Search Results for: blog book review did my first mother love me

The Importance of First Impressions

We all know how important first impressions are in the business world, but the phrase is just as relevant in the world of scrapbooking. The cover of a scrapbook speaks volumes for what’s inside the album and the person responsible for crafting it. Fortunately, there are no hard and fast rules that dictate how you have to put together a scrapbook cover; however, there are a number of popular techniques that make wonderful first impressions. For example, one of my favorite ways to decorate a scrapbook cover is with a photo collage. This is a great option if you are … Continue reading →

Camping With Children

This photo of Stanton / Meramec KOA is courtesy of TripAdvisor I love taking vacations with just Hailey now that I’ve gotten the hang of it. Initially it was kind of scary. When I was married the only vacations we took were to visit my ex-husband’s family, so I didn’t really have any experience with booking rooms and flights and things like that. It was intimidating to think about going to a strange place and being the only responsible adult. My first vacations as a single parent were camping trips, usually with friends. The first solo trip Hailey and I … Continue reading →

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg

I know I promised to review “Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg” about a month ago, but it’s taken me that long to get my hands on a copy. Now I have, so I can bring the first story of Tinker Bell’s solo adventures in Neverland to you. Actually, “Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg,” the first of the children’s books Disney commissioned to kick off its Tinker Bell/Pixie line even before the home-release movies, doesn’t star Tinker Bell. Our main protagonist is newly-born Never Fairy Prilla; Tinker Bell is the most important of the secondary … Continue reading →

Book Review: Allison

Caldecott Medalist Allen Say, who has written about his own family’s connections with both Japan and America, here tells a story of an Asian girl who is processing her growing awareness of her adoption. The plot is simple: Allison is happy to receive an ethnic dress like her doll wears, but grows quiet as she looks at her family in the mirror and notice that the only one who looks like her is her doll. Allison asks where her doll came from, and her father tells how they brought both Allison and her doll back from “a far country”. (Allison … Continue reading →

Book Review: a Koala for Katie

A Mother for Choco and A Koala for Katie are both books emphasizing that, while it is sad that first parents sometimes cannot care for children, the children can be happy with other parents. Parenting is a matter of how one cares for the child, not whether a parent looks like the child or is the child’s first parent. While A Mother for Choco talks about a child searching for a mother nad whether a mother has to look like her child, A Koala for Katie is about a girl who processes her own adoption story “adopting” a stuffed animal, … Continue reading →

Thoughts of Another Adoptive Mother

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My last blog was a review of Jana Wolff’s memoir Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother. It led me to reflect: did I relate to her thoughts as she went through the adoption process? Did I have other secret thoughts? I do sometimes wonder how Wolff’s now-teenage son feels about this book. I think that, although Wolff shares her conflicting, not-so-socially-correct thoughts like we all have from time to time, her love of her son and her appreciation for his birthmother come through. Her son may well value this record of his mother’s experience. Still, adoptive parents now are advised … Continue reading →

Book Review: Adoption–Social Issues Firsthand Series

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The series Social Issues Firsthand is published by Greenhaven Press, the publishers of the Opposing Viewpoints series (see my review of Opposing Viewpoints: Adoption). The Social Issues series does not consist of direct arguments by those with different beliefs, but does endeavor to have contributions from people with diverse experiences. The volume Adoption, from the Social Issues Firsthand series, contains sixteen articles, approximately 600 words each, divided roughly into sections. The first section is “Giving Up a Child for Adoption”. Many people today would object to the phraseology used here. Positive Adoption Language prefers “made an adoption plan” to emphasize … Continue reading →

How to Deal with an Allergy in your Marriage

These days many families seem to have at least one person who has an allergy. So, what difference does it make to a marriage when one partner has an allergy? If you or your spouse has an allergy, you might find the next two blogs helpful. Allergies have been on my mind a lot lately, partly because I recently reviewed a new book about allergy-safe family food and partly because I live with allergies. For years I struggled with pain so that I was unable to function at times. It took a long while before we discovered the cause was … Continue reading →

My Favorite Book Reviews of 2008

Most of my readers won’t be surprised to learn that I love to read—kids’ books, adult books, nonfiction, picture books—anything. But even I was surprised to learn that I’ve reviewed over 45 books this year. Since many bookstores have post-holiday sales, and since many of us were fortunate enough to receive bookstore gift cards, I’m challenging myself to pick my favorite “top twelve” of the adoption books I’ve reviewed this year. I began the year by starting a series: Adoption Books with Great Art. Although I’m a “word person”, I’ve become increasingly moved by the beautiful ways some artists can … Continue reading →

After the Election: Oprah’s “Human Hanky” and Obama’s Poet—-Not

The queen of talk referred to him as “Mr. Man” while others dubbed him “Oprah’s human hanky.” Two days after appearing on newscasts broadcast around the world the bespectacled man who gave Oprah Winfrey a shoulder to cry on in Grant Park on Election Day finally revealed his real name: Sam Perry. Sam is the man… for now anyway. Perry’s 15 minutes of fame kicked off Tuesday night during President-elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. The Silicon Valley, California businessman and Obama campaign worker gained instant fame after video crews caught a teary Winfrey draped over his shoulder during the politician’s … Continue reading →