of their childbearing years. The “clock-watchers,” as McKaughan calls them, have options unknown before the 1980s; the medical management of pregnancy, changing family styles, and new career opportunities contribute to a vastly different social and medical climate. This book explores the problems facing women who have delayed pregnancy and the variety of solutions they have achieved. Interesting and informative. — Hilma F. Cooper, Cheltenham Twp. Libs., Pa.; © 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. COMPILER’S NOTE: The paperback editioon was published in 1989 by Penguin with the title: The Biological Clock: Balancing Marriage, Motherhood, & Career.

Birth, A Conscious Choice. Hannah M Bajor. 2005. 135p. Trafford Publishing Co (Canada). Birth, A Conscious Choice! reveals astonishing insight into who we were before we came to this planet. Learn what a baby has to undergo to become physical. Discover the necessary physiological and energetic changes that women make to facilitate the incredible process of pregnancy and birth. Author, Hannah M. Bajor, a certified nurse midwife and profound energy and spiritual healer, telepathically communicates with babies, both inside and outside the uterus. The information Hannah’s own children shared with her during her pregnancy was so fascinating it compelled her to write Birth, A Conscious Choice! Following her first child’s birth, Hannah was able to travel back in time and experience the entire birth process from the baby’s viewpoint. She describes in full detail what the baby feels during birth. Included in this book is the profoundly powerful message that her seven week old baby telepathically dictated for humanity. There is no doubt that you will stand in awe at the consciousness level of her newborn baby. Hannah had a near-death experience with her second birth. Obviously, she decided to change her death exit time, and has now taken on an entirely new contract to be a world healer. About the Author: Hannah M. Bajor has been a certified nurse midwife for over twenty years and holds numerous credentials in the field of spiritual healing. She has an active telephone healing practice and is an international traveler performing live group soul reweaving events called “Time to Heal.” Hannah was born and raised in Ireland and has been living in the USA since 1987. Be sure to visit the author’s website: www.timetohealllc.com.

Birthmarks: Breaking Free From the Destructive Imprints of Your Family History. Dr Dennis & Lucy Guernsey. 1991. W Pub Group.

Black Sheep & Kissing Cousins: How Our Family Stories Shape Us. Elizabeth Stone. 1988. 256p. Times Books. Tells how stories about our ancestors may provide answers at milestone moments in our lives, & how stories about newest family members carve out a place for them, comfortable/otherwise. Elizabeth Stone interviewed more than 100 people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds and asked them to recount stories from their own family histories. She found that these stories not only impart a sense of belonging and of shared history, but also help us to define ourselves.

Books to Grow With: A Guide to Using the Best Children’s Fiction for Everyday Issues & Tough Challenges. Cheryl F Coon. 2004. 336p. Lutra Press. A guide for parents, teachers, counselors, and librarians to 500 children’s fiction books that portray more than 100 common issues kids face, from bullies, siblings and fear of the dark to divorce, moving and chronic illness. The only comprehensive source of great children’s books on nearly every issue kids experience. See also, John T. Gillespie’s Best Books for Children (Libraries Unlimited, 2003) and Carolyn W. and John A. Lima’s A to Zoo (Greenwood, 2001).

Busting Loose: Cancer Survivors Tell You What Your Doctor Won’t. Cheryl Swanson. 2009. 332p. Zumaya Publications, LLC. Cheryl Swanson was inspired to write Busting Loose when a confluence of events had her undergoing treatment for breast cancer, adopting a child from Guatemala and writing her first suspense novel—all at the same time. More than a quarter-million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year in the United States. Many of these women will succumb to the passive role of a medical victim, not realizing that alone might kill them. Busting Loose shows women how they can use the light of their cancer experience to reveal the path to climb the mountains in their lives. It explains how to deal with fear in a positive way. Most of all, it encourages women to never let their diagnosis limit them and to get back quickly to what ignites their passions and brings them balance and peace.

But I Don’t Feel Too Old to Be a Mommy!: The Complete Sourcebook for Starting (& Restarting) Motherhood Beyond 35 and After 40. Doreen Nagle. 2002. 294p. HCI. The traditional childbearing ages for women have been 20-29. Today, however, the trend to later childrearing is significant, with the numbers of mothers over the age of 35 having grown 75% in the last decade, while the numbers in the traditional ages continue to decline. From celebrities to the woman next door, later childrearing is no flash-in-the-pan fad “and isn’t going to subside; future trends only show women will continue to delay motherhood,” according to the National Center for Health Statistics. But I Don’t Feel Too Old to Be a Mommy! is the first and only book to fully address the concerns of the ever-growing but greatly ignored audience of literate, educated women who have delayed motherhood. In this comprehensive work, women who are considering parenting in their 30s, 40s and later—whether for the first time or starting over—will find all the information they need to make informed choices. Author Doreen Nagle, herself a first-time mom over 40, details the risks, rewards, rumors and resources-from making the decision to start a family, to every imaginable way to get there, to the realities of motherhood beyond 35 and 40. Issues covered include infertility, pregnancy, surrogacy, adoptions, the pros and cons of later motherhood, single parenting, and financial and career considerations. Complete with quotes from medical experts, later-in-life moms and their kids, this one-stop book will calm the doubts and fears of women considering motherhood after 35 and beyond 40 by providing supportive yet realistic information. About the Author: Doreen Nagel writes a weekly column called “Parenting in a Nutshell.” Her work, which includes writing on lifestyle and health topics, has appeared nationally (Family Circle, Gannet newspapers) as well as in radio syndication. Originally from New York, she lives in California with her psychotherapist-husband, Jules, and their son, Skyler.

