Abandoned Children: Anthropological & Historical Perspectives. Catherine Panter-Brick & Malcolm T Smith, editors. 2000. 248p. Cambridge University Press. A collection on abandoned children, this study illustrates the need to contextualize their position in particular cultural situations.

Achieving Permanence for Older Children & Youth in Foster Care. Benjamin Kerman, Madelyn Freundlich & Anthony Maluccio, eds. 2009. 416p. Columbia University Press. Through a novel integration of child welfare data, policy analysis, and evidence-informed youth permanency practice, the essays in this volume show how to achieve and sustain family permanence for older children and youth in foster care. Researchers examine what is known about permanency outcomes for youth in foster care, how the existing knowledge base can be applied to improve these outcomes, and the directions that future research should take to strengthen youth permanence practice and policy. Part 1 examines child welfare data concerning reunification, adoption, and relative custody and guardianship and the implications for practice and policy. Part 2 addresses law, regulation, court reform, and resource allocation as vital components in achieving and sustaining family permanence. Contributors examine the impact of policy change created by court reform and propose new federal and state policy directions. Part 3 outlines a range of practices designed to achieve family permanence for youth in foster care: preserving families through community-based services, reunification, adoption, and custody and guardianship arrangements with relatives. As growing numbers of youth continue to “age out” of foster care without permanent families, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have increasingly focused on developing evidence-informed policies, practices, services and supports to improve outcomes for youth. Edited by leading professionals in the field, this text recommends the most relevant and effective methods for improving family permanency outcomes for older youth in foster care.About the Editors: Benjamin Kerman is the director of research and evaluation for Casey Family Services, the direct services agency of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where he has conducted program evaluations and child welfare research since 1997. He serves on the adjunct faculty of the Yale Child Study Center.Madelyn Freundlich is a senior child welfare consultant who works with national, regional, and state child welfare organizations as they develop and implement practice, program, policy, and research initiatives. She holds master’s degrees in social work and public health and two degrees in law.Anthony N. Maluccio is professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut and Boston College. An internationally recognized scholar in the field of child welfare, he has written more than a hundred book chapters and journal articles on child welfare issues and has twice been a Fulbright Scholar.

Achieving Permanency for Adolescents in Foster Care: A Guide for Legal Professionals. Andrea Khoury, Sally S Inada, & Claire Sandt. 2006. 246p. American Bar Association.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Definition of Adolescence
CHAPTER 1: Legal Permanency Planning Options for Adolescents by Andrea Khoury
CHAPTER 2: Recruiting And Sustaining Adoptive Families for Teens by Gerald P. Mallon, Drenda Lakin, Natalie Lyons, and Andrea Khoury
CHAPTER 3: Adolescents’ Conflicting Feelings about Permanency by Gerald P. Mallon, Drenda Lakin, Natalie Lyons, and Andrea Khoury
CHAPTER 4: The Delinquency Factor in Permanency Planning for Adolescents by Andrea Khoury
CHAPTER 5: Teen Pregnancy and Parenting in Foster Care by Eva Klain
CHAPTER 6: Addressing Adolescent Substance Use Disorders in Permanency Planningby Sharon G. Elstein
CHAPTER 7: Teen Sexuality and Relationships by Rachel Feldheim
CHAPTER 8: How Education Issues Impact Permanency for Adolescents in Foster Care by Kathleen McNaught
CHAPTER 9: Addressing Financial Barriers in Permanency Planning for Adolescents by Edi Winkle
CHAPTER 10: Permanency Planning for Adolescents with Disabilities by Nancy Pineles
APPENDIX: Resources; About the Authors; Advisory Board Members

Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children in Care. R.J. (Seán) Cameron & Colin Maginn. 2009. 176p. (Lucky Duck Books Series). Sage Publications, Ltd. For over a decade and with the best of intentions, the U.K. government has spent millions attempting, but largely failing, to improve personal, social and educational outcomes for children and young people in public care. In this book, the authors explain why the problems of this highly vulnerable group have resisted such effort, energy and expenditure and go on to show how achieving positive outcomes for children in care is possible when the root causes of failure are tackled. Topic covered include: The power of parenting; The impact of parental rejection on emotional development; Support for the adaptive emotional development of children and young people; Practical advice on introducing the ’Authentic Warmth’ approach into existing childcare organisations; and Future issues in childcare. This book is essential reading for carers, commissioners, policymakers, support professionals, designated teachers and students of social work.

Jean Paton 1908-2002

Adopted Break Silence, The: Forty Men & Women Describe Their Search for Natural Parents. Compiled & Written by Jean Paton. 1954. 164p. Life History Study Center. The Adopted Break Silence is arguably the first in-depth study of adoption from the adult adoptee’s perspective. The 40 study participants represent a self-selected sample obtained through advertising for persons “adopted before 1932” who then completed a questionnaire. This book describes their reports, organizes the facts and attitudes contained therein, and suggests a few thoughts.About the Author: Jean Paton was a pioneering reformer and founder of the adoptee support and search network, Orphan Voyage, established in 1953. She was a talented sculptor as well as a tireless activist trained in social work. Born in Detroit in 1908, she had no difficulty obtaining her own adoption records and original birth certificate, including her birth parents’ names, from the probate court in 1942. Several years later, she met her birth mother, and the experience changed her forever. By the time she began collecting the forty life stories that appeared in The Adopted Break Silence, most states in the country had instituted policies of confidentiality and sealed records, making search and reunion a virtual impossibility. Paton spent her adult life seeking to overturn adoption secrecy and frequently took positions well in advance of her contemporaries. She suggested the creation of a mutual consent registry as early as 1949, for example, and embraced the term “bastard” in the 1970s, declaring “Bastards Are Beautiful” long before the era of Bastard Nation. One of her most important arguments, evident in this excerpt, was that forever considering adoptees as children made the lifelong impact of adoption invisible. Hearing the voices of adult adoptees, she believed, was essential to learning more about the diversity of adoption experiences. Jean Paton died in 2002.

Adopted Child, The. Mary Ellison. 1958. 175p. Victor Gollancz (UK). A full discussion of all aspects of child adoption.

Adopted Child Comes of Age, The. Lois Raynor. 1980. 166p. Allen & Unwin (UK).

Adopted Children: How They Grow Up: A Study of Their Adjustment as Adults. Alexina M McWhinnie. Foreword by Eileen Younghusband. 1967. 302. Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd (UK). An important pioneer study into the life histories of peopole who were adopted in childhood.

Adopted Children Speaking. Caroline Thomas, Verna Beckford, Nigel Lowe & Mervyn Murch. 1999. 161p. British Association for Adoption & Fostering (UK). If you really want to learn about children’s wishes and feelings about adoption and their experience of it, this unique book is for you.Adopted Children Speaking is part of a wider research project published under the title Supporting Adoption: Reframing the Approach which throws light on aspects of policy and practice concerning the support available to older children and their adoptive families. This book gives voice to the invaluable perspective of the children themselves. Adopted Children Speaking is full of moving and poignant testimonies and, above all, revealing insights into what children and young people themselves think and understand about adoption, the support they received, their involvement in the process and any unmet needs. There are powerful messages here for social work practitioners and those making decisions for children.

Adoptees: Webster’s Facts & Phrases. ICON Group International. 2008. 28p. ICON Group International, Inc. Ever need a fact or quotation on adoptees? Designed for speechwriters, journalists, writers, researchers, students, professors, teachers, historians, academics, scrapbookers, trivia buffs and word lovers, this is the largest book ever created for this single word. It represents a compilation from a variety of sources with a linguistic emphasis on anything relating to the term “adoptees,” including non-conventional usage and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities. The entries cover all parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb or adjective usage) as well as use in modern slang, pop culture, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in many unexpected examples for adoptees, since the editorial decision to include or exclude terms is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster’s Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org).

Adoptees: Webster’s Timeline History, 1789-2007. ICON Group International. 2009. 30p. ICON Group International, Inc. Webster’s bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on “Adoptees,” including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Adoptees in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Adoptees when it is used in proper noun form. Webster’s timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Adoptees, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain.

Adoptees Come of Age: Living Within Two Families (Counseling & Pastoral Theology). Ronald J. Nydam. 1999. 192p. Westminster John Knox Press. Drawn from compelling stories of people who have been adopted, this book provides an intelligent and accessible description of the distinct emotional and spiritual challenges faced by adoptees and their families. Nydam avoids overstating the plight of the adopted person. Instead, he maps out an alternative developmental pathway that adoptees travel, given the realities of relinquishment and adoption. Adoptees can grow up joyfully, Nydam concludes, but they do grow up differently.About the Author: Ronald J. Nydam is Assistant Professor of Pastoral care at Calvin Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI. — Dust Jacket

Adoption. David M Haugen & Matthew J Box, eds. 2005. 224p. (Social Issues Firsthand). Greenhaven Press. In this anthology, birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted children discuss the challenges and the rewards of adoption. The personal narratives address such topics as the amount of contact between children and birth parents, the blending of interracial families and the arduous decision to give up a child to adoption.

Adoption. Jerry L Johnson & George Grant Jr. 2005. (Allyn & Bacon Casebook Series). 144p. Allyn & Bacon. This casebook on adoption provides students with personal and intimate glimpses into the thinking and actions of experienced practitioners working with children and families. The contributors to this casebook combined many decades of social work experience and teaching to create an opportunity for students to study and analyze how practitioners think about practice. The authors move beyond the belief that practice involves finding “correct” interventions to solve client problems, and instead invite students to review and challenge the work of others to help them understand what compromises important practice decision with real clients in real practice settings.

