This is the first adoption book I’ve read that covers the whole constellation: adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents. The author intersperses interviews throughout the book to help readers understand the various perspectives. This book helped me understand adoptees and adoptive parents at a deeper level. I am a birth parent. Widner’s description of how a birth mother is described as “unfit” as an unwed teen and then proclaimed a “wonderful mother” as a married woman was my experience to a tee. This book also delves into the history of adoption and helps clarify the myths surrounding it, including the archaic practices still in place. It should be read by anyone affected by adoption, considering adoption, or anyone who knows an adoptee.
-Kris Downey