Chicken Soup for the Parent’s Soul: 101 Stories of Loving, Learning & Parenting. Jack Canfield. 2000. 400p. Health Communications. Served up especially for moms and dads, this latest batch of “Chicken Soup” celebrates the joys and challenges of parenthood in 101 heartwarming stories. With contributions from celebrity and “ordinary” parents alike, each chapter speaks to the range of emotions and experiences of all types of parents—single parents, foster parents, parents of adopted children, and traditional parents.

Childcraft. 1937. The Quarrie Corp. A multi-volume series of books on child development from birth to preparation for adolescence.  The Growing Child (volume number varies by publication date, usually 7 or 9) includes a section on adopted children. Pictured: 1949 edition published by Field Enterprises, Inc.

Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, & Abortion. Karen E Bender & Nina De Gramont, eds. 2007. 350p. MacAdam/Cage Publishing, Inc. A moving collection of personal essays about the real, human experiences behind the highly politicized issue of reproductive choice. At a time when a woman’s most complex decisions have been reduced to political rhetoric and impersonal theory, and political debate has been hijacked by pundits and name-callers, Choice joins the discourse with an assortment of candid voices in an effort to humanize the debate about reproductive rights. In addressing a wide range of women’s choices—from using birth control to taking the morning-after pill, from adopting a child to putting a child up for adoption, from having an abortion to bringing a pregnancy to full term—Choice explores the complexities inherent in every reproductive decision. Including twenty-four honest, heartrending essays from established writers such as Francine Prose, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Pam Houston, Ann Hood, and Sarah Messer and emerging talents such as Kimi Faxon Hemingway, Stephanie Anderson, and Ashley Talley, Choice will allow you to truly understand the meaning of the word “choice”—regardless of what side of the debate you stand on.
Relevant Contributions: “If” by Susan Ito describes a devastating late term abortion. The author weaves in reflections on her earlier, first trimester abortion and her relationships with the birth mother who placed her for adoption as an infant. Susan ItoO lives in Oakland with her multigenerational family. She is the co-editor of A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption (North Atlantic Books). Her essays and fiction have appeared in Growing Up Asian American, Hip Mama, Making More Waves, the Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is the Fiction Co-editor at Literary Mama, an online literary journal, where she also writes a monthly column about life in the Sandwich Generation. Learn more about Susan Ito at www.readingwritingliving.wordpress.com.
“Bearing Sorrow” by Janet Ellerby takes place in 1965, when so many young women waited out pregnancies at homes for “unwed mothers,” then gave away their children with little or no understanding of their own legal rights. Janet Mason Ellerby is a Professor of English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She is the author of Intimate Reading: The Contemporary Women’s Memoir (Syracuse University Press, 2001) and the forthcoming Following The Tambourine Man: A Birthmother’s Memoir (Syracuse University Press, 2007).
“Mother’s Day in the Year of the Rooster” by Ann Hood is a powerful essay about adopting a baby girl from China in the wake of a terrible tragedy. Ann Hood is the author of, most recently, The Knitting Circle. Her other books include Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine and An Ornithologist’s Guide to Life. Her essays and short stories have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Paris Review, O,, Food and Wine, and Traveler. She lives in Providence, RI. Learn more about Ann Hood at: www.annhood.us
“A Complicated Privilege” by Elizabeth Larsen describes an adoption from Guatemala, and how the connection between birth mother, adoptive mother, and child is even more complex and weighted when international borders are involved. Elisabeth Larson was a member of the team that created Sassy magazine and was also an editor at Utne Reader. Today she’s a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Child, Travel & Leisure, and Ms.
“Portrait of a Mother” by Stephanie Andersen is a layered examination of a seventeen-year-old girl’s decision to place her child for adoption, and the aftermath of that decision more than ten years later. Stephanie Andersen lives in Reading, PA, with her dog, Daisy, where she teaches writing. She is presently working on completing a memoir about giving up her daughter for adoption.
About the Editors: Karen E. Bender is the author of the novel Like Normal People. Her fiction has appeared in magazines including the The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, Ploughshares, Story, and the Harvard Review, and has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories and Best American Mystery Stories. She lives in North Carolina with her family and is currently working on a novel and collection of stories. Nina de Gramont is the author of Of Cats and Men, a collection of short stories. Her work has appeared in a variety of magazines including Isotope, Nerve, Exquisite Corpse, Post Road, and Seventeen, and her first novel, Gossip of the Starlings, is forthcoming in 2008. Visit the Choice Stories website to learn more about the book and the other contributors’ stories.

Classroom Tales: Using Storytelling to Build Emotional, Social & Academic Skills Across the Primary Curriculum. Jennifer M Fox Eades. 2005. 157p. Jessica Kingsley Publishers (UK). Stories and storytelling help children to develop emotional literacy, make sense of their world and appreciate different points of view. Fox Eades shows how storytelling is a crucial element of children’s education that can enrich the school curriculum and encourage social and thinking skills. The author discusses the different kinds of story that are useful in the classroom context, including traditional stories, fairy tales and sacred stories, and explores the impact of individual and group dynamics on the telling and reception of these stories. She also considers recognised therapeutic uses of storytelling. She provides a series of sample stories and gives practical tips on adapting these to suit different situations and meet different needs. She also advises on a range of techniques such as using props, allowing “reflection” time and prompting interaction. Sections on collective stories and the child as storyteller explain how children can be inspired to compose their own tales that offer opportunities to practise self-expression and negotiation. This practical and engaging book provides all the tools and techniques needed to use storytelling effectively, and will be an essential resource for primary school teachers and others working with children in educational contexts, social workers and parents.