Adoption: A Developing Institution. Gail McKnight Beckman. 1973. 294p. Thesis-University of Glasgow.

Adoption: A Reference Handbook. Barbara A Moe. 1998. 303p. (Contemporary World Issues Series). ABC-CLIO. This volume explores the current issues surrounding adoption in the United States. Following a thoughtful overview of the topic, it presents a chronology that documents the milestones in adoption history and a collection of biographical sketches of individuals who have profoundly affected child welfare and adoption philosophies and practices. Readers will also find a selection of facts and figures as well as a discussion of important federal legislation and policies, a summary of significant litigation, and a directory of organizations, associations, and government agencies. A detailed listing of print and electronic resources rounds out a volume that students, parents, adoption agencies, social workers, and policymakers will welcome.

Adoption: Changing Families, Changing Lives. Anthony Douglas & Terry Philpot, eds. 2002. 264p. Routledge. Adoption offers a comprehensive review of adoption policy, practice and services and analyses why adoption has become so controversial. Illustrating political and professional issues through stories and contributions from specialist practitioners, this book offers a fully rounded picture of adoption and explores myths of adoption, children and young people in care, trying to adopt, waiting for adoption, and life after adoption.

Adoption: The Continuing Debate. Patricia Morgan. 1999. 160p. (Choice in Welfare 53). Coronet Books, Inc. When the author’s previous book, Adoption and the Care of Children, was published, it ignited a fierce debate on the desirability of adoption and the reasons for its decline. The response from politicians, child-care professionals and the media was so great that it was decided to invite contributions to a sequel. This volume is the result. It begins with a summary of the original book, which is followed by commentaries from professionals writing from differing perspectives.

Adoption: Current Issues & Trends. Paul Sachdev, ed. 1984. 304p. Butterworths (Canada). Table of Contents: Part 1: Philosophy and Concepts: Chapter 1: Principles, Values, and Assumptions Underlying Adoption Practice by Alfred Kadushin; Chapter 2: Societal Influences on Adoption Practice by Elizabeth S. Cole; Chapter 3: Adoptionin Canda: Two Decades in Review by Margaret Lipman; Chapter 4: Canadian Adoption Legislation: An Overview by John A. MacDonald; Part 2: Process in Adoption: Chapter 5: Selection of Adoptive Parents by Donald Brieland; Chapter 6: Selective Placement in Infant Adoptions by Sandra M. Singer and Karen Hardy-Brown; Chapter 7: Placing Adolescents for Adoption by Claudia L. Jewett; Chapter 8: Disruption: A Risk in Adoption by Sallie R. Churchill; Chapter 9: Adoption Breakdown with Older Children by Joyce S. Cohen; Part 3: Dilemmas in Adoption: Chapter 10: Unlocking the Adoption Files: A Social and Legal Dilemma by Paul Sachdev; Chapter 11: Some Issues in the Adoption of Native Children by Joseph C. Ryant; Chapter 12: The Adjustment of Black Children Adopted by White Families by Arnold R. Silverman and William Feigelman; Chapter 13: Transracial and Intercountry Adoptions: A Comparison by Howard Altstein; Chapter 14: Permanency Planning and Adoption by Edith Fein and Anthony Maluccio; Part 4: The Current Scene and Future Outlook: Chapter 15: Adoption Within the Family by Alastair Bissett-Johnson; Chapter 16: Single-Parent Adoptions by Benjamin Schlesinger; Chapter 17: Custom Adoption Law by Justice W.G. Morrow; Chapter 18: Subsidized Adoption: New Hope for Waiting Children by Margaret Ward; Chapter 19: Fostering and Adoption: Converging Roles for Substitute Parnets by Deborah Shapiro; and Chapter 20: Adoption Outlook: Projection for the Future by Paul Sachdev.

Adoption: Language of adoption, Cultural variations in adoption, LGBT adoption, Adoption in ancient Rome, Adoption in the United States, Affiliation, Attachment disorder. Frederic P Miller, Agnes F Vandome & John McBrewster, eds. 2009. 112p. Alphascript Publishing. Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition, either through legal or religious sanction. Historically some societies have enacted specific laws governing adoption whereas others have endeavored to achieve adoption through less formal means, notably via contracts that specified inheritance rights and parental responsibilities. Modern systems of adoption, arising in the 20th century, tend to be governed by comprehensive statutes and regulations. Adoption has a long history in the Western world, closely tied with the legacy of the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. Its use has changed considerably over the centuries with its focus shifting from adult adoption and inheritance issues toward children and family creation and its structure moving from a recognition of continuity between the adopted and kin toward allowing relationships of lessened intensity.

Adoption: Global Perspectives & Ethical Issues Jagannath Pati, ed. 2007. 314p. Concept Publishing Company (India). This compendium of twelve papers addresses the key issues pertaining to child adoption in global perspective. It deals with issues related to construction of childhood, basic nature of child, effects of institutional living on attachment, and the rights of children. Focusing on open adoption and transnational adoption, the contributors also deliberate on ethical issues and safeguards in adoption placement. The book will be useful for adoption agencies, students of social work and researchers.

Adoption: Historical Perspectives. Euthymia Hibbs, ed. 1991. 256p. International University Press.

Adoption: The Inside Story. Judy Austin, editor. 1985. 180p. Barn Owl Books (UK).

Adoption: Lies & Conspiracy. Suzanne Hammond. 1998. Oracle (Australia).

Adoption: The Modern Law. Caroline Bridge & Heather Swindells, QC, eds. 2003. 240p. Jordan Publishing Ltd (UK). The UK Adoption and Children Act 2002 is aimed to promote the wider use of adoption, to improve performance of the adoption services and to place the needs of children at the centre of the adoption process. The Act will also reform the need for parental consent to adoption. This work explains the new UK legislation and sets it in the context of adoption law. It also provides a comprehensive analysis of the law and practice in respect of inter-country adoptions. Questions that are answered include: how will the principle that the welfare of the child is paramount affect adoption decision making?; what new duties will local authorities have with regards to adoption?; what are the new measures for placement for adoption and consent and placement orders?; and what is a special guardianship order?

Adoption: The Modern Procedure. Heather Swindells & Clive Heaton. 2006. 763p. Jordan Publishing Ltd (UK). This invaluable new practice work is a companion to the successful title Adoption: The Modern Law by Caroline Bridge and Heather Swindells (above). The work contains a summary of the new law and an accessible and detailed examination of the new procedural regime governing applications under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 coming into force on 30 December 2005. Appendices contain the text of ACA 2002, all key statutory regulations, forms and guidance, including the Family Procedure (Adoption) Rules 2005 and supplementary Practice Directions.Adoption: The Modern Procedure will be an indispensable guide to procedure for all lawyers and other professionals involved in adoption work. CONTENTS: Welfare; Parental Consent; Placement for Adoption; The Making of Adoption Orders; Illegal Placements and Transactions; Access to Information; The Family Procedure (Adoption) Rules 2005; Adoption Agencies; Appendices: Statutory Material, Forms and Guidance.

Adoption: The Parent, the Child, the Home. Cecil J Barrett. 1952. Clonmore & Reynolds (Ireland).

Adoption: A Second Chance. Barbara Tizard. 1978. 251p. The Free Press. Barbara Tizard challenges society’s misconceptions about adoption in this compassionate account of a group of children who spent their infancies in an institution and were then either adopted, placed in foster homes or returned to their natural parents. Through extensive interviews, repeatedly conducted over a seven-year period with the children and their respective natiural, adoptive or foster parents, Dr. Tizard and her associates found that the children who were adopted were in a more stable situation, had fewer emotional problems, and were intellectually and academically superior to the children restored to their natural parents and to those placed in foster homes.

Adoption: Theory, Policy & Practice. John Triseliotis, Marion Hundleby & Joan Shireman. 1996. 292p. Cassell Academic (UK) This is a summary and review, aimed at social workers and counsellors, of the current state of knowledge in the field of adoption. It contains chapters on transracial placements, intercountry adoption, open adoption and adoption of children by single people. Using a child-centred approach, this book explores the moral issues surrounding adoption. The book is aimed at professionals who work with adoptive parents and children, and also to parents who may need clarification about their potential position. It is international in outlook. including recent policies from the USA.

Adoption: Uncharted Waters. David Kirschner. 2006. 324p. Juneau Press Examines adoption issues of abandonment, loss, rejection, attachment, bonding, birth-parent fantasies and split-identity; as reflected in the “Adopted Child Syndrome” (ACS) and evidenced in extreme cases of adoptees who commit acts of homicide. Clinical and forensic issues in adoption are explored in high-profile cases.About the Author: David Kirschner, Ph.D., is a psychologist and psychoanalyst with a private practice in Merrick and Woodbury, Long Island, NY. He founded and directed for 25 years, a community mental health clinic—the Nassau Center for Psychotherapy. Dr. Kirschner is nationally and internationally recognized for his clinical and forensic work on adoption issues, and for his concept of an “Adopted Child Syndrome.” He has lectured widely, appeared on many radio and TV shows, and has often been an expert witness, in high-profile adoption cases. Most recently, Dr. Kirschner testified in Toronto, on the need to open sealed adoption records for Canada’s adoptees.

