Adoption Reading Challenge

 

ARC'11If you’re not familiar with the Adoption Reading Challenge 2011, read this post and sign up on the initial linky. Here are the rules really quick-like so you can reference them quickly.

Levels/# of Books:

Level 1: Read 3 books about adoption, non-fiction or fiction.
Level 2: Read 6 books about adoption, 3 non-fiction/3 fiction.
Level 3: Read 12 books about adoption, 6 non-fiction/6 fiction.
Level 4: Read 20 books about adoption, 10 non-fiction/10 fiction.

Rules:

1. Choose a level. Read your books! Your first level is simply a toe dip in the adoption book world. The other levels require you to read both fiction and non-fiction for a mental comparison of how the two are treated.

2. You do not need to be a blogger to participate. Just leave books you’re reading in the comments of this post so others can get ideas!

3. You don’t have to pick your books at the beginning. This is a read-as-you-go challenge.

4. You do not have to be a member of the adoption triad to participate in this challenge. You do not need to be an adoptive parent, birth parent, or adoptee. You do not need to be a social worker or adoption professional. You simply need to have a desire to challenge yourself to read books about adoption this year.

5. Start date is January 1, 2011. End date is December 31, 2011. You can join at any time during the year!

And now, use this page to link up any reviews you have posted on your own blog by signing the linky with each link. Feel free to have discussions in the comments regarding suggestions. And, if you’re not a blogger, please use this space to share the books that you have read. Easy!



If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

 Posted by at 3:20 pm

  30 Responses to “Adoption Reading Challenge”

  1. I seem to fit into level 2, except it is more non-fiction than fiction.

    The books I plan to read in the next few months are

    Fiction: Anne of the Green Gables by L M Montgomery, The Adoption by David Hill

    Non Fiction: The Family of Adoption by Joyce Maguire Pavao, Attaching in Adoption by Deborah Gray

    Two other books to follow, maybe inspired by others out here.

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  2. I’m hoping to get to at least level three and have so far read Making Room in Our Hearts: Keeping Family Ties through Open Adoption(nonfiction) and the post-apocalyptic fictional Salvation City.

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  3. [...] This adoption themed book is the first of my adoption books I am reading this year in the Adoption Reading Challenge hosted by Jenna at Chronicles of Munckinland.  I found this book by looking for adoption books on Amazon and thought I would try it as the [...]

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  4. I tried to comment yesterday but I’m not sure what happened. Anyway. I really fit into Level 4 but I’m going to give myself a break and participate in Level 3. The following books are on my TBR list for 2011. Review can be found on my blog http://newpaperadventures.blogspot.com

    Fiction
    1. Finding Miracles by Julia Alvarez (review already posted)
    2. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix (this is a trilogy and I plan on reading all 3 but for this challenge I am only going to count the first one.)
    3. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
    4. Girls in Trouble: A Novel by Caroline Leavitt
    5. A Stranger in the Family by Robert Barnard
    6. Finding Isabelle by Alfred J. Garrotto

    Non-Fiction
    1. Baby We were meant for Each Other by Scott Simon
    2. My Family, A symphony: A memoir of Global Adoption by Aaron Eske
    3. Silent Tears by Kay Bratt
    4. Dear Linda, An adoptive father’s open letter to the birthmother of his child by Anonymous
    5.In On It: What Adoptive Parents Would Like You To Know About Adoption. A Guide for Relatives and Friends by Elisabeth O’Toole
    6.A Princess Found: An American Family, An African Chiefdom and the daughter who connected them all by Sarah Culberson and Tracy Trivas

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    • Heidi, You were probably in the middle of commenting when I was performing a few upgrades to the site yesterday. I updated some plugins which temporarily takes the site offline. Apologies!

      Thank you for sharing your lists. I have read a few of those picks (Girls in Trouble being one) but some of the others are new to me. I will check them out after I finish my starting list!

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  5. You can erase #8 – I linked the review wrong so I fixed it in the link below. Sorry about that!

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  6. I am going to shoot for level 2– I’ve already read a ton of books on adoption– both fiction and non-fiction. I am finding it very helpful to also read about my daughter’s birth culture (China) and the history. I recently finished reading “Finding Noel,” it is fiction and has a strong foster/adoption theme– I didn’t realize it when I picked it at the Library.

    Some good books that I don’t see listed:
    Are Those Kids Yours?: American Families With Children Adopted From Other Countries By: Cheri Register

    Weaver’ Craft- Toddler Adoption by Deborah Gray

    China Ghosts: My Daughter’s Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood By: Jeff Gammage

    Love in the Driest Season By: Neely Tucker

    Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption

    The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the decades before Roe v. Wade By: Ann Fessler

    The Lost Daughters of China By: Karin Evans

    There is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue Africa’s Children By: Melissa Fay Greene

    Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran

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  7. I would love to join. Not sure yet what my books will be, but I will aim for level 2. I am reading a book about open adoption right now. Thanks for leading this.

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  8. [...] having taken on the Adoption Reading Challenge 2011 starting on January 1, I started Because I Love You, thinking I’d have it done and a [...]