Colonel Barker’s Monstrous Regiment: A Tale of Female Husbandry. Rose Callis. 2001. 308p. Virago Press (London). Bare-bones biography of a purported WWI hero who was in fact a woman. Lillias Irma Valerie Barker, born in 1895 on the Channel Island of Jersey, was a tomboy whose father taught her cricket and boxing, though Valerie also attended a convent school and had a formal debutante ball. She married in 1918 but fled her husband within six weeks and enrolled in the Women’s Royal Air Force. At war’s end, she took up with Australian soldier Ernest Pearce Crouch and had two children; when the couple split up, Valerie gave up the daughter for adoption. In 1922, she arrived in Brighton, young son in tow, claiming to be war hero “Victor Barker.” Victor met and married Elfrida Haward, supporting her and the son (who had learned to call Victor “Daddy”) as a stage actor, antiques shop owner, and gentleman farmer. In 1929, after a restaurant venture failed, Victor was arrested for contempt of court, and her true identity became known. A series of lurid newspaper stories followed; Elfrida left Victor, claiming to the press she’d had no idea of his true gender. Victor/Valerie was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for “outrag[ing] the decencies of nature.” After her release, she adopted various new aliases, including “John Hill” and “Jeffrey Norton.” Plagued by financial troubles and brushes with the law, Valerie was reduced to selling her story to the press; one summer she joined a sideshow. She died in 1960 in a small village where she was known as retired shopkeeper Geoffrey Norton. Because Valerie left behind no personal papers, she remains little more than a caricature here. Perhaps due to this dearth of material, Collis continually interrupts the narrative with similar tales of women living as men that derail the main story’s momentum. Heartfelt, but it’s hard to see how the end result differs from the sensationalistic contemporary newspaper accounts. —Kirkus Reviews.

Complete Book of Aunts, The. Rupert Christiansen with Beth Brophy. 2007. 256p. Twelve. From Publishers Weekly: British journalist Christiansen (Paris Babylon) offers a curiously dry, encyclopedic look at the evolution of aunts (as in mother’s and father’s siblings) in this slender gift volume illustrated by Stephanie von Reiswitz. Starting with a “short history of the aunt” from her barest mention in classical literature to her finest hour in the Victorian era, the author moves into specific examples, from famous people raised or heavily influenced by their aunts (Tolstoy, Coco Chanel, Truman Capote, John Lennon) to famous aunts in literature (Aunt Leonie in Proust, the four Dodson sisters in The Mill on the Floss and Jane Eyre’s malevolent Mrs. Reed). Alternating with brief bios of iconic and brand-name aunts are italicized testimonies by nieces and nephews of real-life aunts who’ve made a lasting impression on young lives, from places as far apart as Canada and Pakistan. Most interesting are the occasional in-depth accounts of heroic or eccentric aunts such as learned astronomer Caroline Herschel, whose relationship with her nephew defined her later years; and Aunt Jessie in Cecil Beaton’s My Bolivian Aunt. Aunt Ginny, aka Virginia Woolf, earns a well-fleshed study, as does Aunt Jane Austen. © 2007 Reed Business Information. In an early chapter, Emma Dvies writes about donating an egg to allow her sister, Flora, to become a mother, after a previous stillbirth and the adoption of a daughter. About the Authors: Rupert Christiansen was born in London and educated at King’s College, Cambridge. After further study as a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University, he has written several books including Prima Donna, Romantic Affinities, Paris Babylon, The Visitors and Arthur Hugh Clough. In 1997, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Beth Brophy is the author of the novel My Ex-Best Friend (Simon & Schuster, July 2003). She has been an adjunct professor of journalism at the American University and Georgetown.

Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High Tech Nomad. Steven K Roberts. 347p. Learned Information. Author is adoptee who relates his reunion experience with his birth parents in this book in the chapter entitled “Thanksgiving.”. Connect to Author’s Home Page.

Cutoffs: How Family Members Who Sever Relationships Can Reconnect. Carol Netzer. 1995. 256p. Horizon Press. Many families experience the intense pain of cutoffs—the adult child who suddenly stops speaking to parents, the runaway teen severing family ties. Netzer sensitively discusses the paradoxical behavior which results in final separation, and shows how its symptoms can be recognized, prevented, or repaired once they have occurred.

Dance of Deception, The: Pretending & Truth-Telling in Women’s Lives. Harriet G Lerner, Ph.D. 1994. 272p. HarpC. When The Dance of Deception was published, Lerner discovered that women were not eager to identify with the subject. “Well, I don’t do deception“ was a common resonse. We all “do deception,” often with the intention to protect ourselves and the relationships we depend on. The Dance of Deception unravels the ways (and whys) that women show the false and hide the real—even to our own selves. We see how relationships are affected by lying and faking, by silence and pretending and by brave—but misguided—efforts to tell the truth. Truth-telling is at the heart of what is most central in women’s lives. It is at the foundation of authenticity and creativity, intimacy and joy. Yet in the name of “honesty,” we can bludgeon each other. We can approach a difficult issue with such a poor sense of timing and tact that we can actually shut down the lines of communication rather than widening the path of truth-telling. Sometimes Lerner’s advice takes a surprising turn—for example, when she asks us to engage in a bold act of pretending in order to discover something “more real;” or when she tells us not to parachute down on our family to bring up a “hot issue“ without laying the necessary groundwork first. Whether the subject is affairs, family secrets, sexual faking or the challenge of “being oneself,” Lerner helps us to discover, speak and live our own truths.