Adoption Across Borders: Serving the Children in Transracial & Intercountry Adoptions. Rita James Simon & Howard Altstein. 2000. 176p. Rowman & Littlefield. For over thirty years, Rita J. Simon and Howard Altstein have been studying transracial and intercountry adoptions. The families they have studied include white parents; African American, Hispanic, and Korean children; and Jewish Stars of David families, among others. This book summarizes their findings and compares them with other studies. It is an invaluable source of data on the number and frequency of transracial and intercountry adoptions and on the attitudes toward them. Moreover, it strongly advocates and demonstrates the positive effects of transracial and intercountry adoptions, countering public policy initiatives that emphasize “same race” adoption practices.About the Authors: Rita J. Simon is University Professor at American University.Howard Altstein is professor of social work at the University of Maryland.

Adoption Among the Gunantuna. Joseph Meier. 1929. Catholic Anthropological Conference.

Adoptions & Assisted Reproduction: Families Under Construction. Susan Frelich Appleton & D Kelly Weisberg. 2009. 400p. Aspen Publishers. Adoption and Assisted Reproduction: Families Under Construction provides an in-depth exploration of the fascinating and controversial issues emerging out of biotechnology and society’s expanding understanding of family identity. In this ideal supplement to any Family Law curriculum, authors Appleton and Weisberg combine solid treatment of the law and carefully crafted additional content to elicit analysis and fuel class discussion. Using a balanced presentation of law, policy, critical perspectives, and depictions in popular culture, this finely honed text features: Thorough analysis of important cases, statutes, and regulations, including law reform efforts and the absence of law on some topics; Opportunities for comparative analysis of law and policy among various states and nations, with exploration of questions of jurisdiction, choice of law, and enforcement; Critical perspectives on core concepts, such as parentage, the role of the state in the construction of family, and examination of unspoken assumptions about gender, race, and class; Clear and informative exposition; Interdisciplinary materials and references to books and films from popular culture, which bring the legal materials to life; Discussion of professional responsibility and the role of the lawyer in the face of cutting-edge social issues and nascent law and policy; Notes and Questions that follow the principal cases and illuminate salient themes; Thought-provoking problems that prompt consideration of new issues, preparing students not only to address the law as it exists, but as it might become.

Adoption & Disclosure: A Review of the Law. Madelyn DeWoody. 1993. 61p. CWLA Quality adoption practice supports sharing of information so that children with medical, psychological, and developmental problems are placed with families prepared to meet their needs. Part One of this report reviews the major court decisions in this area and summarizes the judicial trends. Part Two reviews statutory law and charts the various ways in which states have defined the nature and scope of duty to disclose nonidentifying information..

Adoption & Disruption: Rates, Risks & Responses. Richard P Barth & Marianne Berry. 1988. 264p. Aldine de Gruyter. This newest addition to the Modern Application of Social Work, a series of texts and monographs, also addresses older child adoptions, but from a research basis to study disruption. The study described here was conducted by Children’s Garden and the University of California, Berkeley, and funded, in part, through the Children’s Bureau’s Adoption Opportunities program. The term disruption is used to indicate that the agency received custody of the child or was informed of the end of the placement when a child was informally emancipated regardless of whether this event occurred before or after legalization. (The authors are aware that the field commonly uses the term disruption for separations before legalization and dissolution for those separations after legalization, but explained that all separations are defined as dissolutions in this study.) This book offers not only a description of the study—the methodology and results—but presents a good overview of current adoption practice and a review of disruption research, as well as a thorough discussion of practice implications. In the conclusions of past research, the current quest for research is well stated in that it is not to “decide whether older child and special-needs adoptions are disruption-prone, but rather, recognizing their central place in permanency planning, to determine what adoption practices reduce this tendency.” The study itself has two integrated parts: the intake study and the interview study. The sample of 120 cases came from the population of adoptive placements in 13 northern and central California counties from January 1, 1980, to June 30, 1984. Disrupted and high-risk families were oversampled to strengthen the ability to draw conclusions from family interviews about the difference between difficult placements that did and did not disrupt. The study is fully described in the seven chapters of Part II. Of special interest to the practitioner, administrator and others involved in developing policy and directing practice are the policy and program implications. The areas discussed include recruitment and placement, organization of post-placement services, development and provision of intensive adoption preservation services, unconventional adoptions and subsidies. This book is recommended to anyone involved in the current practice of adoption, as it provides a good philosophical basis for adoption today as well as an interesting and provocative study. This view is nicely stated in the last chapter: “Even a figure of 20 percent disruptions would be satisfactory if accompanied by the knowledge that we were providing intensive services and overall, the number of lasting placements increased. The value of stable adoptions is worth the strategic risk of disruption.” © 1989 U.S. Government Printing Office; 2004 Gale Group.

Adoption & Ethics: Adoption & Assisted Reproduction. Madelyn Freundlich. 2001. 97p. (Volume 4). CWLA. The growing use of assisted reproduction, including sperm donation, gamete donation, and surrogate motherhood, has raised a number of ethical issues in common with adoption. These issues include the parties’ legal and social roles, anonomity, and concerns related to the growing role of money and power of market forces in each area. This book reviews not only the available literature, but the wide range and outcomes of current case law and statutes. This book provides the foundation upon which to base policy and practice in this evolving area of adoption practice.

Adoption & Ethics: The Impact of Adoption on Members of the Triad. Madelyn Freundlich & Joy Kim Lieberthal. 2000. (Volume 3).CWLA. This volume, the third in a series developed by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, considers how adoption practice and policy impact those who are the “clients” of adoption services–adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents. It explores the psychological, social, and cultural aspects of adoption for all members of the triad, and assesses the extent to which current policy and practice meet the needs of those whom adoption is designed to serve. The current understanding of the positive and negative effects of adoption on all parties is related to the ethical obligation of adoption professionals.

Adoption & Ethics: The Market Forces in Adoption . Madelyn Freundlich. 2000. (Volume 2). CWLA. The role of money and power in the context of adoption and the extent of accountability have become critical questions in adoption policy and practice today. These issues arise in three arenas: the adoption of infants in the United States, the adoption of children in foster care, and international adoption. This volume considers each of these in relation to market forces and the role of marketing in adoption both by prospective adoptive parents and adoption professionals.

Adoption & Ethics: The Role of Race, Culture, & National Origin in Adoption. Madelyn Freundlich. 2000. (Volume 1). CWLA. What role does race, culture, and national origin place in an adoptee’s personal identity? To what extent should racial and cultural similarities and differences between adoptive parents and children be taken into account? This volume, first in a series developed by the Evan B. Donaldson Institute, provides a synthesis of current research, literature, and legislation in three areas: transracial adoptions, adoptions of American Indian children, and international adoptions. Arguments from all sides of these controversial issues are clearly presented, providing a complete overview of this important area of current adoption practice.

Adoption & Foster Placement of Children: Report of an Expert Group Meeting on Adoption & Foster Placement of Children, Geneva, 11-15 Dec. 1978. UN.

Adoption & Healing: Proceedings of the International Conference on Adoption and Healing, Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand, 1997. Produced by New Zealand Adoption Education & Healing Trust. 1997. 350p.Invercauld Publications (Canada). Papers by the world’s leading experts. A comprehensive and authoritative resource for professionals, individuals and support groups dealing with the personal consequences of adoption. Contents: Part 1: History and Legislation; Part 2: Theory and Research; Part 3: Attachment Issues; Part 4: Practice Issues; Part 5: Healing; and Part 6: Personal Stories. Contributors: Elisa Barton, Michelle Beavan, Josephine Bowler, John Bradley, Roelien de Jong, Denys Delany, Felix Donnelly, Peter Donovan, Judy Durey, Anne Else, Patricia Farrar, Maurice Greenberg, Keith Griffith, Shona Hobday, Rene A.C. Hoksbergen, Rod Holm, Abigail Isaac, Mary Iwanek, Betty-Ann Kelly, Janette Logan, Robert Ludbrook, Joyce Maguire Pavo, Susan Mann, Bruce McNatty, Judith Morris, Ann Nation, Cas O’Neill, Suzanne Pitama, Trudy Rosenwald, Mary Rowe, Dina and Pat Shannon, Noreen Sharp, Petrina Slaytor, Jennifer M. Speirs, Karen Svendsen, Jon Telfer, Harry Walker, Ann Weaver, and Jo Willis.

Adoption & Prenatal Alcohol & Drug Exposure: Research, Policy, & Practice. Richard P Barth, Madelyn Freundlich & David Brodzinsky, editors. 2000. CWLA. Published in conjunction with the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, this book provides important information on the impact of prenatal substance exposure on children’s immediate health and well-being, the long-term implications for children’s health and development, the role that a positive postnatal environment can play in remediating the effects of prenatal substance exposure, how prospective adoptive parents can be counseled regarding the effects of prenatal substance exposure, and the ongoing services and supports that are needed for adoptive families and their substance-exposed children to maximize positive outcomes. This book was developed with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It is designed to serve as a key resource for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and others with an interest in, and a commitment to, adoption for substance-exposed children.

Adoption & Privatization: An Issue Brief. Ann Sullivan. 1998. 40p.CWLA.

