A Forever Family (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Jennifer Jordan-Wong (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3-- A first-person photo essay that documents eight-year-old Jenny's life before and after her adoption. As black-and-white photos show her with friends and extended family, readers learn of her likes and dislikes amidst her accounts of positive experiences within the foster care and social service system. Her natural curiosity surfaces and surrounds the adoptive process, her biological parents, and the problems that caused them to surrender her to the authorities when she was three. This upbeat, loving, yet honest story has a picture book appearance that offers accessibility to beginning readers. Stylistically, it is similar to Banish's Let Me Tell You about My Baby (HarperCollins, 1988). Other works share similarities with it, such as Holtz's Foster Child (Messner, 1984; o.p.), Sobol's We Don't Look Like Our Mom and Dad (Coward, 1984), Greenberg's Adopted (Watts, 1987), and Rosenberg's Being Adopted (Lothrop, 1984), but none approximate the distinctive descriptions of Jenny's move from foster care to adoption. Whether for cultural awareness or a plain good read, this is a first-class choice. --Celia A. Huffman, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Eight-year-old Jennifer Jordan-Wong describes her adoption by a family after four years of living as a foster child with many different families.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 44 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books; 1st edition (January 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060216735
• ISBN-13: 978-0060216733
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,286,205 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Questions are okay, September 23, 2001

By	Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This story is perfect for children who were adopted, particularly those adopted at an older age. The simple text is accompanied by photographs of the co-author, Jenny Jordan-Wong, who was adopted in the early 1990s at the age of eight.

Her life with her Mom and Dad, an inter-racial couple, is normal and loving in every way. Jenny plays and runs and reads like other kids. (She especially likes Nany Drew.) She takes piano lessons and plays Hula Hoop.

But she is different from other friends who want to know what it was like to be adopted. She explains that her biological parents had a lot of problems and could not take care of her. So when she was three, she moved to a foster family, a temporary family who "take care of you until you are adopted." Of course, Jenny knows that not everyone gets adopted.

Jenny has pictures of her second foster Mom and Dad, who took her in when she was 6. She still visits them, as she does the social workers who helped find her parents.

"It was scary meeting my new mom and dad," she writes. But after visiting on several weekends with her family, "We knew we wanted to be a family. They wanted to adopt me and I wanted to live with them. We would become a forever family."

The story also includes photos of the court session which made the adoption final and of Jenny's extended family--aunts, uncles, cousins, and her friends.

This book helps kids realize that others have been through the same thing, that new things take some getting used to, and that questions are okay. Alyssa A. Lappen

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book for latency age adopted children, December 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Forever Family (Paperback)

As an adoptions professional I am continually searching for books that reflect the experience of children who are adopted after they have been removed from birth parents. Many of these children are between the ages of six and ten when adopted. Kids I have shared this book with have not wanted to give it back. It is a very useful tool in helping children understand adoption. Jennifer's journey from instability to having a forever family is not sugar coated but presents what is true for the majority of adopted children. I am very disappointed that it is out of print. I think this is a great loss for our kids.

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the few books for kids adopted at older ages, February 8, 2006

By	C. Mitchell - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Forever Family (Paperback)

There is such a need for books that are applicable to families that adopt children beyond infancy. It is a shame that this is out of print. I was able to find it at the library, though.