Search Results for: blog books for adults on adoption from china and korea

Activities Fostering an Appreciation of Other Cultures in Elementary and Middle-school Students

My last blog discussed activity ideas for helping young children become comfortable with racial diversity. Here are some ideas for teachers of elementary and middle school students: –Make sure they know the science of skin color. A good book is All the Colors We Are: The story of How We Get Our Skin Color. This is a bilingual (English/Spanish) book with photographs and simple explanations. –I like to follow or precede a discussion of the science of skin color with an artistic or aesthetic look at the beauty of different skin colors. I like All the Colors of the Earth, … Continue reading →

Combatting Stereotypes in Children, Part Two

In recent blogs we’ve talked about whether economic pressures and anti-immigrant sentiment will have an effect on our transracially adopted children. I wrote one blog on how adults can explore our own feelings about diversity. The blog Combatting Racism in Children, Part One talked about how children form attitudes and the importance of creating a diverse environment for young children, including diversity in pictures and in dramatic play props such as dress-up clothes and food. This blog will talk about some books and films that encourage an understanding of other cultures and of immigrants to America. There are many more … Continue reading →

The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Love of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another

This book is a tearjerker, but so much more. The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Love of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another is an adoptive mother’s account of adopting a four-year-old from an orphanage in China, then discovering that her daughter, at such a tender age, had already been responsible for caring for younger children at the orphanage—including one whom she called “her baby”. Even after bonding intensely with her “forever mama”, she advocates tirelessly for this little boy to be adopted also. She worries about him constantly, explaining that it was her job to dress him … Continue reading →

Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul

Published just last year, Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul is another in the series of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books which seek to offer comfort and healing to the spirit. As many of you know, the series includes fifty-plus books offering this classic comfort food for the souls of…..couples, single parents, teens, preteens, kids, mothers, scrapbookers, sports fans, brides, shoppers, college students, fishermen, dieters, horse lovers….and more. The series’ founders, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, co-edit this volume with LeAnn Thieman, herself an adoptive parent as well as a nurse who was caught up in the Operation … Continue reading →

Book Review: Voices from Another Place

When we think of adoption, and thus of adoptees, we often think of children. Will the children stay in their birth family? In their birth country? How do adopted children do with separation? Do they have trouble in school? Susan Soon-Keum Cox, herself an adult Korean adoptee and the editor of Voices from Another Place, points out, “That we mature, grow up and come into our own wisdom is often not acknowledged. We can and wish to speak for ourselves.” This book gives some of those adoptees a chance to speak to a wider audience. Voices from Another Place: a … Continue reading →

Book Review: Birth is More Than Once

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Birth is More Than Once: The Inner World of Adopted Korean Children was written by Hei Sook Park Wilkinson, Ph.D. Wilkinson is a clinical psychologist. She has been in private practice and also consulted with hospitals and human development centers. Besides her psychology background, she has another source of insight into the inner worlds of children adopted from Korea. Wilkinson herself is Korean. While she was not adopted, she shares the experience of moving to a new country with a new language in which she is a racial minority. In addition, while she was a student in Korea she volunteered … Continue reading →

Book review: A Quilt of Wishes

A Quilt of Wishes is a charming little book. It tells how, while a baby girl sleeps in China, her mother waits across the ocean, wondering about her baby. She finds an old quilt that her mother had made for her, and hopes that her baby is warm and loved. She decides to make a quilt for her baby. She uses her own old baby clothes, and friends learn about the project and make squares for the baby’s quilt. They send wishes for the new baby and for the family’s happiness, which the mother repeats to herself as she sews. … Continue reading →

Toys and Dolls for Multicultural Families

Today I’ll share some truly unique websites for ordering multicultural gifts, such as dolls of different ethnicities and disabilities, art supplies, books, puppets, videos, ornaments and more. I realize some of you organized folks are done shopping, but I’d still like to share what I’ve come across and suggest that you bookmark these sites for next year or for your next birthday or “Gotcha Day” celebration. Started by an adoptive mother of girls from Vietnam, Mandy’s Moon features ornaments that you can customize with a message and with faces (up to four) with nine choices of skin and hair color. … Continue reading →

Book Review: Talking with Young Children about Adoption

We often hear or read advice to talk with our children about adoption from a young age, to speak honestly about their birthparents and about their adoption story, to acknowledge their sadness, to reinforce that we are their permanent family. And we are told to do all this in an age-appropriate manner. What we don’t hear as often are examples of just how to do this, especially with young children. Actual dialogues reported by adoptive parents of all kinds make Talking with Young Children about Adoption one of the most useful books I’ve read. Author Mary Watkins is a psychologist … Continue reading →

Book Review: Throwaway Daughter

I read this book with a mixture of fascination and horror. The author of Throwaway Daughter, Ting-Xing Le, lived through the Cultural Revolution in China and worked as a translator before defecting to the West. (Her life story is told in her memoir A Leaf in the Bitter Wind.) Throwaway Daughter, however, is a novel about a Chinese girl adopted to Canada who goes back to look for her Chinese family. The American Library Association listed it on its Best Books for Young Adults, but I would warn parents against giving this volume to children. Parents should read it first … Continue reading →