Deja Views of an Aging Orphan. Sam George Arcus. Foreword by EM Nathanson. 2000. 484p. Xlibris Corp. Deja Views of an Aging Orphan is distinctive, if not unique, in its views and experiences of still alive Hebrew National Orphan Home alumni and its use of a variety of literary styles including the memoir, the essay, news articles, poems, history, short story and letters. Many provide first-person accounts of growing up in an orphanage in the 1920s and ’30s and it is this first-person recounting that breaks new ground and casts new light on the subject of child-care—of such importance to society and its social policy-making. About the Author: The author is a 78-year-old, semi-retired, MSW social worker who spent most of his professional career in institutions including camps, Jewish Community Centers and now, monitoring nursing homes. He has had many professional articles published, including his most recent, Handbook For Volunteers in the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program. By the Same Author: Journeys: Sequel to “Deja Views of an Aging Orphan” (2002),

Don’t Cry, It’s Only Thunder—One Man’s Rescue of the Children of War in Southeast Asia. Paul G Hensler. 1984. 268p. Doubleday. Remarkable story of a young American soldier caught up in the Vietnam war who became involved with a group of orphans and continued to work with Southeast Asian refugees after returning to America. “By telling my story, I was finally able to present another reality that was Vietnam. Another view of both the Vietnamese as a human, compassionate people, and a first-time look at the many heroic American soldiers who were the embodiment of the Human Spirit we all know exists in our country. People who were examples of the universal goodness of Vietnamese and Americans alike, during a war which nearly destroyed Vietnam and the American spirit from the inside out.”

Dwell at My Door: On Being Homeless—Forty-Five Life Stories. Anna Carvlin. 2009. 366p. CreateSpace. Over the course of a year, the author interviewed forty-five homeless people and the advocates who work with them around the Southwest. This book presents their stories, uncut and unfiltered. See, particularly, Section 2, “I Went Back to Him: Domestic violence victims tell their stories—Lisa: Horses and Men.”

Facts on Abortion, The: Answers from Science & the Bible About When Life Begins. John Ankerberg, et al. 1995. 46p. Harvest House Publishers. The Facts On Abortion surveys fascinating scientific evidence that affirms what Scripture teaches about the beginning of life, complete with details of the latest research and testimonies from many prominent medical experts.

Family Secrets: The Path to Self-Acceptance & Reunion. John Bradshaw. 1996. 320p. Bantam. All families have secrets. Some secrets are healthy. But others—those John Bradshaw calls “dark secrets”—limit the wholeness and freedom of every member of the family, often generation after generation. John Bradshaw’s compelling new book takes us into the heart of the family’s mysterious power to impact our lives. It explores how secrets are created, how they influence us (even if we don’t know they exist), and the risks we take in exploring them. At the core of Family Secrets is a step-by-step guide to uncovering the secrets of the past and present, using a tool called the genogram to chart key relationships. Through many fascinating examples, this unique book shows how to recognize crucial gaps and silences, reconstruct missing information, and decipher partial memories. It also offers readers vital advice on how to deal with the truths revealed, plus ways to stay safely and honestly connected with our families.

Fantasy: The Incredible Cabbage Patch Phenomenon. William Hoffman. 1984. 218p. Taylor Publishing Co. The amazing story of the strange doll that became such a sales phenomenon. In November 1983 the world witnessed the beginnings of Cabbage Patch Madness—a phenomenon unrivaled in intensity and impact in the annals of American popular culture. Across the land, in virtually every major city, young adults, middle-aged parents, even kindly grandmothers were risking life and limb, joining legions of unruly shoppers in their attempts to purchase one of Coleco’s Cabbage Patch Kids, cuddly stuffed dolls many would call ugly... the face only a mother could love. And judging by the dolls’ continued popularity the Kids may well be here to stay. The father of the Kids, Xavier Roberts, was a north Georgia mountain boy who rose from poverty to become an indispensable force for Coleco, a multi-million dollar titan in the toy and game industry. This is the story of young Xavier Roberts, who made his vast fortune before the age of thirty.

