Book Review: Cross Cultural Adoption

by Shoshanna Grey | More from this Blogger

25 May 2006 06:53 PM

"Cross-Cultural Adoption: How to Answer Questions from Family, Friends and Community" by Amy Coughlin and Caryn Abramowitz

If you adopt internationally, then you are adopting cross-culturally. This is true even if the child you adopt has the same skin color as you do. Because of this, it is important for families to take the time to embrace the culture of their adopted child. Also, we need to be prepared for the questions that family, friends and community will have about our adoptive family, how it was formed and what it means to our child.

The book "Cross-Cultural Adoption: How to Answer Questions from Family, Friends and Community", is a great resource for how to answer those difficult queries that often come up for adoptive families.

What I liked about this book was that it is broken down into easy-to-read chapters and it doesn't waste time with a lot of unneeded material. Instead, it starts with a common question that you might be asked as an adoptive family. Then, it gives you tactful, but also informative ways to answer the question. It even breaks it down into answers you can give to children (or give to your adopted child to use at school, for instance) and then a more complex answer that can be given to adults.

Some of the great questions that are answered include:

Where is she from? Who are her "real' parents? Why didn't her "real" parents want her? Why does she look different? Was she abandoned? How much did they pay for her? What if they want to give her back? Won't she feel sad when she finds out you are adopted?

If you are new to the adoption world, then you may be surprised that these questions are even asked, but most adoptive families will tell you that they face these sorts of inquiries on a weekly basis.

The key to fielding these sorts of questions is to be prepared and this book does that well. I would highly recommend that you make this book a part of your family library.

Learn more about Shoshanna Grey

Shoshanna Grey has worked as an occupational social worker, teacher, child care provider, customer service reqpresentative, college recruiter and several other positions over the years.

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Pam Connell (2658) 25 Nov 2008 05:07 PM

This is one of my favorite books because it shows responses that explain adoption to children--cousins, friends etc. It is so much better for our kids when all kids accept adoption as something normal, not weird.