For the past several weeks I've slowly been reading A Love Like No Other: Stories by Adoptive Parents, edited by Pamela Kruger and Jill Smolowe. Typically when I read I like to do so all in a hurry - I'm a fast reader and I enjoy it very much. But I've been busy and have only managed a section here, a section there with this book. I'm glad of it. The essays in this book deserve a slow and careful read. I've felt lucky... more

Mrs. Hen's Big Surprise, by Christel Desmoineaux, is a wonderful little book about - you guessed it - a hen who gets a really big surprise!

The only bad news about this book is that it seems to be out of print. Used copies are available on Amazon, however, for pretty cheap, so you can still get it. I think this book is appropriate for any child who's adopted, or was even born through donor eggs/sperm.... more

I have been going through my bookshelves trying to get organized and I came upon a children's book I stowed away to review about six months ago, when we moved to this house.

This is a wonderful little book and frankly, I'm sorry I hid it away because I could have been reading it to my boys. In fact, Little J took it one off my desk yesterday (where it had joined a new pile of 'stuff-to-deal-with-sooner-rather-than-later') and ran off with it. He was really attracted to the picture on the cover: a little creature cozying up to its mother.

What... more

Note to readers: since I wrote this blog I've done a little research into this book and the controversy that surrounds it. I still think that the techniques that Burns suggests for advertising (which is what I'm profiling in this blog and the next two entries) are valid, but I also suggest you read this review before you purchase it. I think that the review on The Whole Mom's webpage gives prospective adoptive parents a lot to think about.

Okay, that said, here's some of what I found useful about Fast Track Adoption...

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A couple of weeks ago I was sent a book to review from Adoptive Families magazine. The book was A Place in my Heart, by Mary Grossnickle, illustrated by Alison Relyea.

I wrote the review for the magazine and obviously I can't reprint it here (especially since it hasn't come out yet), but I'll recap the general idea for you. In the magazine's review I was actually more positive then I really feel about the book since that magazine has... more

In my former life I was a high school media specialist. In other words, a librarian. In my current life (in addition to being Mommy, a blogger, and a publishing powerhouse - hahaha) I am also a writer and reader of young adult fiction. I realize that most of you probably never read fiction for young adults (even when you were young adults) and certainly don't now, but I want to make a plug for books written for the teenage set. Most of them are extremely well-written, they're usually focused on the wide theme of 'growing up' (and who can't relate to that) and for those of you who have teenagers,... more