Forces Sweethearts: Wartime Romance from the First World War to the Gulf. Joanna Lumley. 1993. 192p. Bloomsbury Press (London). Wartime romance represents the human side of war, a side that is often obscured by the conventional images of battlefield action and technological might. Forces Sweetheatrts explores the special nature of relationships between men and women in wartime: the way in which war brings some couples together and pulls others apart; how love survives while partners are separated by thousands of miles; and how people cope with the constant fear that loved ones might never return. Drawing on an inspiring variety of both archive material and contributions from the public, Joanna Lumley looks at every aspect of this fascinating and many-faceted subject: romance as excitement, a means of escape and a symbol of hope during the dark days of war; the particular poignancy of meetings and partings; the mixing of nationalities and relaxing of inhibitions; the role of pin-ups as morale-boosters or reminders of home; the adoption of women as idolised fantasy figures, from Betty Grable to the Princess of Wales; the inevitable strains on relationships and the vital part played by correspondence, which was often all that kept them going; the temptations and unfaithfulness, as well an abiding loyalty; and the tragedy of affairs broken off and sweethearts killed in battle. Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London, Forces Sweetheatrts is lavishly illustrated with some 150 photographs and facsimiles of letters, postcards, telegrams, diaries, drawings, Valentine cards, honeymoon hotel bills, concert programmes, cartoons and press cuttings all the ephemera of wartime life that survive because of their enduring sentimental value. In combination with Joanna Lumley’s sensitive and evocative text, they make Forces Sweetheatrts a stylish, nostalgic volume to be savoured and treasured. About the Author: Joanna Lumley was born in Kashmir in 1946. Her father was in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, and a Chindit. After leaving India the family was posted to Hong Kong, and then to Malaya at the time of the Emergency. She was educated in England at an Anglican convent; after three years as a photographic model she obtained an Equity card and started a career as an actress. Probably best remembered as Purdey in the television series The New Avengers, she has appeared in all kinds of plays, films and television shows. She has regularly written travel and diary pieces for The Times, the Observer and the Daily Telegraph and her memoirs Stare Back and Smile were published in 1989. She has one son, Jamie, and is married to the conductor Stephen Barlow. They live in London.

Forgiving the Unforgivable: Overcoming the Bitter Legacy of Intimate Wounds. Beverly Flanigan. 1992. 256p. MacMillan. In Forgiving the Unforgivable, author Beverly Flanigan, a leading authority on forgiveness, defines such unforgivable injuries, explains their poisonous effects, and then guides readers out of the paralyzing anger and resentment. As a Fellow of the Kellogg Foundation, Flanigan conducted a pioneering study of forgiveness, and from that study, from her clinical practice, and from her many years of teaching, researching, and conducting professional workshops and seminars, she devised a unique six-stage program, presented here. Filled with inspiring real-life examples, Forgiving the Unforgivable is both a practical and a comforting guide to recovery and healing. About the Author: Beverly Flanigan, M.S.S.W., is a clinical professor at the school of Social Work, University of Wisconsin, and a therapist in private practice specializing in forgiveness.

Free to Be a Family. Marlo Thomas. 1987. 176p. Bantam. From Publishers Weekly: Thomas, et al., direct this sequel to Free to Be ... You and Me toward concerns of the ’80s, with an emphasis on the different configurations of the “ideal“ nuclear family caused by divorce, remarriage and other factors. Freedom here means being able to talk about negative emotions: worries about nuclear war, missing a long-absent father or anxiety about being adopted (shown in a simulated “Superman” comic). But the blissful moments that are also a part of children’s lives seem missing from this book, almost as if the editors believe there are enough happy endings in the world, and that kids need ways to “work through problems.” Admirable goals, but they make for a somewhat sobering outlook on childhood. The almanac-style book features stories, poems and songs by such authors as Shel Silverstein, Charlotte Zolotow and John Steptoe, and such celebrity contributors as The Fat Boys, Kermit the Frog, Carly Simon and Whoopi Goldberg. It’s a rarity in today’s market, and one to be embraced by parents who believe that this perspective is a realistic one—one that may help their children along the bumpy road of growin g up. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives. Robert Fulghum. 1995. 273p. Villard Books. The best-selling author of Maybe Maybe Not examines three levels of observance and celebration of the ritual moments of life, discussing public, private, and secret commemorations of these key rites of passage.

From Father’s Property to Children’s Rights: The History of Child Custody in the United States. Mary Ann Mason. 1994. 235p. Col U Press. The recent exponential increase in the number of custody disputes due to divorce, adoption, surrogate motherhood, and artificial insemination makes child custody one of the most hotly debated issues in America today. From Fathers’ Property to Children’s Rights seeks to clarify fundamental questions about the rights of children and parents in our society through a unique and provocative analysis of child custody in the United States from colonial times to the present. The book gracefully combines historical and legal scholarship in an unusually rich perspective on the history of children and their parents. Mason consistently draws on this history to illuminate contemporary issues—the current emphasis on biological parenthood, the proliferation of reproductive technologies, and the growing use and misuse of the social sciences. The author presents crucial periods of change in social attitudes and the law regarding child custody: the adaptation of English common law in the colonial period, the move toward maternal preference and child welfare in the early twentieth century, the advent in the 1970s of no-fault divorce and joint custody, and the growing influence of the social sciences, especially psychology, in contemporary custody disputes. Mason connects these transformations to the changing status of women with respect to culture, law, and politics. In the nineteenth century the political crusade for women’s property rights and the cult of motherhood favored the woman in custody battles. In our time Mason shows that the move away from maternal preference toward equal custodial rights was promoted by feminists’ struggle for equal political rights and a new theory of equal parenting supported by social scientists. Based on extensive research in case law, legislation, and social history, Mason’s timely analysis of current child custody issues is a must for professionals as well as for those interested in family and social history, legal and women’s studies.

From This Day Forward. Cokie & Steve Roberts. 2000. 368p. William Morrow & Co. The authors use personal stories and memories for discussing issues of love and marriage, work and family, parents and children. They also tell stories of other American marriages: those of John & Abigail Adams, immigrants, pioneers, and slaves. Also stories of broken marriages, of contemporary families living through the “divorce revolution” and the challenges of stepparenting and adoption.

