Customer Reviews

The Family Nobody Wanted

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first read this book at the age of 10, after ordering it from Scholastic book services. I have since read it uncountable numbers of times, each re-reading bringing warm feelings at the familiar passages. This reprint has been highly anticipated, as I had wondered for years what had happened to the Doss family after the end of the book. It is the story of a man and a woman, and their desire for a family. But it is also much more. It is the tale of the strength found in a loving family, a family made by love and not biology. It is a reminder that we are all family, flesh and blood or not, skin color and ancestry aside. And it is filled with the humor that only small active children can provide! I highly recommend this book for readers of all ages, and would suggest it to families to read aloud together.

In 1991 our local high school was selling off some old books from their library. I picked up a book with a rather sad looking cover. Upon opening it I saw that it was titled, "The Family Nobody Wanted" and it was covered in scribble. The scribble on this 1954 copyright says this, "Wonderful book to read! This well be one of the best books you have ever read! Oh Yea!; Good Book, Read it!; This book is real cool!; This book is great and great for a book report!; Kid! Read this book! It is stunning!; Notice everybody! This is the a real cool book, so people take head and read this book!; This is a great book and you will not regret reading it!" There are about 20 more reviews written throughout the book by high school students. With that in mind I figured I had better buy it for the 25 cents they were asking. I was so delighted to read it but had misplaced it just short of finishing during a move. My husband has read it and cried, laughed, giggled, all while learning what a struggle this family must have gone through to adopt and deal with prejudices. I have recently found it in our move to Germany and I am over joyed to have finished it finally. I hold this book as a treasure in my life representing the true nature of humanity. What a wonderful story! Thanks for trusting your instincts Helen Doss and sharing your personal life with us! What a blessing.

Only my closest friends are given the privilege of borrowing this delightfully written true story; the long out-of-print and (before the days of the internet) irreplaceable book has been one of my most closely guarded treasures since childhood. Any family with several small children, of course, will have a store of hilarious anecdotes; children raised with love combine insouciant joy with freedom from adult assumptions and habits of thought, so that any house full of love and children is a house full of unpredictability and laughter. But Helen Doss, unlike most parents, can capture her children in her writing and pass the joy on to us. I don't know anyone who has managed to read the book through without at some point laughing to the point of tears.

But the book is much more than a connection of Readers' Digest anecdotes strung together. Ms. Doss reveals, through deft and honest touches, her own weaknesses and struggles, her impetuosity and her grit. She communicates with power the pain that can come in so many different ways to a woman with a tremendous need to love, especially when obstacles - infertility, unreasonable adoption agencies, poverty - rise up to keep her from satisfying that need. And the portrait of her husband Carl, who changes as much as the children do, is vivid and telling. The Carl who says, "Let's take `em all" at the end of the book is a very different Carl from the one who agrees to the first adoption largely to humor his wife and to keep her from moping weepily and endlessly about the house, and whose annual refrain for many years is, "This is the last one!" You expect him to come on board, of course; but his path is a bit surprising and most revealing of the essence of the man. In particular his ability to close ranks against outside inteference shows the degree to which his love for his family is as strong as his wife's, however differently it might be expressed.

As a family memoir alone, it would be a classic. But because the children were of mixed racial ancestry - in the `forties and `fifties - the Doss family became an unwilling catalyst for the ignorance and prejudice of the time. It is part of the Doss magic that the love in the family was strong enough to triumph over the unpleasant incidents, so that those incidents enriched, rather than poisoned, the Doss childhoods. (Not that this made them less unpleasant, of course.)

The book is never preachy. Nevertheless, it is a vivid documentary of how racism was built into the attitudes of even "nice" people of that time. It is a sermon of a kind, a sermon lived out in the lives of the Doss family. It is a primer on how to overcome evil with good, a standing lesson to a nation still struggling with racial resentment.

But the genuinely remarkable thing is that, despite the frequent intrusions suffered by the family from racially prejudiced outsiders, the book is not about race. No doubt this is because the Doss family was never about race. When the book crosses your mind in the days after you've closed it - and it will, frequently - it will not be as a book about race. It will be as a book about a uniquely special family and about the triumph of love and joy and grace and laughter over whatever might vainly try to overcome them.

When I recieved this book as a gift from my brother(see Ken Pierce's Review) I actually cried from happiness. I had no idea he was the one who had taken the battered copy from our family home, and have searched for the last fifteen years for another one. I had finally given up, and simply told my children, "If you never get to read it, you will have missed one of the greatest books ever written." It's re-release is a blessing that I am glad to share with them.

