Customer Reviews

Let's Talk About It: Adoption (First Experiences)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As an adoptive parent, I found this simple little book to provide very clear and positive explainations about adoption that are readable to a child of any age. It is a great book to begin introducing the concept of adoption to very young children. It is not very long and it is filled with photographs of many types of families.

We purchased this book along with several other adoption-themed books for children. This one by far best explains adoption in a way our children can understand. As a family that has both biological and adopted children, it was important to us to find a book that presents ALL children- adopted or not- as special. Mr. Rogers does a fantastic job, as always, putting it into terms that all children can understand. This book is appropriate for children of all types of adoptions. It seems that too many other adoption books focus on children adopted from overseas or those adopted as infants. This one is flexible enough that it can be used in many different situations.

Thank you, Mr. Rogers!

This terrific 27-page book features many photographs of adoptive families and their children, and discusses the feelings that kids have about being in their families.

"When you were born," it begins, "you were ready to live and be loved, just like every other child in the world.

"And you needed to be in a family, just like every other child in the world."

Being in a family, the book tells children, means feeling like you belong. And belonging can happen whether you are born to a family or adopted.

Photographs of several adoptive families show children who are happy, angry and sad. Their families comfort them, and love them, even when they are not at their best. "Your family is special," the reassuring message concludes, "because of all the ways you belong together."

This is a great book for even for very small children who were adopted. Alyssa A. Lappen

We have several children's books about adoption and this is by far my favorite. It focuses on what it means to be a family and how families formed by adoption are just like other families. It emphasizes the importance of talking about our feelings with one another. It discusses how the adopted child may have questions about his or her adoption and that questions are okay to ask. This book is filled with photographs of adoptive families interacting in every day ways. It is much easier for my son to relate to these photos than the cute animals in some of our other adoption books. I definitely recommend this book for adoptive families with young children.

What can I say! Mr. Rogers couldn't fail at anything he did, even if he tried. This is a lovely book about adoption, beautifully telling in words and pictures what being a family is all about, adoptive or not. It tells just enough about adoption not to confuse the young child but to focus on feelings every child has and how to cope with them. Five stars for Mr. Rogers whom we sorely miss every day. Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?

It's hard to find an adoption book that you totally like everything in it. There's such a variation of possibilities. This is by far our favorite of all the ones we've read. Typical Mr Rogers style, on an important subject. Emphasizes being in a family that loves you. A must have for any adoption library.

Of the three adoption books that we have, this is most requested. It does act as a starter for conversations with my four-year old. We adopted from foster care.

I think she likes the pictures of real kids and families that she can identify with. They show families doing the same sort of things we do - going to the library, setting the table, etc.

Definitely worth the purchase and a great book for young adopted kids. I like the fact that the book (Except for perhaps the pictures) avoids referencing certain types of families and is very generic. It is very understandable for a young child and worth every penny.

In this book Fred Rogers provides excellent text for children to learn about adoption. It is written at the correct level for them and in terms they can easily understand. The length is also just right as well. He covers all the basics of how families are formed and what it means to be in a family. Yet he doesn't overdo any topic to where it would lose a child's attention.

I personally have found it a useful gateway to open a dialog with adopted children, giving them the opportunity to ask any questions they may have. There are several excellent children's books on adoption, yet all the others I have seen are told in the form of a story. Thus they are usually specific about someones (typically the author's) adoption experience. Thus, while excellent at helping teach children about adoption, they don't lend themselves as well to having a discussion with a child about adoption.

Overall, this is a wonderful text teaching about the ways families are formed and what it means to be part of a family.

I agree with all of the positive reviews of this book, however, having recently adopted transracially I was disappointed with the many photographs in this book. The book shows phots of 3 familes; one Caucasian, one African American, and one Asian [The parents may actually be Caucasion but have dark hair and olive skin like their daughter]. There are no photos of families with children who look physically different that their parents or siblings. Additionally, all families are 2 parent, heterosexual, able bodied and nuclear. This promising book was a big disappointment for my family and me.