Genetic Maps & Human Imaginations: The Limits of Science in Understanding Who We Are. Barbara Katz Rothman. 1998. 272p. WW Norton & Company. The new genetics and race, illness, and procreation. Scientists are racing to unravel the code of life in our DNA sequences. But once we know the code, will we know what life means? Will we know what to do with the powerful—healing, destructive, and marketable—information we will have? Barbara Katz Rothman’s warm, learned, passionate, and humorous voice is just the one we need to guide us through some of the most loaded issues and technologies of our time—ones that bear on the most intimate aspects of our lives. Her astute observations about the new genetics are combined with personal reflections: about raising a black child; the risks of cancer; midwives and pregnancy; the social web into which we are born; motherhood; time, growth, chance, and all the indefinable things that make us human. She helps us to think about the place of genetic science in our own lives, its role in our social world, and how we choose to think about human life itself. A genetic map will take us places, but we need an imagination to see the relationship between DNA and public policy, between genes and the society we live in, and to understand why human life can’t be reduced to genetics. Rothman inspires that imagination, in a book that is essential reading.

Genetics of Mood Disorders. Ming T Tsuang & Stephen V Faraone. 1990. 220p. Johns Hopkins University Press. From Table of Contents: Diagnostic and Methodological Issues; Family Studies; Twin Studies; Adoption Studies; Quantitative Models of Genetic Transmission; Linkage and Association Studies; Biological Markers, etc.

Girls from Ames, The: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship. Jeffrey Zaslow. 2009. 297p. Gotham. Meet the Ames Girls: eleven childhood friends who formed a special bond growing up in Ames, IA. As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet managed to maintain an enduring friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce, a child’s illness and the mysterious death of one member of their group. Capturing their remarkable story, The Girls from Ames is a testament to the deep bonds of women as they experience life’s joys and challenges -- and the power of friendship to triumph over heartbreak and unexpected tragedy. The girls, now in their forties, have a lifetime of memories in common, some evocative of their generation and some that will resonate with any woman who has ever had a friend. Photograph by photograph, recollection by recollection, occasionally with tears and often with great laughter, their sweeping and moving story is shared by Jeffrey Zaslow, Wall Street Journal columnist, as he attempts to define the matchless bonds of female friendship. It demonstrates how close female relationships can shape every aspect of women’s lives—their sense of themselves, their choice of men, their need for validation, their relationships with their mothers, their dreams for their daughters—and reveals how such friendships thrive, rewarding those who have committed to them. The Girls from Ames is the story of a group of ordinary women who built an extraordinary friendship. With both universal insights and deeply personal moments, it is a book that every woman will relate to and be inspired by. About the Author: Jeffrey Zaslow is a Wall Street Journal columnist and coauthor, with Randy Pausch, of The Last Lecture, the #1 New York Times bestseller now translated into 41 languages. Zaslow attended Dr. Pausch’s famous lecture and wrote the story that sparked worldwide interest in it. The Girls From Ames also grew out of one of Zaslow’s columns.

Give Them Wings: Preparing for the Time Your Teen Leaves Home. Carol Kuykendahl. 1998. 240p. Focus on the Family Publishing. If your children are on the brink of adulthood, you can help them change and thrive in the middle of the challenges they face in the next few years. Be prepared to help your teenagers journey into adulthood, as well as learn to enjoy the process of emptying the nest. As the mother of three teenagers leaving the nest, the author, who is VP of Educational Resources for Mothers of Preschoolers International, has walked the walk and has many helpful and encouraging tips to pass on to parents of teenagers who will be trying their wings soon. so, she advises, make sure their wings will support their dreams.

Golden Bough, The. Sir James George Frazer. 1890. 2 vols., 409p./407p. Macmillan (UK). Before Joseph Campbell became the world’s most famous practitioner of comparative mythology, there was Sir James George Frazer. The Golden Bough was originally published in two volumes in 1890, but Frazer became so enamored of his topic that over the next few decades he expanded the work sixfold, then in 1922 cut it all down to a single thick edition suitable for mass distribution. The thesis on the origins of magic and religion that it elaborates “will be long and laborious,” Frazer warns readers, “but may possess something of the charm of a voyage of discovery, in which we shall visit many strange lands, with strange foreign peoples, and still stranger customs.” Chief among those customs—at least as the book is remembered in the popular imagination—is the sacrificial killing of god-kings to ensure bountiful harvests, which Frazer traces through several cultures, including in his elaborations the myths of Adonis, Osiris, and Balder. While highly influential in its day, The Golden Bough has come under harsh critical scrutiny in subsequent decades, with many of its descriptions of regional folklore and legends deemed less than reliable. Furthermore, much of its tone is rooted in a philosophy of social Darwinism—sheer cultural imperialism, really—that finds its most explicit form in Frazer’s rhetorical question: “If in the most backward state of human society now known to us we find magic thus conspicuously present and religion conspicuously absent, may we not reasonably conjecture that the civilised races of the world have also at some period of their history passed through a similar intellectual phase?” (The truly civilized races, he goes on to say later, though not particularly loudly, are the ones whose minds evolve beyond religious belief to embrace the rational structures of scientific thought.) Frazer was much too genteel to state plainly that “primitive” races believe in magic because they are too stupid and backwards to know any better; instead he remarks that “a savage hardly conceives the distinction commonly drawn by more advanced peoples between the natural and the supernatural.” And he certainly was not about to make explicit the logical extension of his theories—“that Christian legend, dogma, and ritual” (to quote Robert Graves’s summation of Frazer in The White Goddess) “are the refinement of a great body of primitive and barbarous beliefs.” Whatever modern readers have come to think of the book, however, its historical significance and the eloquence with which Frazer attempts to develop what one might call a unifying theory of anthropology cannot be denied. — Ron Hogan