The new addition has a forword by Mary Battenfield which, unfortunately, makes this book sound like a social justice primer. Instead it is a book of love, joy, and laughter in situations that "should" have left the author and her family bitter instead of blessed.

When I first read this book I was too young to truly understand racism, and was simply gripped by the way Mrs. Doss made her children come to life in my mind. I could relate to the children, as their personalities, not their race, gave each a unique voice.

Now that I am an adult, I understand that the Dosses had a wisdom, love, and faith that transcended their culture. The family and the book prove that one doesn't have to preach to change the world. I can truly say that my life is better from having been introduced to both.

I have read a number of books but none that has touched my heart as this. I bought the book at a garage sale when I was 10 years old, due to fire I lost the book a few years ago, and miss it terribly! If you have never read this book you must! Helen has done such a wonderful job at capturing the essence of her story on paper, few can match. Her story of hard times, love, and endurance is so powerful, I cried. I cry now at the thought of not being able to share such a wonderful story with my daughter. If you have a copy of this book, be sure to treasure it always.

I'd recommend this book to just about anyone. It really gives a good overview of racial issues from that time period. It shows how the family struggles with financial, personal and especially racial issues. The best part about this autobiography is that it is 100% non-fiction! It's just wonderful! However, I wouldn't recommend this book to somebody who is looking for a challenge, because The Family Nobody Wanted, by Helen Doss, is written in an organized, simple manner. It's perfect for anyone of any age!

When I was in fifth grade, I remember I was sitting in music class when the librarian stopped by to ask me to return this book. One of the teachers wanted to use it in class, and I'd had it out so long, no one else could get a shot at it!

I was an only child, very bookish and introverted. I read and reread this book. I married a guy who planned to become a Methodist minister (like Helen Doss) and we have four bio kids and two adopted from Haiti. I always wanted to adopt, which I'm sure came from this book. I was probably drawn to my husband at least partly because of the warm and fuzzy feeling about Methodist pastors that I had from this book.

Reading things as a kid, you pick up on the stuff you like and ignore the stuff you don't. The Dosses adopted most of their kids as babies (with some exceptions). They did have some difficult issues one summer when they took a Native American boy in for a vacation in their family. I ignored this part of the book, focusing on the wonderful and easy other kids. We adopted an older boy from Haiti and it's been rough for him and for us. I should have paid more attention when I was reading, maybe . . . We also adopted a baby girl, and that's been great.

One of my favorite books ever. I didn't know there was a new edition with updates on the family--I'll have to get it just for the updates, although I own an older copy. By the way, my parents never ever talked to me about racism. We had no friends of different races. I imagine I formed my beliefs that "we are all brothers" regardless of color, mostly from this book.

I read Helen Doss' heartwarming book in grade school and am thrilled to see it back in print. Carl and Helen Doss, a young couple struggling to get Carl through divinity school, adopt a baby boy. Without really planning it, they adopt eleven more children!

Mrs. Doss' book is more than just a memoir of her precious children; it's also an indictment of a social service system that, through prejudice, denied who-knows-how-many mixed-race children loving homes. So many couples could have known the joy of children and given loving homes to them in return. Her book helped raise awareness and open doors (and hearts) to the needs of "unadoptables." Thanks to families like hers, those policies are now dead.

I've thought of the twelve adoptees over the years, and wondered how their lives turned out. Mrs. Doss gives an update of sorts in this new, revised addition, but left out more detail for privacy concerns. I hope one of them decides to expand on mom's work someday. Five stars.

This book is very heartwarming and can touch anyones heart. This book talks about a couple that can't have children so then they go to another option which is adoption. First of all they are a very poor couple and can barely afford food. They go apply for adoption and get declined they then fix the problems with their financial needs and then apply again getting approved. They get their first baby boy, Donny. They have trouble taking care of him since their very afraid of 'breaking one of his bones'. But they get through after that they apply for MORE AND MORE children and go through troubles along the way. At the end they adopt 12 CHILDREN and get in an article in a magazine. This book was really nice and I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a comforting story...

This book was impossible to put down! It is such a treasure! The Doss family encountered persecution and misunderstanding on account of adopting their children. They were strong, though, and kept bringing more children (most of them of different nationalities and ethnicities) into their home. In all, they adopted twelve! The book tells of some of the adventures of the Doss family, and how they adopted each of the children. It was inspiring, and I even found it humorous in some parts! This book shows what a beautiful thing adoption is, both for parents and children. I strongly urge you to read this book!