Borya and the Burps: An Eastern European Adoption Story [Hardcover]

Joan McNamara (Author), Dawn Majewski (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 30 pages
• Publisher: Perspectives Press (IN) (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944934315
• ISBN-13: 978-0944934319
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Decide for Yourself --- I say " Thumbs Up ", November 13, 2005

By 

Beth O'Malley "Adoptee & 'Older Adoptive Mom'" (Winthrop, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Borya and the Burps: An Eastern European Adoption Story (Hardcover)

A good adoption book is hard to find. Especially country specific. If I had listened to the current reviews on Amazon, my daughter (adopted from Kazakhstan) would have missed out!

As an adult adoptee and adoption professional, I really hate those feel-good, rah rah adoption books that totally invalidate the complexity of adoption-related emotions.

What I loved about Borya and the Burps is the straight forward story line coupled with fabulous illustrations. The only time my 3 year old has seen a book with ' baby home photos' is in her toddler adoption lifebook.

It was very validating for her emotionally to have an 'offical hardback book' that told her story.

Did I talk over parts of it? Yup? Did I skip entire sections? Yup. But that's because Polina is 3. Instead I wove in her story as I read the book. "You played with the piano in the baby home."
It fascinated her to the point that "Borya" came to Home Depot with us today.

She will grow into this book---word for word. Page by page. She will know she is not alone in her journey from a country far away, starting in a room filled with babies.

Most importantly, Polina will know it is normal to have many different thoughts and feelings about changing families.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cute But Not Sugar-Coated, August 22, 2005

By 

T. Hopkins (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Borya and the Burps: An Eastern European Adoption Story (Hardcover)

Borya and the Burps was a superb birthday gift for my 4-year old son, adopted from Russia as a baby. Right now he mostly likes to imitate Borya's burps and keep count of the seven babies in Borya's orphanage. As he matures, reading Borya's adoption story together will be an excellent way to talk about my son's own adoption story. The drawings are very cute, yet the story is not sugar-coated. It gently portrays the upheaval of adoption followed by happiness with a forever family. I highly recommend the book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! An adoption story that tells OUR story!, November 17, 2005

By 

SLM (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Borya and the Burps: An Eastern European Adoption Story (Hardcover)

I am thrilled to have just received my copy of Borya and the Burps, and cannot wait to read it to our two daughters, siblings adopted from Russia in 2003, now ages 4 & 7. Although we have a few children's adoption books, none of them tell a story similar to that of our girls - adopted from Russia, adopted from a baby home/children's home, and most importantly - adopted into a Forever Family with a Mama and Papa who had waited and waited for them! The story gently introduces difficult adoption-related topics in a sensitive and funny way -- with a story about a toddler known for his great burps -- and isn't that the reason to buy children's books that tell stories of adoption?

Finally my girls will be able to hear a story similar to theirs that even deals with the same fears and worries that I know they had, and lets them know that they are not alone! We can read this book and retell our own adoption story again..."how we waited and waited to meet you"..."how we made you laugh at the baby home"..."how you couldn't understand our words"..."how you cried and cried on the plane"...we even encountered a very stoic judge who only smiled at the very end of our hearing -- a story my girls love to hear over and over again.

While this is not an adoption reference book, I also love the foreward that touches on the anxieties faced by children adopted out of institutional environments. This is a very accurate description of our own experience, and it's a great reminder to adults as they read this book to children.

Thank you Perspectives Press for a great FAMILY book!