Grief & Loss: Theories & Skills for Helping Professionals. Katherine Walsh-Burke. 2005. 128p. Allyn & Bacon. Every helping professional will encounter grief and loss in practice. Are you prepared for the inevitable? Using a rich variety of case examples to illustrate essential theories and skills, Katherine Walsh-Burke allows current and future helping professionals to see how these theories will enhance their own practice. Culture, spirituality, age, gender, and other factors that influence grief reactions are discussed, preparing readers to understand and work with diverse populations. Individual and programmatic responses to grieving people are included. Highlights: Key concepts related to grief and loss that are often omitted from professional training programs are addressed, preparing practitioners to deal with issues they encounter in everyday practice. Case examples illustrate theories and skills, allowing the students to see how these theories will enhance their own practice. Individual and programmatic responses to grieving people are included. Student exercises to be completed either as independent assignments or as in-class activities are included in each chapter. Companion Web Site includes slides, suggested Internet sites, and supplemental learning tools that connect students to current and credible resources beyond those included in the text.

1960s Edition

1970s Edition

Guideposts for Growing Up. Elizabeth B Hurlock. 1969. 224p. Standard Educational Corporation. From the “Child Horizons” series. Contents include: Your Child Is An Individual / Stages in Growing Up / Your Child and Heredity / The Baby’s Place in the Family / What About Schedules? / The Why of Crying / Bed—or Bedlam? / Thumb Sucking / The Sick Child / Sex Education / The Adopted Child / How Do I Rate as a Parent / and many, many more topics.

Happy Housewife, The. Lynn Thibodeau, ed. 1977. 272p. Carillon Books. In this delightful collection of advice, reminiscense, and good sense, you’ll read about women like Mrs. Lawrence Welk, Erma Bombeck, Marjorie Mecklenburg, and Dorothy Atwood DeBolt, mother to 19 children, 13 of them adopted—women who have found the secret of well-being in the excercise of optimism, faith, and a sense of humor.

Heart of the Matter, The. Joan Bakewell. 1996. BBC. In the BBC1 television series “Heart of the Matter,” in which she meets people who face moral dilemmas, Joan Bakewell draws attention to the shift in values in Britain. In this book she presents her personal, non-moralistic reactions to arguments that she has encountered. The topics covered include the plight of the Cree Indians, racial and ethnic hatred, dilemmas of parenthood (including surrogacy and adoption), Quakers and Islam, the changing face of the Church of England, crime and punishment, and New Age travellers.

Heart Throbs. Lily Burleson Patterson. 1972. 29p. WM Morrison. Story of the Dean Memorial Children’s Home located in Old East Dallas.

Helping Children Cope: Mastering Stress Through Books & Stories. Joan Fassler. Illustrated by William B Hogan. 1978. 176p. The Free Press.

Helping Children Cope With Separation & Loss. Claudia L Jarratt. Dan Rosenberg, ed. 1982. 146p. Harvard Common Press. All adopted children have suffered a loss—the loss of their birth parents. Some have also been separated from one or more foster parents. This book contains compassionate, step-by-step guidance for any concerned adult who wants to help a child talk about, cope with, and recover from a loss. It offers warm advice, specific techniques, and innovative ideas for helping children overcome the sadness, anger, and anxiety they feel during a difficult time. It also details the emotions and behaviors that the child exhibits. The Child Welfare League of America calls this book a much-needed guide.

Hero With a Thousand Faces, The. Joseph Campbell. 1949. 416p. Pantheon Books.

High Risk: Children Without a Conscience. Dr Ken Magid & Carole McKelvey. 1985. 384p. Berkeley. This is not an easy book to read, not because the words are difficult, but because the subject is. It starts with the description and identification of character-disturbed children. It then discusses their attachment and bonding issues. Just when you are ready to believe that there is no hope, the book shows that there is hope—prevention strategies and treatments do exist. High Risk should be read by everyone involved with a troubled child.

Holding Time. Martha Welch. 1989. 254p. Simon & Schuster. Holding Time presents a revolutionary approach to parent-child bonding that can make all children happier, more cooperative and self-confident, based upon the nurturing bond that forms when children are held. This approach can help with such problems as bedwetting, sibling rivalry, hyperactivity and anti-social behavior in children ranging in age from infants to pre-teen.

Home Child. Barbara Haworth-Attard. 1996. 128p. (gr 4-7). Roussan Publishers. The year is 1914. Thirteen-year-old Arthur, a Home Child, arrives in Canada from England to stay on Sadie Wilson’s farm as a hired labourer. Arthur finds himself an outcast—only a home boy—not fit to be allowed to sit with the family at a meal. Sadie is intrigued by the new arrival and puzzled by her family’s, especially her mother’s, and the community’s negative reaction towards Arthur. Sadie develops a surreptitious friendship with Arthur, against her mother’s wishes. This friendship disturbs Sadie’s previously well-ordered life, forcing her to make discoveries that forever change herself and her family and at the same time cause resentment at Arthur’s intrusion into her life. A near tragic fire, carelessly started by Sadie, opens all their eyes to the plight of being a Home Child, and forces Sadie to make a decision to take a stand for Arthur against her mother’s wishes. About the Author: Barbara Haworth-Attard is a native of Elmira, Ontario, presently residing in London, Ontario, with her family. June 1995 saw the publication of her first junior novel, Dark of the Moon. Since then, she has written twelve novels in the historical fiction, fantasy and contemporary genres for middle-grade and young adult readers. Her thirteenth book, Forget-Me-Not, a sequel to Love-Lies-Bleeding, has been out since this Fall 2005 from HarperCollins Canada. Henry Holt and Company released the US edition of Theories of Relativity in 2006. This book has also been sold to Editions Thierry Magnier of France. Barbara also writes short stories, her most recent being in the Red Deer Press 2005 anthology The Horrors.

