The Basics of Adoption: A Guide for Building Families in the U.S. and Canada

by James L. Dickerson, Mardi Allen

With about 70,000 domestic and international adoptions each year in the United States and Canada, adoption remains a major means of building families in both countries. Its continued success can be inferred not only from the yearly statistics, but from a report issued in 2003 by the U.S. Census Bureau. To the surprise of many, the report announced the existence of 1.6 million adopted children in the U.S. under the age of eighteen. Written by a former social worker who has placed hundreds of children in foster and adoptive homes and a clinical psychologist who has counseled adopted children and parents, this book offers a comprehensive look at the adoption process by merging the best of social work with the best of psychology.

Adoption can be a frustrating and intimidating undertaking for the unprepared. This guide provides prospective adoptive parents with the insider information that they need to navigate the process-and it provides students with the sort of expert opinion that they need to grasp the academic theory they receive in the classroom.

Genres: Adoption

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2006

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information is out of date.

[Bria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book kind of reads like the authors just wanted to say "we've published a book!" and also use the opportunity to push their own views on prospective parents.
All this book really does is scare people off from adoption and basically tell prospective parents "you must be perfect," "your past defines you," "don't adopt if you were sexually abused," and "I hope you've had good past experiences with pets". Um, okay...what?
Not much is backed up with proven facts; the authors quote from subjective old autobiographies and as "evidence". This makes the super-authoritative tone pretty obnoxious. It's also embarrassingly sexist at some points. It presents absent fathers as a part of African American culture rather than a result of outside forces and circumstances. And presents gay individuals as making a "lifestyle decision" as if they could have chosen to make life easier by being heterosexual.
Yeah, not recommended. Sorry not sorry.

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

My husband and I are looking into adoption and when I saw this at the library I was intrigued as I live in Canada and I thought this book might have potential info. I unfortunately will never find out as I could not finish reading this book. I found it poorly written and extremely offensive. The chapter on Single-Parent adoption; specifically “What Single Parents Should Know About Raising Girls” and “What Single Parents Should Know About Raising Boys” was painful to read.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been curious about how adoption works and the whole adoption process and this was an informative introduction.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good chapter on the home study process.