Reader's Place: January 19, 2021
Traditionally, adoption has been described through the experience of the adopting parents. In recent years, other members of the triad, adoptees and birth parents, are making their voices heard. Here are some recent titles dealing with adoption.
That kind of mother: A novel, by Rumaan Alam. (Print, eBCCLS, Hoopla)
It's 1985, and Rebecca Stone finds herself struggling to balance the demands of new motherhood, Rebecca leans on Priscilla, the family nanny. Rebecca feels so profoundly connected to the woman who has taught her what it means to be a mother that when Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, it seems strangely natural for Rebecca to step forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son.
The latecomers, by Helen Klein Ross. (Print)
Forced to give up her baby for adoption after the death of her husband in 1908, an Irish teen takes a maid's job at a sprawling New England estate before a mysterious death reveals a five-generation secret.
The children money can buy: stories from the frontlines of foster care and adoption, by Anne Moody. (Print)
The Children Money Can Buy illuminates the worlds of foster care and adoption through the personal stories Moody witnessed and experienced in her many years working in the foster care and adoption systems. These compelling stories about real people and situations illustrate larger life lessons about the way our society values--and fails to value--parents and children. They explore the root of ethical problems which are not only financially driven but reflect society's basic belief that some children are more valuable than others. Finally, Moody makes a plea for change and gives suggestions about how the foster care and adoption systems could work together for the benefit of children and families.
The Tea girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See. (Print, eBCCLS)
Explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter, who has been adopted by an American couple, tracing the very different cultural factors that compel them to consume a rare native tea that has shaped their family's destiny for generations.
Compiled by Ina Rimpau