Home Children, The. Phyllis Harrison, ed. (Canada). 1979. 271p. Watson & Dwyer Publishing, Ltd (Canada). From 1870 to 1930 British Home children, over 100,000 of them, arrived to work on Canadian farms. Travelling in groups of up to 400, their worldly possessions in small metal trunks, they came from the discipline of British Homes to the land that was believed to offer the best hope for their future. Some of them are still living; their personal stories have been compiled and edited by Phyllis Harrison. From childhood memories, the writers tell of the harsh conditions that separated them from family and friends, of the reality of loneliness, of grinding hard work, discrimination, and disappointment. About the Editor: Phyllis Harrison is a social worker and journalist. Her book documents a major event in Canadian history.

How to Develop Your Child’s Gifts & Talents in Reading. Martha Cheney. 1996. 207p. Contemporary Books.

I Learned About Women From Them. Virgil G Damon & Isabella Taves. Foreword by Helen Hayes. 1962. 300p. David McKay Co. A distinguished doctor who has practised medicine for four decades speaks candidly to and about women. Chapters on man-woman relationships, marriage, fertility, artificial insemination, pregnancy, old wives’ tales, miscarriages, adoption, menopause, more. [1963 Pyramid paperback edition pictured at left].

If I Should Die Before I Wake. Jerry Falwell. 219p. 1986. Thomas Nelson. Discusses alternative to abortion, case studies of adoption and Godparent approach.

Imperfect Control: Our Lifelong Struggles with Power & Surrender. Judith Viorst. 1999. 448p. Free Press. Whose life is not impacted, if not defined, by issues of control? Judith Viorst, author of bestselling Necessary Loses and the recipient of various awards for her journalism and psychological writings, cobbles an answer from a variety of sources—the works of biological and social scientists, psychoanalysts, philosophers, personal stories, and her own inimitably fresh point of view. Control—our lack of it, our desire to exercise it, our dread of it—is an omnipresent detail of humanity. Still, we cling to the belief in our freedom to get where we’re going: our personal control. And what, in this age of it’s in the genes, does control mean, exactly? Citing adoption studies and twin research, Viorst asks—given all the factors that predispose individuals to certain behaviors—what can we reasonably expect to control? She scrutinizes control as it pertains to sex, marriage, parenthood, and workplace dynamics. In the engaging chapter “The Power of Sex,” for example, she argues how control is drastically different for women than for men, debunking some powerful myths about male sexuality. The inquiry builds to that experience over which we possess the least amount of control: death. Viorst entreats us to regard our finitude consciously, particularly in relation to lives “heroically” prolonged in the final throes of terminal illness. She also addresses the issue of physician-assisted suicide, offering moving examples that bear witness to “the comfort of that control.” Fascinating, funny, and insightful, Imperfect Control invites readers to seek the balance between power and surrender.

In the Best Interests of the Child. Joseph Goldstein, et al. 1986. 236p. The Free Press. Taking its title from the legal principle for determining custody of children, this is the third in a series of books (Beyond the Best Interests of the Child and Before the Best Interests of the Child) written by a group of lawyers and psychoanalysts who advocate placement with the “psychological” (not necessarily the biological) parent. The trilogy is controversial in that it supports swift, unconditional placement and opposes mandated visitation and split custody. This book demonstrates through vignettes how professionals might overstep the limits of their expertise in court testimony and sets guidelines for making the best choice for the child.

Instead of Medicating & Punishing: Healing the Causes of Our Children’s Acting-Out Behavior by Parenting & Educating the Way Nature Intended. Laurie A Couture. 2008. 436p. Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing. Do you ever wonder why there is so much violence, unhappiness and mental illness in our advanced society despite all of our intelligence, opportunities and advances? Do you find yourself wondering what is at the root of all of the behavioral, learning and social problems that kids have? Find out what people in ancient peaceful tribal cultures, as well as our mammal relatives, have known for millennia about parenting, education and human happiness in this easy-to-read book, filled with illustrations and resources. In a dozen chapters and four appendices Ms. Couture guides readers through such topics as how to change our child-unfriendly culture and ways to overcome the negative aspects of industrialization. She explains how to develop and maintain the “Human Attachment Cycle,” and how school and day care can harm children and be destructive to parent-child attachment. There are chapters on child trauma and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), foster care, institutional care, and adoption, with excellent guidance on how to heal these traumas. About the Author: Laurie A. Couture is an adoptive parent and works as a licensed mental health counselor, consultant, parenting educator, writer, public speaker and children’s rights activist. She is the founder of LaurieACouture.org (formerly ChildAdvocate.org) and is a Board member of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE). She is a contributor to Life Learning, Kindred and several other publications and websites. She is a mentor and has previously worked in the fields of social work and early childhood education. Ms. Couture is also a human rights and environmental activist as well as an artist and photographer. She is the author of the comic series, The Hypocrisy Chronicles. Ms. Couture’s writing and advocacy on behalf of children have reached an international audience. She unschools her teenage son, who is a professional singer and the creator of Feendz homemade stuffed toys.