Where Are My Birth Parents?: A Guide for Teenage Adoptees [Hardcover]

Karen Gravelle (Author), Susan Fischer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1993

Discusses how and why adopted children may try to locate and get to know their birth parents and examines possible psychological benefits and problems associated with the process.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9-12-- This valuable manual is for teenagers wishing to reunite with their birth parents, those who do not want to search, and those who are unsure of their feelings. It's of great practical and emotional benefit. The authors treat the adoption experience respectfully and tactfully; their writing is direct and free of jargon. Throughout the book, equal attention is given to biological and adoptive families, fathers, mothers, and siblings. The authors candidly acknowledge the anger, rage and frustration each person must feel. Foreign-born and mixed-race adoptees will need additional information beyond this solid, helpful beginning. Included are lists of search and support groups in the U. S. and abroad and counseling centers. A temperate and realistic book, this is an important addition to YA collections. --Anna Biagioni Hart, Sherwood Regional Library, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

By the author of other books on ``issues of importance to adolescents'' (Teenage Fathers, 1992) and a clinical psychologist who has written about surrogate mothers, a knowledgeable, perceptive discussion of the logistics--legal, emotional, etc.- -faced by adoptees seeking their birth parents. For adolescents, the process is complicated by the need to separate from parents while defining themselves as adults; since most states access records only to adults, the cooperation of an adoptive parent is necessary. With three detailed exceptions, most of the adoptees interviewed here were adult searchers, but the basics--the need to connect with the past and to resolve feelings of abandonment- -are the same at any age. The authors sample a helpful variety of circumstances (including international adoption); the responses of birth mothers, from joy to outright rejection; and the ups and downs of subsequent relationships. With admirable sensitivity, they use specific cases to develop guidelines on what to expect, though they do harp on the probability of adoptive parents feeling hurt, and never address the worst fears that can, unfortunately, prove true (e.g., that the birth mother was raped). Still, these are defensible choices in a book urging adoptees' right--and compelling need--to know, while encouraging them to find out. Sensible and supportive. Lengthy lists of search and support groups, including many grouped by state, plus counseling centers and a registry; bibliography. (Nonfiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 132 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Co; First US edition (June 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802782574
• ISBN-13: 978-0802782571
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,521,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karen Gravelle is the author of Walker and Company's The Period Book and is the author of several other books about difficult issues facing today's adolescents. She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for teenage adoptees!, July 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Where Are My Birth Parents?: A Guide for Teenage Adoptees (Library Binding)

Though this book is aimed at teenage adoptees, older adopted persons, birth parents and adoptive parents, not to mention "official helpers" too, will gain insight into what it is like to be cut off from one's own roots. It is easy to read and puts many of the issues around the normalacy of the right to know into perspective, especially for the non-adopted who all too often have no frame of reference and just don't "get it." -Holly Kramer, President, Parent Finders, Toronto Canada

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With a teenager in the house - adopted or not adopted, this is the book!, February 23, 2006

By 

K. Korning (Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Where Are My Birth Parents?: A Guide for Teenage Adoptees (Paperback)

This is the book to purchase if you have a teenager in the house. Be it an adopted teenager or non-adopted teenager.
As a teacher, cousellor og school advisor it is a must.
Both the youngsters, their parents and who ever else is around our teenagers during the difficult years of youth may profit from this book.
The book treats the feelings and thoughts of teenagers in a very straight forward way as does it give suggestions on how to survive the maturing years, for teenager as well as for his/her parents. Had I had such advise on talking to my parents, a "users manual" to their thoughts about my growing up, a book that told me what my peers think and why they do it, I sure would have had an easier life from 13 - 19 years. This book is definately going to be among the presents on my daughters birthday gift table when she turns thirteen - it may well be that her non-adopted cousins get a copy too on their 13th birthdays.
In addition it is easily read with the caring love for teenagers very obvious between the lines.