Rating: 
Summary: Invaluable book for children adopted from China
Review: ....Sara Dorow's book tells adopted children, "Chinese peoplelove children, and family members are very close to one another." It does not suggest that American parents love children better....When You Were Born in China is sensitive and respectful to China, to Chinese birth parents, and to all the people in China who care for orphaned children in China's social welfare institutions. It is a superb book, and its explanation of the reasons children become available for adoption in China is a masterful combination of accuracy and concision. Every adoptive family with a child from China should have this book in their child's collection.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable book for children adopted from China
Review: ....Sara Dorow's book tells adopted children, "Chinese peoplelove children, and family members are very close to one another." It does not suggest that American parents love children better.... When You Were Born in China is sensitive and respectful to China, to Chinese birth parents, and to all the people in China who care for orphaned children in China's social welfare institutions. It is a superb book, and its explanation of the reasons children become available for adoption in China is a masterful combination of accuracy and concision. Every adoptive family with a child from China should have this book in their child's collection.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks to this book, we now have a place to start.
Review: As prospective parents of a Chinese daughter, we have little experience with the "explanation" of our baby's birth conditions to her. This book has given us the beginnings of that future conversation. We appreciated the photos, and look forward to sharing it with our daughter when she expresses that curiousity. (We also have purchased and enjoyed "Our Baby From China: An Adoption Story," by Nancy D'Antonio.)
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Resource to Explain China Adoption to Child
Review: Being one of over 4000 adoptive parents waiting for referral of a child from China, I found this book to be a very helpful resource that I will add to my future daughter's library. I will simplify and personalize some of the explanations from this book to create her own personalized memory book about China and her adoption.
Rating:
Summary: great for kids under 6
Review: Each page is filled with pictures of China and a couple of easy sentences about Chinese history, beauty, culture, and how kids enjoy Coke and dumplings when they can splurge. Includes sentences that tell about the adoption process, and reinforce the point that the child is loved. Discusses how laws by China's leaders allow only one child per family, and how Chinese parents LOVE children, but ancient ideas about male babies are hard to overcome in some families, and girls get placed for adoption to other loving couples. Encouraging. Primary idea is that your (the child's) story began in China.
Rating:
Summary: great for kids under 6
Review: Each page is filled with pictures of China and a couple of easy sentences about Chinese history, beauty, culture, and how kids enjoy Coke and dumplings when they can splurge. Includes sentences that tell about the adoption process, and reinforce the point that the child is loved. Discusses how laws by China's leaders allow only one child per family, and how Chinese parents LOVE children, but ancient ideas about male babies are hard to overcome in some families, and girls get placed for adoption to other loving couples. Encouraging. Primary idea is that your (the child's) story began in China.
Rating: 
Summary: A risky approach to explaining adoption to a Chinese child
Review: I am not Chinese but I felt, throughout reading this book, that the author may be treading on thin ice with some of her descriptions of China ("...houses and apartments are small and usually don't have hot running water. In the countryside, people often have no indoor plumbing at all...") and her in-depth explanation of the Chinese government's rule that only one child is allowed per couple, preferably a son. The author spends a great deal of time explaining to the young adoptee why it is a costly catastrophe for a Chinese couple to have a girl when they really wanted a son. . . and so "your birthparents couldn't find a way to keep a daughter in their family and still have a son to take care of them later in life..." I cannot imagine that a girl child (no matter what age) reading these pages will feel good about her adoption, or, indeed, feel good about being a girl even though, toward the end of the book, the caring adoptive parents arrived. There is also too much explaining of other reasons why the baby girl was given up, such as medical problems, unmarried birthmother...all this added to the reality that girls are not wanted. "They then carried you to a public place, like a park, or a busy street corner, or a police station- a place where they knew you would be found..." Frankly, I cannot imagine reading this book to an adoptee. These truths will be bitter enough when the adoptee is an adult and learns about Chinese history and culture, but are too brutal to be told at an early age. Just love the child, please, and reserve the unhappy details for much later. An enchanting book like that written by Rose Lewis, I love you like Crazy Cakes is all that is needed to soothe the little girl's soul and let her understand that she came from China.
Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?
Rating:
Summary: Positive presentation with a bit of fairy tale mixed in.
Review: I found this book to be a positive story with many truths. I take exception to the presentation of the parents "loving" their daughter so much that they want the best for her. As an adoptive parent of a beautiful Chinese daughter, I don't want her to think that her birthmother was a fairy godmother, or a movie star who will come get her some day. The truth that China is a male dominated society and the mothers are sometimes forced to abandon the girls due to political & family presure is not presented. I much prefer the book, "Why Was I Adopted".
Rating: 
Summary: It's a bad book .
Review: it's not possible at all that the Chinese don't love their children.In China,chilren are regarded "the young king"or "the small sun".all the family members try their best to present food ,clothing and education to their kids .The love them even more than the Americans do.Are there campus-gunkilling in China?never! It's simple-minded to say China parents don't love children.As long as the human being ,children are his or her part of life.What does the nationality matter?
Rating:
Summary: Helpful, Sensitive, Packed with Photos
Review: Members of my family and friends as well have found this book very helpful in gaining an understanding of our Chinese daughter's home country and the situation surrounding Chinese adoption. They feel they've learned many things that they did not know before. I am hopeful that this book also will be useful and interesting to my daughter as she grows. I particularly appreciate the sensitivity with which the book presents the Chinese culture and tbe reason that most of the children adopted from China are girls. The other wonderful thing about this book is that it is packed with photos of everyday China and of adopting families in China. If Chinese adoption has touched your family, I encourage you to add this book to your collection!
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