Adoption & Special Guardianship: A Permanency Handbook. John Mitchell. 2008. Jordan Publishing Ltd (UK). The concept of special guardianship was introduced by the Adoption and Children Act 2002. Special guardianship orders are private law orders which give a special guardian parental responsibility for the child concerned. They provide permanence and security for those children for whom adoption is not suitable but who cannot live with their birth parents. The basic legal links between the child and his birth family are preserved. In contested cases, courts are often faced with one key question: should a child remain in care as a foster child or be made the subject of a special guardianship order or be adopted? Adoption and Special Guardianship: A Handbook brings together, for the first time in a single volume, the law and procedure relating to adoption with that of special guardianship. This unique work examines recent case-law, alongside the policy that underpins the legislation, including socio-legal research on how the law operates and social research on the needs of children.Adoption and Special Guardianship: A Handbook also examines the fundamental and common issues concerning the importance of the child’s relationship with his birth family, contact with them after the order is made, and the impact on the child of remaining a child in care.About the Author: His Honour Judge John Mitchell is a Circuit Judge, appointed in 2005 having previously been a district judge for six years. He sits as a nominated care judge at Gee Street Courthouse and as a deputy High Court Judge in the Family Division. Judge Mitchell is also the author of Children Act Private Law Proceedings and Adoption.

Adoption & the Americans With Disabilities Act: An Issue Brief. Madelyn Freundlich & Lisa Peterson. 2000. CWLA.

Adoption & the Care of Children: The British & American Experience. Patricia Morgan. 1998. 218p. Civitas (UK). In recent years hostility to adoption has led to many children being raised in local authority residential care. But the outcomes for children who spend all or a large part of their time in the care of their local authority are atrocious. By comparison, adoption has extremely good outcomes. In this comprehensive study of the state of adoption, Patricia Morgan argues that childcare practice and legislation should be re-organised so that adoption becomes the first, not the last, option for children who cannot live with their parents.

Adoption & the Family System: Strategies for Treatment. Miriam Reitz & Ken Watson. 1991. Guildford Press. Adoption is a profound experience that touches upon universal themes of abandonment, identity, sexuality, parenthood, and the sense of belonging. This book utilizes family systems theory to construct a practical treatment approach for working with families on the myriad issues and interrelationships that surround adoption.Adoption and the Family System offers practical guidance for implementing differential treatment and effective clinical procedures for all members of the adoption triangle.

Adoption Assessments: A Team Approach Based on Research & Related to the Basic Needs of the Child. Alexina M McWhinnie. 1966. 30p. Standing Conference of Societies Registerd for Adoption (UK).

Adoption Awareness: A Guide for Teachers, Counselors, Nurses, & Caring Others. Jeanne Lindsay & Catherine Monserrat. 1989. 288p. Morning Glory. Counselors to hundreds of teens and older women facing unplanned pregnancies, the authors maintain that the adoption alternative has of late received little attention or support. Fewer than five percent of pregnant teens release their babies for adoption. Without ignoring the other two options—abortion and parenting—this work endorses adoption as a legitimate route, addressing such considerations as private versus agency adoption, open adoption, birth fathers, the roles of the church and hospital, and the grieving process. Geared to professionals, the informative, lucid text aims at better decision making. Recommended for most school, public, and academic libraries and for counseling services. — Janice Arenofsky, formerly with Arizona State Lib., Phoenix (Library Journal)

Adoption Awareness: Evaluation of a National Level Training Program for Pregnancy Counselors. Children and Youth Research Services. 2006. 354p. Trafford Publishing. This report is about communicating adoption as an option to pregnant clients on an equal basis with parenting and abortion. Adoption is undervalued, underused, and poorly understood by many who counsel pregnant clients. The Children’s Health Act of 2000 requires that training be established to prepare counselors in health care and allied settings to acquire information about adoption and to develop skill in communicating adoption to pregnant women in a non-directive manner. Prior to the Adoption-Awareness Training Initiative if clients didn’t ask about adoption, the topic was not discussed. Little thought was given to the possibility that thousands of pregnant women might lack sufficient knowledge about adoption to ask. Our evaluation of adoption-awareness training covers a period of 3 years (2001-2004), and includes information collected from 13,000 trainees in 900 sites across the United States. Included in this report are modules and exercises designed to promote skill in communicating adoption using a variety of non-directive Rogerian techniques such as Reflection, Questioning, Clarification, and Summarization. Evaluation results are consistent in documenting that adoption-awareness training is needed in health settings, as well as in allied social service and school programs.About the Authors: Edmund V. Mech, MSW, Ph.D., is the Evaluation Director for the Adoption-Awareness Training Project. Contributors to the final report include: Jeannie Gilbert, MS; Matthew Hall, MS; Elaine Hanson, BA; Laura Jensen, BA; Isaac Krig, BA; Elizabeth Leonard, MSW; Charles Marquardt, BA; Elisa Claasen, BA, and Heather Rosman, BA

Adoption Digest: Stories of Joy, Loss, & the Journey. Tim O’Hanlon & Rita Laws. 2001. 264p. Bergin & Garvey. Adoption is a life-long process, forever changing those it touches. The personal and intensely emotional stories related in this book illustrate the many aspects of adopting—the positive and the negative. The narratives include the experiences of children of all ages, their families, and the dedicated professionals who work in the adoption field, supporting them through every stage of their incredible journey.About the Authors: Tim O’Hanlon is a former adoption assistance policy specialist, is author of Adoption Subsidy (1998), Accessing Federal Adoption Subsidies After Legalization (1995), and Adoption and Financial Assistance (1999). In addition to committee work with AFA, training parents, consulting, speaking and writing magazine articles about special needs adoption, he maintains an adoption advocacy website called the Adoption Policy Resource Center. As a NACAC representative, Dr. O’Hanlon has helped many families understand the bureaucracy and their rights as they advocate for their children.Rita Laws, Ph.D., is the co-author of Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child and Adoption and Financial Assistance (1997, 1999).

Adoption Factbook. National Committee for Adoption Staff. 1985. 171p. NCFA. The NCFA’s Adoption Factbook is the most comprehensive resource for adoption facts andstatistics available. Originally published in 1985, it was issued in revised editions in 1989 (Adoption Factbook II, 274p.), 1999 (Adoption Factbook III, 637p), and, most recently, 2007 (Adoption Factbook IV, 480p.).  The book contains accumulated facts and data on international adoption trends, unrelated adoptions by state, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, and much more. The latest edition also includes in-depth analyses of important policy questions. It examines the family preservation ideology and the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, the impact of ending the right of privacy on states, counseling teen birthmothers, mutual consent registries, adoption expenses, single person adoption, and many other topics relevant to adoption.COMPILER’S NOTE: Currently known as the National Council for Adoption, the organization was formerly known as the National Committee for Adoption, and was headed by William Pierce, a well-known opponwent of adoption reform and open records.

Adoption For Troubled Children: Prevention & Repair of Adoptive Failures Through Residential Treatment. Douglas Powers, ed. 1984. 201p. Haworth Press. Experienced staff members from a children’s residential center describe the special preparation needed to insure the successful adoption of older troubled children. Written with enormous compassion and understanding, Adoption for Troubled Children addresses the special problems encountered in the adoption of older children and demonstrates the need for synchronized efforts between and among individuals and agencies to better prepare the youngsters and families for stable and permanent adoptions. Focusing on the best interests of these troubled and troubling children, the authors provide case descriptions, historical background, and even the words of adoptable children to make a convincing appeal for more thorough and effective prevention and resolution of the problems incurred in older child adoptions.

Adoption Forum: Intimate Discussions to Unite the Triad in Healing. Kasey Hamner. 2002. 272p. Triad Publishing. Adoption Forum is a non-biased and comprehensive discussion book for all voices of adoption. It includes original poetry, interviews with Late Discovery Adoptees and those touched by Donor Insemination, and discussion of various timely topics in adoption. Some topics include same-sex adoptions, adoption remorse, relinquishment remorse, adoption synchronicity, birth family integration, adoption dissolution, and many more. Thanks to the Internet, Kasey was able to interview adoption community members from all over the world. All opinions are welcomed and included.

Adoption, Identity & Kinship: The Debate Over Sealed Birth Records. Katarina Wegar. 1996. Yale University Press. Katarina Wegar, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Old Dominion University, placing adoption and the search debate within a social context, argues that Americans who are embroiled in adoption controversies have failed to understand how much the debate, adoption research, and the experience of adoption itself are affected by persistent social beliefs that adopted children are different from and somehow inferior to children reared by their biological families.

Adoption in a Color-Blind Society. Pamela Anne Quiroz. 2007. 144p. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Adoption in a Color-blind Society illustrates how the political economy of private domestic adoption intersects with the political economy of racism to generate quite different demands for infants and children of different races and how the private adoption arena responds to these demands. This book argues that rather than moving towards a color-blind democracy, we instead live in a context where race continues to matter substantially, particularly in arenas closest to home.

Adoption in America: Coming of Age. Hal Aigner. 1986. 208p. Paradigm Press. Some 25 million people are touched in some way by adoption in the U.S. today, as either adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, or their relatives. Past secrecy associated with adoption policies and procedures has resulted in numerous problems. In recent years, many people have pressed for reforms.Adoption in America seeks to identify the larger agenda and analyze challenges faced by the reform movement, attempting to unify the interests of all concerned.

Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives. E Wayne Carp, ed. 2002. 264p. University of Michigan Press. Adoption in America sheds new light on the history of adoption and orphanages in the United States. E. Wayne Carp’s introduction follows the development of adoption from the colonial period to the present. The multidisciplinary essays that follow provide an in-depth look at adoption from a number of perspectives, exploring such topics as antebellum adoption and orphanages, changing conceptions of adoption in late-nineteenth-century novels, Progressive Era reform and adoptive mothers, the politics of “matching” adoptive parents with children, the radical effect of World War II on adoption practices, religion and the reform of adoption, the construction of birth-mother and adoptee identities, and much more. This study of adoption and adoption policy in the United States provides a fascinating glimpse into a range of issues, from social welfare to gender relations and identity construction, and provides provocative interpretations that will be debated for many years to come. The use of the confidential adoption case records of the Children’s Home Society of Washington in several of the essays opens a new era in adoption historiography. E. Wayne Carp, an expert on adoption history and the contemporary debate over sealed adoption records, was the first scholar to gain access to these records. Adoption affects an estimated sixty percent of Americans. Despite its pervasiveness, it has been little examined and poorly understood. Adoption in America will interest historians, students of culture, sociologists, and anyone affected by adoption.About the Editor: E. Wayne Carp is Professor of History, Pacific Lutheran College. By the Same Author: Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption (1998).

Adoption in India: Policies & Experiences. Vinita Bhargava. 2005. 286p. Sage Publications. This book researches child adoption in India and challenges prevalent theories of adoption. It is the only book of its kind to lend a voice to adopted children and shares the narratives of many families in their experiences of adoption. It also recounts the personal story of the author as an adoptive parent. The first part of the book deals with the macro issues of child adoption, while the second provides a micro-level analysis of individual families. The socio-political and socio-cultural contexts within which adoptions occur are also analyzed.

Adoption in IV. Century Athens. Lene Rubinstein. 1993. 148p. Museum Tusculanum Press. The main focus of this study is on the institution of adoption, so that tomb-cult as well as aspects of Athenian family life and the Athenian legislation which regulated it, are treated only in so far as they have a direct bearing on the main topic. In Athens, adoption could take place in three different ways. Firstly, the adoption could be carried out while the adopter himself was still alive - usually referred to as adoption inter vivos. Secondly, a man could nominate an heir in his will, stipulating that his beneficiary was to succeed him as his adopted son or daughter - the so called testamentary adoption. Finally, if a man died without leaving a legitimate son, whether natural or adopted, a posthumous adoption could be carried out on his behalf, without the adopter having played any active part in the procedure. It is argued here that a person was only eligible for posthumous adoption if he had already been recognized as the intestate heir of the deceased by the People’s Court by an inheritance-procedure called “epidikasia” (or sometimes “diadikasia” if the court was to decide on several contesting claims). In juridic treatments of the institution, it is seen as belonging to the sphere of “private law.” Much attention has been devoted to the contractual nature of the adoption which was carried out inter vivos, as opposed to the unilateral nature of a testamentary adoption (where a testator would nominate an adoptee in his will). The difference between the two types of adoption is alleged to have been one of substance rather than procedure. In this work, however, it is argued that the main difference between the two types of adoption was one of procedure: adoption took place in public, in the adopter’s phratry and deme, whether prior to the death of the adopter (inter vivos) or posthumously (testamentary and posthumous adoption). It is also argued that it was the formal recognition of the adoptee by the adopter’s phratry and deme which constituted the adoption itself and its social and legal validity. Thus, the distinction between “private” and “public” begins to break down. Contents: Who adopted and who were adopted?; Procedures of adoption; Why did the Athenians adopt?; Posthumous adoption & intestate heirs.

Adoption in Japan: Comparing Policies for Children in Need. Peter Hayes & Toshie Habu. 2006. 166p. Routledge (UK). Adoption in Japan tackles the innovative and sometimes controversial subject of the policies of adoption agencies in Japan. The book places special adoption and the context of a liberal reformist agenda that has challenged traditional concepts of the family through the efforts to place children with difficult family backgrounds, including mixed and minority ethnic backgrounds. It also considers the central policy issue of whether agencies should be given a free hand to create their own policies, or whether they should be more tightly regulated. Finally, the book analyses how different agency strategies for finding homes for hard-to-place children are related to different assumptions about the psychology and reasoning of prospective parents.Adoption in Japan will make a significant contribution to the academic literature in the fields of Japanese studies, public policy, social work and sociology. It will also be of interest to professionals involved in adoption agencies, specialist socialwork and adoption panels.

Adoption in the Discourses of the French Revolution. Eric Andrew Goodheart. 1997. 393p. Harvard University Department of Romance Languages Ph.D. Thesis. The concept of adoption in France, particularly during the time of the French Revolution.See also, Publications by Eric Andrew Goodheart.

Adoption in the 1980s: PHS 90-1250. (Advance Data from Vital & Health Statistics Ser: No 181). Natl Ctr Health Stats.

Adoption in the Two Jurisdictions of Ireland: A Comparative Study. Kerry O’Halloran. 1994. 256p. Ashgate Pub Co (UK).

Adoption in the United States: A Reference for Families, Professionals, & Students. Martha J Henry & Daniel Pollack. 2008. 250p. Lyceum Books, Inc. Navigating the complex U.S. system of adoption is no easy feat. Don’t go it alone! Educate yourself with this invaluable guide. This is the only comprehensive book that includes information on both the medical and health aspects of adoption and the different laws and procedures regarding adoption for each state. The authors provide a consolidated picture of the regulations for intercountry adoptions in addition to those for adoption from public foster care and domestic infant adoption. This book is a must read prospective parents, adoption professionals, educators, and students.About the Authors: Martha J. Henry, M.A., Ph.D., is director of the Center for Adoption Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Her background in developmental psychology informs her work creating adoption and foster care curricula and training sessions for medical, social service, and educational professionals, as well as for families. She has developed seminars for medical students regarding health care practice that includes considerations for adoption and foster care. Her research focuses on permanency solutions for children needing families.Daniel Pollack, M.S.W., J.D., is professor of social work at Yeshiva University and senior fellow at the Center for Adoption Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has held positions at the Ohio Department of Human Services, Maryland Social Services Administration, and has been the executive assistant to Ohio’s governor. He is an executive committee member for the World Initiative for Orphans and a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), as well as the Family Court Reform Coalition. He is an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and has published extensively.

Adoption Law: Practice & Procedure in the 21st Century. Golda Zimmerman, Esq, ed. 2004. New York State Bar Association. Adoption is a specialized field, calling for skill in maneuvering through the maze of regulations within the state, among the states and, often, those of other countries. Some of the joy in practicing adoption law comes from successfully working through the obstacles, but in all cases, the attorney must be wary of pitfalls. Adoption Law: Practice and Procedure in the 21st Century is here to lead your way. Written by leading adoption law attorneys across the country, this text of first reference will guide adoption lawyers through the many challenges they face practicing in the area of adoption law—whether representing birthparents, adoption agencies, or individuals or couples seeking to adopt. It includes comprehensive coverage of agency adoptions; privateplacement adoption; interstate adoptions; federal laws and regulations changing intercountry adoptions; adopting a foster child; homestudy; contested adoptions; the Indian Child Welfare Act; wrongful adoption; facilitators; assisted reproductive technology and the law; adoption assistance and the special needs of children; adoption mediation; sibling rights; and over 250 pages of forms, many of which are available on CD-ROM. This is an indispensable resource for any attorney practicing in the adoption law arena. About the Editor-in-Chirf: A frequent speaker and lecturer on adoption law, Golda Zimmerman is internationally recognized for her expertise in the field. She is an attorney for New Life Adoption Agency, Inc., a licensed, not-for-profit adoption agency based in Syracuse, NY, and she also represents adoptive parents and birth parents in private-placement adoptions. A graduate of the Syracuse University College of Law, Ms. Zimmerman has an extensive knowledge of domestic and intercountry adoption, and possesses particular expertise in Chinese adoptions. She has visited China as a guest of that country on numerous occasions, and was invited by the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs to serve as part of a 30-member delegation to study ways to ease intercountry adoption processes. For more than a decade, Ms. Zimmerman taught adoption law at Syracuse University; she is one of only a handful of professionals who teach in this specialty area. She is a sought-after speaker on the subject of adoption law, presenting to attorneys and other groups and organizations, at regional and national conferences. Ms. Zimmerman is a three-term board member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, serves on the board of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, and is currently director of the Onondaga County Bar Association. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Family Law Section, and was author and editor of the NYSBA’s first treatise on adoption law, Adoption Law in New York. In 2004, Ms. Zimmerman was honored as an “Angel in Adoption,” an award given by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. This award recognizes individuals who have made a difference in the lives of children, in this country and around the world, in need of permanent, safe and loving homes, and who have worked to eliminate the barriers that hinder these children from fulfilling their basic need of a family.

Adoption Law: Theory, Policy & Practice. Cynthia R. Mabry & Lisa Kelly. 2006. 808p. William S Hein & Co. Every state in America, along with the District of Columbia, has enacted adoption laws to protect the interests of birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees. Unfortunately, these laws vary greatly from state to state. Because adoption was not available at common law, adoption rights and procedure are created solely from statutory laws. Thus statutes and regulations that govern adoptions in each state must be strictly construed. Professors Mabry and Kelly embarked upon this work after finding no published casebook that covered adoption law at length. Their work comprises statutes from every region of the U.S., along with those of most states. While many similarities will be found in the statutes of each state, noteworthy distinctions are included. Professors Mabry and Kelly refer throughout the work to the Uniform Adoption Act (1994 version) that if enacted, would resolve discrepancies. At the time of publication, Vermont is the only state to adopt the measure endorsed by both the American Bar Association and American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. The casebook includes practice pointers from various sources, a hearing transcript and forms that will provide researchers with a sense of the practice of adoption law. Instructors will find these forms to be valuable tools for class discussion, while practitioners and students will find them to be an asset for creating similar documents or in seeking the correct forms from legal sources.Adoption Law: Theory, Policy And Practice serves as both insightful reference guide and textbook.