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  9. I would like to share a new fiction book, written by a friend who is both an adoptee and a birth father. http://www.huntingshadows.com/

    Please check it out for him!

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  10. [...] So a few weeks ago I downloaded a bunch of free books onto my Kindle.  The Year She Fell was apparently one of those books, at the time I wasn’t aware this was a book which spun it’s twists and turns around two adoption stories.  Within the first page I realized this would be the second book in my Adoption Reading Challenge 2011. [...]

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  11. I just finished “Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control” – there’s a review on my blog if anyone’s interested. Now, I just have to figure out what to read next.

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  12. Since the linky tool doesn’t seem to be working I just posted a new review on my blog for Dear Linda, An adoptive father’s open letter to the birthmother of his child http://newpaperadventures.blogspot.com/2011/02/18-open-letter-or-diary.html

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  13. [...] just finished reading The Adoption Reader, edited by Susan Wadia-Ells—my first book for the Adoption Reading Challenge, on which I have been slacking horribly—and for which I will be posting a review later on today [...]

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  14. Hi Jenna,

    I started reading in December with the goal of reading a book at week about adoption. I’m not good with reading fiction so I don’t fit into any of your categories but if you want to include any of my book reviews (more like ponderings, not really reviews), I would be more than happy to share.

    So far I have read…..

    “The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered” by Dr. John Witte

    “Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade” by Ricki Solinger

    “The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child” by Nancy Newton Verrier

    “The Baby Thief: the Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption” by Barbara Bisanz Raymond

    “Being Adopted: the Lifelong Search for Self” by Brodzinsky, Schechter, and Henig

    “Adoption, Identity, and Kinship: the Debate Over Sealed Birth Records” by Dr. Katrina Wegar

    “The Search for Anna Fisher” by Florence Fisher

    “Adoption Wisdom” by Dr. Marlou Russell

    I am going to be reading “A Shared Fate,” “The Girls Who Went Away,” “Birthmark,” “Kinship by Design,” “Twice Born,” “Lost & Found” “Coming Home to Self” and more in future posts.

    I am posting about “Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness” by Dr. BJ Lifton, tomorrow.

    All of related posts so far can be found under this tag:

    http://www.declassifiedadoptee.com/search/label/Quote%20From%20What%20I%27m%20Reading%20Wednesday

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  15. [...] It’s also about adoption, which means it is the first book I’ve read in Jenna’s Adoption Reading Challenge. Extra Bonus! It was [...]

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  16. [...] After my post on Friday being so bleh I started writing posts yesterday and they seemed to carry that same awful mood.  I didn’t really write anything because I had no idea why I was feeling that way.  I have decided in part it was a book I was reading for the adoption reading challenge 2011.  [...]

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  17. [...] ever read recently are adoption books, mostly because I bought a bunch of them a month ago for the Adoption Reading Challenge 2011, so they are what I’ve had available, so far I’ve read 2 non-fiction and 3 fiction [...]

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  18. [...] right away. This is my second fiction book from the Adoption Reading Challenge hosted by  Jenna at Chronicles of Munchkinland. This  makes four of my six I have pledged to read this year.  In other words I am kicking butt [...]

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  19. [...] right in deciding this was an adoption themed book?  Check out other adoption book reviews at the Reading Challenge Jenna is [...]

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  20. Right now, I’m reading the Primal Wound: Understanding Adopted Child; Karen Kingsbury’s First Born series:, Fame, Forgiven, Found, Family, and Forever; Sherrie Eldridge’s Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, and I’m planning to read Elinor B. Rosenberg’s The Adoption Life Cycle: The Children and Their Families Through the Years

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  21. [...] Family Secrets, is my fourth fiction book, and nineth book overall for the Adoption Reading Challenge 2011. I happened upon this book while searching for anything on adoption and I thought it sounded [...]

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  22. [...] a pretty small part of the book, so perhaps it’s not completely fair to include this in the Adoption Reading Challenge 2011, but since I purchased the book thinking it would qualify and since I got some interesting insights [...]

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  23. [...] Red Thread is my 11th book in the Adoption Reading Challenge 2011, the 6th book of [...]

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  24. I just found this through another blog I read (Peter’s Cross Station), but I’m really interested in participating. It’s a great impetus to read a few books I’ve been wanting to read anyway, and hopefully find a few more. I’m not part of the adoption community, but I’ve been becoming more aware of it lately and I’m really interested to read more.

    I’m just at level 1 I’m afraid, it being September and all. I want to read The Girls Who Went Away, Secret Thoughts Of an Adoptive Mother, and China Ghosts, but I’d be interested in something from the adopted child’s adult point of view. I’m going through all these book lists for recommendations. So glad I found this!

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  25. A round up – am just past level 1, thought I would do a round up to see where I am.

    Two more to come by Dec. 31! Thanks for this, Jenna. It has helped me a whole lot and ended up coinciding with issues we had….it ended up being a learning project, read and apply! :-D

    http://lifeandtimesinbangalore.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/adoption-challenge-reading/

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  26. [...] is almost definitely my last book in the adoption reading challenge 2011. I have read 14 books total, reviewed 13 of them (somehow I was never able to find the words to [...]

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