Customer Reviews

Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology By Korean Adoptees

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There may be a biased message in the book, but that does not make it any less valid. The stories/essays/prose/poetry are all personal accounts written by Korean adoptees about their experiences with life, as they know it, as a Korean adoptee. Personally, I think it is a powerful and endearing book, as these adoptees bear their souls. As an adoptee myself, it's inspiring to finally see something on the market that combats the sappy, romanticized images of adoption that most mainstream books often portray. In any case, as member of the adoptee community, I recommend this book for anyone involved with adoption in any way, because it does show some of the raw emotions of the adoptee experience, even if they aren't the pictures you want to see.

As a Korean adoptee, I relate to many of the ideas that the authors are putting forth. I know and understand what it is like to struggle with this identity. To experience growing up as an Asian American in an all white community, and then have your Asian American identity hit you like a mack truck. I know what it is like to want to deny that part of yourself. I understand the feelings of hurt, of frustration and confusion. However, I am also beginning to understand the pride in being Asian American. And part of the reason that I am able to do this is because of the support and love of my parents. I feel that many of the poetry and prose that the editors have included in this anthology has negative connotations towards the adoptive parents. I know some really wonderful adoptive parents, including my own. I simply worry that people who are reading this book from outside of adoption will think that all adoptive parents are horrible and all adoptees are maladjusted.

It's the most emotional book I have ever read. It should be essential for everyone who are involved in Korean/int'l adoption, both adoptees, birthparents and adoptive parents, as well as siblings, relatives, friends and professionals.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

The mass exodus of unaccompanied children from the lands of their birth is one of the least documented and most dramatic legacies of the twentieth century. When seen through a post-colonial lense, it may also, in some ways, be one of the most troubling. These intensely personal accounts offer us a compassionate glimpse onto one of these vast, secret migrations. In doing so, these voices raise profound questions about the ethical limits of human charity and the burden of memory in the absence of the possiblity of history.