Adoption Law & Practice. Dalip Chand Manooja. (India). Deep & Deep Pubns.

Adoption Law & Practice. Kerry O’Halloran. Butterworth Ireland (UK).

Adoption Law in Canada: Practice & Procedure. Carswell.

Adoption Law in Ireland. 1992. Boxed. Michie.

Adoption Law in Northern Ireland. Kerry O’Halloran. SLS Legal Publications, School of Law, Queen’s University (UK).

Adoption Law Manual. Nasreen Pearce. 2006. 573p. Callow Publishing, Ltd (UK).

Adoption Life Cycle, The: The Children & Their Families Through the Years. Elinor B Rosenberg. 1992. 250p. Free Press. From Publishers Weekly: Many of the growing number of books about adoption are essentially how-tos, guiding prospective adoptive parents through the emotional and legal thickets adoption requires. Rosenberg, a family therapist and professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, has written a more unusual work: a careful, scholarly examination of the psychological relationships involved in the strange three-way partnership of child, birth parents and adoptive parents. Each party, she points out, has its own set of priorities and anxieties, and she addresses these with imagination and empathy (she might have included more case studies, however, in order to enliven and humanize her work). Rosenberg also illuminates changing social attitudes toward adoption, from secretiveness to cheery optimism to the current state of anxiety about being completely fair to all parties—an impossibility given the highly conflicted nature of the process itself. She thoughtfully raises many seldom-aired questions with insight and candor. © 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Adoption Matters: Philosophical & Feminist Essays. Sally Haslanger & Charlotte Witt. 2005. 320p. Cornell University Press. The institution of adoption has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as the adoption world has undergone seismic shifts: the rise in international and transracial adoptions and the effects of global economics; adoption by gays and lesbians; increasing openness in the adoption process; and changes in domestic welfare policy on adoption.Adoption Matters adds to our understanding of reproduction, parenting, and familial bonds, personal identity and self-knowledge, and contemporary social policy. The contributors to Adoption Matters explore a range of related topics, such as the manner in which interracial or international adoption affects the way we perceive the relationships among race, ethnicity, and culture and how class affects one’s life prospects and choices.About the Authors: Sally Haslanger is Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Charlotte Witt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. She is the author of Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Substance and Essence in Aristotle: An Interpretation of Metaphysics VII-IX (both from Cornell).

Adoption Mystique, The. Joanne Wolf Small. 2004. 200p. Authorhouse. Desperation, neediness, and the powerlessness of birth parents, infertile couples and adopted persons fuel the powerful adoption monolith. Too often “adoption” and “adoptee” imply different, separate, and outside the norm. Propaganda, research, and theories fail to tell the whole story. To help readers understand the paradigm of adoption, the author explores how the fantasy that has been carefully crafted to protect adoption’s institutional image contrasts with the harsher reality experienced by those the institution was meant to serve.From the Author: Much of what’s been written and said about adoption—the definitions, myths, interpretations, and so on—was generated by non-adopted persons, and often without benefit of adopted person’s input. No wonder we know so little about adoption’s aftermath. That adoption holds sway over millions of people is testimony to its effect. The issues have lain buried, and most of the affected have kept silent beneath the weight of adoption’s power. The framework that surrounds adoption law, policies, and practice, the beliefs, myths and attitudes that endow it with enhanced and profound meaning, value, and mystery are what I call The Adoption Mystique. — J.W. Small

Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution Is Transforming America. Adam Pertman. 2000. 256p. Basic Books. An adoptive father and award-winning journalist reports on the metamorphosis of adoption, from a secretive, shameful process to an integral part of—and catalyst for change in—American family life. Adoption, once a clandestine process shrouded in shame, is rapidly evolving into a radical new form that is both sweeping the nation and changing it. It is accelerating our transformation into a more multicultural and multiethnic country, even as it helps redefine our understanding of “family.” But negative stereotypes still remain, and new problems—mostly stemming from the corrosive influence of money-are becoming pervasive.Adoption Nation provides valuable insight into the pleasures and perils of adoption, while laying out the ways in which policymakers should revise our laws to improve the process, stop treating members of the “adoption triad” as second-class citizens, and remove the obstacles that keep the children who most need permanent homes from getting them. Filled with up-to-the-minute information and a wealth of dramatic real-life stories, Adoption Nation is essential reading for adoptive families, for anyone contemplating adopting a child, and for everyone touched by this extraordinary cultural transformation.About the Author: Adam Pertman is a staff reporter for the Boston Globe. He was a Pulitzer Prize nominee for a series of articles on adoption published by the Globe and has been awarded the Century Foundation’s Leonard Silk Journalism Fellowship for Adoption Nation. He and his wife, Judy Baumwoll, live with their two adopted children in Newton, Massachusetts.

Adoption New Zealand: The Never-Ending Story. Sheryn Gillard-Glass & Jan England. 2002. 235p. HarperCollins (NZ). People whose lives have been affected by adoption in New Zealand (from birth and foster parents and the children themselves) tell their stories and reveal the impact it has had on their lives. Sheryn is a solicitor in Christchurch specialising in tax law. She has four adult children and two grandchildren. She is also co-founder of Catholic Women: Knowing Our Place, an organisation which works to improve the position of women in the Church. In her spare time she is a keen gardener and family genealogist.

Adoption Now: Messages From Research. Roy Parker. 1999. 184p. John Wiley & Sons (UK). Adoption has undergone a transformation in the last decade or so, and has brought with it new and pressing issues such as the adoption of older children from care; contact with birth families after adoption; transracial placement; single-person adoption; and the need for a post-adoption support service. Over recent years, the Department of Health has commissioned a range of studies on adoption. They have since set up a working party—largely comprising practitioners—to review the results of these studies and draw out the implications for practice and policy. Topics in this book include: the adoption of older children from care; contact with birth families after adoption; trans-racial placement; single-person adoption; children talking about moving to adoption; research on children adopted from Romania; and polices and practices.

Adoption of Children. JF Josling & A Levy. 1980. 256p. Oyez (UK).

Adoption of Children in Scotland. Peter GB McNeill. W Green (UK).

Adoption of Children With Special Needs. Florence G Brown. 1958. CWLA.

Adoption of Children With Special Needs: Issues in Law & Policy. 1985. 250p. ABA.

Adoption, Paternity & Other Florida Family Practice. Florida Bar Staff. 1996. 3d ed. 404p. Ring binder, w/disk.Cases & Materials on Florida Domestic Relations. 1982. 862p. looseleaf. FL Bar Legal Ed.

Adoption Policy & Special Needs Children. Rosemary J Avery, ed. 1997. 240p. Greenwood. This edited volume contains contributions from leading researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and advocates in adoption policy and practice. Topics covered include adoption advocacy, race and adoption, placement of older and disabled children, adoption disruption, adoptive parent recruitment, and policy related to federal adoption subsidy support.

Adoption Politics: Bastard Nation & Ballot Initiative 58. E Wayne Carp. 2004. 248p. University Press of Kansas. The passage of Measure 58 in Oregon in 1998 was a milestone in adoption reform. For the first time in U.S. history a grassroots initiative restored the legal right of adopted adults to request and receive their original birth certificates. Within a day after the law went into effect, nearly 2,400 adoptees had applied for these previously sealed records, elevating their right to know over a birth mother’s right to privacy. E. Wayne Carp, a nationally respected authority on adoption history, now reveals the efforts of the radical adoptee rights organization Bastard Nation to pass this milestone initiative. He has written an intimate history of a passionately proposed and opposed initiative that has the potential to revolutionize the adoption reform movement nationwide. Carp follows the campaign from its inception through the hard-fought signature drives of proponents Helen Hill and Shea Grimm to the electoral campaign and ensuing court battles. The opposition was formidable: government officials, adoption agencies, news media, the ACLU, religious organizations, and ad-hoc citizen political groups. Using correspondence and his own candid interviews with all the key players, Carp shows how both sides mobilized their constituencies and formed their strategies. In describing challenges to Measure 58’s constitutionality, Carp reveals legal arguments that were never publicized by the Oregon media and remained unknown to the American public until now—issues centering on privacy rights that are crucial to understanding both sides of the controversy and the hazards of initiative politics. As Carp shows, Measure 58 was important because it framed the issue of adoption reform in terms of civil rights and equal protection of the law rather than in terms of psychological needs or medical necessity. The resulting law now gives adult adoptees access to birth certificates but it also allows birth mothers to indicate whether or not they wish to be contacted. Carp not only chronicles a milestone initiative and a model piece of legislation for other states to emulate, he also proposes a sensible way to cut the Gordian Knot that bedevils adoption reform today.

Adoption Practice & Procedure. Nasreen Pearce. 1984. 145p. Fourmat Publishing.

Adoption Project. A Brodzinsky. 1992. Doubleday.

Adoption Resources for Mental Health Professionals. Pamela Grabe & Paul Reitnauer. 1989. 400p. Transaction Publications.

Adoption, Search & Reunion: The Long-Term Experience of Adopted Adults. David Howe & Julia Feast. 2000. 210p. The Children’s Society (UK). This fascinating study, originally published by The Children’s Society, has now been reprinted by British Agencies For Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) with a new introduction. By comparing a group of adopted people who searched for birth relatives with a group who did not, it provides real answers about why some adopted adults decide to search for their natural parents while others do not. Using nearly 500 adopted people, the research looked in detail at all the possible influences on their decision—their adoption experience, their sense of belonging or difference in the family, when and how much they were told about their origins, whether this was openly discussed in the family, transracial or same-race adoption, and their gender. As the “non-searchers” were contacted by a birth relative, the authors were also able to compare the two groups’ experiences of reunion, its duration and its effect on their feelings towards their adoptive parents. This study is a “rare combination: a meticulous presentation of sound research findings and a thoroughly absorbing read.” The extensive quotes from adoptive people create a compelling narrative about their personal struggle to resolve fundamental dilemmas of identity, origins and relationships. At the same time, its important findings and intelligent analysis will make it indispensable not only for adoption workers but also for all those concerned with the identity needs of children.

Adoption Support Services for Families in Difficulty: A Literature Review & UK Survey. Alan Rushton & Cherilyn Dance. 2002. 121p. British Association for Adoption & Fostering (UK). Three years on from the government circular Adoption—Achieving the right balance, this book reviews the literature concerning support services for adoptions in difficulty and the findings of a survey on service developments in local authority and voluntary adoption agencies. The literature review concludes that although services have been slow to develop, a window of opportunity exists at the present time but more needs to be known about what adoptive families feel they need and indeed what types of intervention work best. The survey is the first UK-wide research into the types of routine and specialist support services available for adoptive families from statutory and voluntary agencies. It reveals that most local authorities, especially in England and Wales, recognise adoption as a life-long process and are working towards improving services, not just post-placement, but also after the adoption order has been granted. However, services from health and education were not generally perceived as adoption-aware and access to more specialist support from them was patchy. Examples of different service models and delivery mechanisms now available, plus the views of users, will be of interest to anyone needing to develop support services for adoptive families.
Contents include:
Part 1: A review of the literature on support for adoptions in difficulty The need for support and calls for service expansion The development of adoption support services and evidence of effectiveness UK Government policy and current initiatives
Part 2: The UK Survey Context and method Agencies’ responses to the challenge of improving practice Current support services: routine and specialist Discussion and conclusions.

Adoption Triangle, The: Searching & Uniting. Julia Tugendhat. 1992. 120p. Bloomsbury Pub Ltd (UK). The 1975 Children’s Act gave children who had been adopted access to their birth certificates and therefore access to at least one of their birth parents. This book includes interviews with many adult adoptees, as well as birth parents, adoptive parents and those professionally involved.

Adoption Triangle, The: Sealed or Opened Records: How They Affect Adoptees, Birthparents & Adoptive Parents. Arthur D Sorosky, et al. 1978. 256p. Anchor Press/Doubleday. This book presents the findings of years of study at the Adoption Research Project in Los Angeles, California. It presents the central psychological issues of birth parents, adoptive parents and children. It also tackles the controversial issues surrounding reunions of adult adoptees with their birth families.The Adoption Triangle has retained it’s relevance. It continues to provide information and direction for members of the personal and professional adoption family.

Adoption Triangle Revisited, The: A Study of Adoption, Search & Reunion Experiences. John Triseliotis, Julia Feast, & Fiona Kyle. 2005. 402p. British Agencies for Adoption & Fostering (UK). Research report giving a comprehensive picture of the adoption experience and the impact and outcome of the search and reunion process for all the key players What do adoptive parents think of their son or daughter’s search for birth parents and other family members? How do birth mothers react to being approached? Have they thought about the child they parted with and longed for contact? Where do birth fathers fit in? And how do adopted people handle having a birth and an adoptive family? Based on the experience of 93 adoptive and birth parents, 126 adopted people and 15 birth fathers, this book provides some answers based on a study in early 2000. Presenting the individual perspective of birth mothers, adopted people and adoptive parents on what the adoption search and reunion experience has meant to them, the book then examines and contrasts the feelings, thoughts and reactions of matched pairs of adopted people and their birth mothers and adoptive parents. This unique and fascinating study includes for the first time pairs of birth mothers and adoptive parents and their sons and daughters and finally triads of birth mothers, adopted people and adoptive parents highlighting shared and different feelings and evaluations of their experiences of adoption, search and reunion. It provides new information and insights for all those with a personal or professional interest in adoption and the search and reunion experience.

Adoption Update. Victor Littel, ed. 2003. 121p. Nova Science Publishers. Contents: Same-Sex Adoptions by Alison M. Smith; Romanian Policy Regarding Adoptions by Sergiu Verona; Intercountry Adoption Convention Implementation Act of 1999: Summary and Analysis of S.682 by Douglas Reid Weimer; Adoption Tax Credit and Exclusion by Louis Alan Talley; Adoption Tax Proposals by Louis Alan Talley; Adoption Promotion and Stability Act of 1996: The Tax Proposals by Louis Alan Talley; Adoption: Parental Rights and Children’s Interests by Gina Marie Stevens; Adoption: Federal Programs and Issues by Dale H. Robinson; Adoption: Interethnic Placement Legislation In the 104th Congress by Karen Sgar; Access to Adoption Records by Alison M. Smith.

Adoptions Without Agencies: A Study of Independent Adoptions. William Meezan, Sanford Katz & Eva Manoff Russo. 1978. 237p.CWLA. Adoptions Without Agencies is the first thorough, comprehensive national research study of the actual conditions under which independent, non-agency adoptions are carried out, as experienced by biological parents, adoptive parents, agencies, intermediaries and law-enforcement agents. While neither recommending nor discouraging so-called independent adoptions, the study examines the elements of legal and psychological risk in such adoptions, and their extent. Among the findings are several pertaining to social agency operation and organization that the CWLA seeks to emphasize.

Adoptive & Foster Parent Screening: A Professional Guide for Professionsals. James L Dickerson & Mardi Allen. 2006. 230p. Brunner-Routledge. Screening applicants for adoption or foster homes has life-altering consequences for the children involved, yet there are incredibly few programs available to train screeners. The educational system that certifies thousands of social workers each year does not understand the specialized training required to screen adoptive and foster parents; social work schools provide minimal interview training and what training they do provide focuses on therapeutic interview techniques rather than screening skills. There is a clear need for a book like Tough Choices, one that can be incorporated into course requirements and used by working social workers and psychologists involved with adoption and foster parent screening.The Screener, written by a former social worker, who has placed hundreds of children into adoptive and foster homes, and a clinical psychologist, will mesh the best of psychology and social work experience into a definitive guide for screening adoption and foster home applicants. The book will provide information on:
   • Evaluating aberrant behavior and unhealthy parenting attitudes
   • Interview techniques
   • Psychological testing
The Screener will target a professional and academic audience, but it will be written in an accessible style that will be free of technical language, thus making it appropriate for college level students and professionals who don’t have time to sift through empirical data to obtain accessible information that they can adapt to their profession. It will not be written for adoptive parents. It will be based on case histories, research data, and interpretive analysis.

Adoptive Families in a Diverse Society. Katarina Wegar. 2006. Rutgers University Press. In recent years, different family types have begun demanding recognition to an unprecedented extent. Despite notable changes to our cultural and academic landscapes, however, many types of kinship remain overlooked. Among the most commonly understudied are adoptive families. According to census data, about two and a half percent of children in the United States are adopted. But mere numbers do not begin to indicate the profound impact that these families have on cultural definitions of kinship.Adoptive Families in a Diverse Society brings together 21 prominent scholars to explore the experience, practice, and policy of adoption in North America. While much existing literature tends to stress the potential problems inherent in non-biological kinships, the essays in this volume consider adoptive family life in a broad and balanced context, encompassing the challenges as well as the strengths. Essays explore our current fascination with genetics, showing how our intense belief that we are produced, shaped, and controlled by our genes has affected the authenticity and value that we credit to adoptive parent/child relations. Other essays look at identity development, community attitudes toward adoption, gay adoptive fathers’ experiences, the ways in which single mother adoptive families create kinship, and the ways in which cultural assumptions about race and class operate in the system. Bringing new perspectives to the topics of kinship, identity, and belonging, this path-breaking book expands more than our understandings of adoptive family life; it urges us to rethink the limits and possibilities of diversity and assimilation in American society. About the Author: Katarina Wegar is an associate professor of sociology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.

Adoptive Family as a Healing Resource for the Sexually Abused Child, The: A Training Manual. Deborah H Minshew, MSSW & Chrisan Hooper, MSSW. 1989. CWLA. This training manual helps adoptive families prepare for the challenges of parenting sexually abused children, teaching them how to integrate the adoptee successfully into their own family system and including advice on the management of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Adoptive Kinship: A Modern Institution in Need of Reform.H David Kirk. 1981. 173p. Butterworth & Co. (Canada) Ltd.; Revised Edition: 1985. 200p. Ben-Simon. This follow-up to Dr. Kirk’s groundbreaking work of the early ’60s, Shared Fate, is divided into two parts: The first considers the place of adoptive kinship in the context of interpersonal relations, tracing crucial steps that led to the Shared Fate theory; the second has its focus the institutional arrangements—social services and laws—which make adoptive family life possible, linking the interpersonal strains with the institutional constradictions.

Adoptive Parenthood in Hong Kong. Grace Po-Chee Ko. 2000. 245p. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd (UK). This is the first systematic study of non relative adoption in Hong Kong 1987-93, based on an ethnographic study of 486 case files and will be of interest to academics, researchers, policy-makers and professionals in social work, social policy and Asian studies.

Adoptive Parenting Process, The: A Study of the Experiences of Parents Who Adopt Infant Girls from China. Nili Luo. 2008. 116p. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. In 2003, there were 39,500 Chinese children living in the US who were adopted from China. While 113 were adopted from 1989-1991, in 2002, 5,900 Chinese children were adopted by US parents. Little is known about the scientific, psychological, or social issues surrounding the adopted children and their parents. The study used a qualitative approach to assess experiences of US parents who had adopted Chinese children. In this study, expected and unexpected results occurred. Analysis of the interviews yielded six major themes: 1) Parents’ descriptions of their own childhood family structure and childhood experiences; 2) Parents’ expectations, prior to and during the adoption experience, for the adoption to improve the family unit; 3) Changes in the parents’ relationships after the adoption; 4) The adoptive parents’ expectations of the adopted child; 5) The most challenging experiences of the adoptive parents; and 6) the meaning of the adoption for the parents.About the Author: Nili Luo, Ed.D., studied at the school of education at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and East Normal University, Shanghai, China. She has been teaching in both China and the United States for over ten years. Currently Dr. Luo serves as professor and director of Early Childhood Education at Southwestern College, Winfield, KS, U.S.A.

Adventuring in Adoption. Lee Marshall Brooks. 1939. 225p. University of North Carolina Press.

Affirming the Birth Mother’s Journey: A Peer Counselor’s Guide to Adoption Counseling. Wendy Lowe, Jutta Wittmeier & Carmen Wittmeier. 2006. 206p. Trafford Publishing. Counselors who deal with women in crisis pregnancies are frequently hindered by fear, negative preconceptions, and ignorance regarding one of the positive, life-affirming options available to women: adoption. Many counselors are unaware of the wide array of choices now available to clients seeking to place. Sadly, the failure to inform a woman about her alternativesƒincluding the possibility of placing in an open adoptionƒcan prove detrimental to both mother and child. Recognizing the needs of its clients, the Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre has embraced the adoption option. In addition to addressing volunteers’ fears and equipping them to present the alternative in a positive, non-threatening manner, the Centre (based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) provides clients with ongoing support. The results have been striking: whereas the American adoption rate is one percent and the Canadian rate is two percent, Alberta’s rate is four percent. The Centre itself has seen years in which up to ten percent of clients carrying to term have placed. Taken from the birth mother’s perspective, and written for counselors, this book explains how Pregnancy Centers can support clients through the complex adoption and grief process. Its aim is to help counselors present the adoption option; enable clients to choose adoptive parents and nurture long-term relationships; support women through the grief process; run a successful birth mothers’ support group; and contend with other pertinent issues. Included are extensive interviews with birth mothers and other members of the adoption constellation. Open adoption is a positive option. We have walked with birth mothers through decision-making, grief, and joy. We have seen their children thrive in relationships with both the biological and adoptive families. We have watched adoptive couples become advocates for open adoption. Our hope now is to equip other Centers to give clients this life-changing opportunity.

After Adoption: Direct Contact & Relationships. Janette Logan & Carole Smith. 2003. 216p. Routledge. Few children nowadays are placed for adoption without any form of contact planned with birth relatives and professional practitioners are increasingly advocating the value of direct rather than indirect contact. Practice has outstripped evidence in this respect and not enough is known about how contact arrangements actually work out, particularly for older children adopted from state care. Such children have often experienced neglect and abuse, and they have frequently been adopted without parental agreement. Based on research with a large number of adoptive parents, children and birth relatives, After Adoption considers the impact of direct (face-to-face) post-adoption contact on all concerned in such cases.After Adoption challenges readers to re-think the relationship between adoption and the possibility of direct post-adoption contact and at the same time provides a comprehensive understanding of adoption issues. It is a timely and valuable addition to the literature on adoption, making a substantial contribution to policy and practice.

After Adoption: The Needs of Adopted Youth. Jeanne A Howard & Susan Livingston Smith. 2003. 152p. CWLA. How do children adopted from foster care and their families fare after adoption? The good news is that the majority of children are doing well in their homes, schools, and communities. Yet many children and their families continue to struggle with the legacy of loss and maltreatment that brought them to foster care in the first place. After Adoption: The Needs of Adopted Youth examines the experiences of more than a thousand adoptive families to find out how they are functioning years after the adoption. It analyzes the risk and resiliency factors associated with adjustment and examines differences in adoptions by kin, foster parents, and those matched with children for the purpose of adoption.After Adoption will help child welfare professionals better prepare parents and children for adoption as well as assist them in developing postadoption services to sustain and strengthen adoptive families.

Aid & After: Papers from BAAF, BASW & a Scottish Working Party. British Agencies for Adoption & Fostering Staff, ed. 1984. 71p. British Agencies for Adoption & Fostering (UK).

All Our Families: New Policies for a New Century. Mary A Mason, Arlene Skolnick & Stephen D Sugarman, eds. 1998. 272p. Oxford University Press. Current debates about the family have frequently focused on the idealized family of the 1950’s—middle class, two parents, and two children. The Evolving American Family focuses on the lives of the majority of American families who do not live in this so-called ideal family situation. Examining the many types of contemporary families of today, chapters cover divorcing families, single parent families, step families, dual income families, adolescent parent families, adoptive families, and gay and lesbian families. The authors examine the social and historical context in which these new families have emerged and show the new conflicts and challenges to contemporary social policy that have arised, including custody disputes, the legal meaning of family, family poverty, parental kidnapping, abuse and neglect, and the economic and psychological problems facing young couples. The book also looks at the clash between the psychological and biological parents in resolving family disputes. The Evolving American Family examines the current state of all families and proposes new policies for strengthening those families as we move into the next century.

Annotated Guide to Adoption Research, An. Deborah L Martin. 1998. 368p.CWLA. Published in conjunction with the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, the Annotated Guide to Adoption Research presents approximately 850 abstracts of qualitative and quantitative adoption research conducted and/or published between 1986 and 1997, encompassing clinical and non-clinical samples, case studies, longitudinal studies, epidemiological studies, grounded theory, experimental research, and single-subject research. A valuable resource for all members of the adoption community! — Debbie L Martin

As If Kids Mattered: What’s Wrong in the World of Child Protection & Adoption. Marlene Webber. Foreword by Sonja Smits. 1998. 238p. Key Porter Books (Canada). In a fast-paced world the definition of a family is never constant. Marlene Webber, an adoptive parent, and highly acclaimed writer of social issues, has written this contemporary and non-traditional look at adoptive families. Marlene Webber traveled across North America interviewing all different types of families to gain a comprehensive understanding of what family and adoption means to individuals. In the course of her research it became clear that the adoption system itself needed to be addressed, more specifically, the public agencies responsible for protecting children and placing them in permanent homes needed closer scrutiny. To Webber’s dismay, what she discovered was a system in deep trouble, one that is failing miserably to meet the needs of potential adoptive parents and, most tragically, the needs of the children.As If Kids Mattered carefully studies then analyzes the many problems and failures of public adoption agencies that are shared by child protection agencies. Webber also discusses specifically the inquests into child abuse deaths of kids under the care of Children’s Aid. The reader will also learn about the upbeat process of the private and specialty adoption agencies which have sprung up in the system’s wake, to fill the pressing need for family. As If Kids Mattered is essential for anyone who is contemplating adoption, those parents who already have adopted, and the people who work on behalf of children.

Assessing the Support Needs of Adopted Children & Their Families: Building Secure Placements—New Lives. Liza Bingley Miller, Arnon Bentovim & Ben Miller. 2006. 160p. Routledge (UK). Written in consultation with a range of experts, clinicians and practitioners as well as adoptive children, families and birth relatives, this book gives helpful guidance on making evidence-based assessments and planning successful adoption support. Key features include: a discussion of the main themes of adoption and pointers for practice in relation to the Assessment Framework; a guide to the use of evidence-based approaches to assessment, including the tools commissioned by the Department of Health and the Department for Education; a model for analysis and planning, and planning support and interventions; and an investigation of the source, range and value of support services and interventions that can promote the wellbeing of adopted children, their adoptive families and birth relatives. Packed with practical advice, case examples and models of good practice, this book is invaluable for social workers and managers involved with the adoption process and the well-being of children and families. It is also essential reading for social work students learning about working with children and families.

Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents. Deborah D Gray. 2002. 391p. Perspective Press. Proper attachment is the most fundamental issue in a successful adoption, but what exactly does the term mean? Attaching in Adoption answers that question thoroughly, and it provides solutions to a variety of specific attachment problems. Along with technical explanations of challenges such as self-esteem, childhood grief, and limit-testing, the book includes a tremendous number of personal vignettes illustrating attachment-related situations. Parents who are convinced that only their child has ever behaved a certain way are sure to take comfort in these stories; not only do they include kids from all backgrounds and age groups, but each has an ultimately happy ending. The emotional health of the whole family is also paramount according to the book—with plenty of rest and “alone time,” caregivers are more likely to be emotionally available when they are most needed. Because Attaching in Adoption focuses on special needs, families who are coming together through foster programs, at later ages, or across cultural lines will find it especially helpful. Both psychologically detailed and straightforwardly helpful, it can be of equal benefit to counselors and parents alike. — Jill Lightner (Amazon.com)