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Summary: Should be required read for all Adoption professionals
Review: ....and adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents and everyone touched by adoption in one way or another. The powerful impact of this book left me in tears and in awe of the author's ability to make sense of the incredible, warp-speed evolution of adoption. As an adult adoptee, there were hundreds of questions that began with "Why...?" in my life. Adam Pertman provides the reader with insights and answers on the broad spectrum and history of adoption issues. For his thorough and sensitive approach, I will always be grateful!
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Summary: Comprehensive and engrossing
Review: A magisterial and page-turning survey of the state of adoption today and of current adoption issues. Comprehensive summaries alternate with gripping, illustrative individual stories. Pertman frankly states his positions on controversial issues.If you have to restrict yourself to one book on adoption, this is the one to get.
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Summary: A book for everyone
Review: A walk down the Adoption aisle of your local bookstore (or your Internet booksite) reveals shelf upon shelf of niche books broken down into sub-categories; How to Adopt books, How to Parent Adoptive Family books, How I Adopted My Child books (broken into Foreign and Domestic sub-categories), I was Adopted books, How to Search books, How I Searched books, etc. These books are specifically informative if, for instance, you're interested in adopting a child or reuniting with your birthparent. These books are by necessity limited in scope. "Adoption Nation" is a notable and praisworthy exception - a well written overview of the phenomenon of contemporary US adoption (and its repercussions outside the US. I would recommend "Adoption Nation" to anyone interested in the changing face of America, as well as anyone interested in adoption, what it is now and how it came to be this way. ...
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Summary: A Glorious Book!
Review: Adam Pertman has done what several in the adoption world could only hope to do. He has written the book "Adoption Nation: How The Adoption Revolution Is Transforming America" and opened the hearts, souls and minds of many to the future. His book is a powerful tool that should be read by all who is involved in adoption. He has taken his knowledge of adoption, placed it in this book and thrusted it into the forefront of a raging war that's happening Nationwide. As a writer, I believe this book to be one of adoption's best. As a reader, I felt I was learning secrets that have been well guarded through out the years. As an adoptee, I felt my heart and soul lift. Someone actually understands!!! Someone is actually trying to help!!! Adoption Nation is a glorious book that needs to be read by everyone!!!
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Summary: "Adoption Nation" takes adoption issues into the future
Review: Adam Pertman takes adoption issues into the future with "Adoption Nation," a book that rightfully sheds light on all remaining dark corners of adoption. As an adoptee and adoption advocate who espouses similar views, this book has become my No. 1 reference source and also a favorite gift to friends involved in or curious about adoption. The author, a colleague of mine at the Boston Globe, has used his many years of journalistic experience in researching all facets of adoption in the 21st century and the views he presents are balanced. Yes, balanced. Though perhaps some fearful and emotionally closed people prefer secrecy, that is the extreme, and really is no longer an option. We, the proud adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents, will never again retreat
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Summary: Attention adoptive/birth parents and adoptees!
Review: Adam Pertman's book "Adoption Nation" is one of the few books I have read in its entirety of all the authors I have interviewed on my radio show - I don't always have that luxury. This is one book that I couldn't put down. I am not a member of the triad (which is why I wasn't going to read the whole thing, I was just planning to get an idea of what it was about), but Adam made me feel as tho I could have been any one of them, adoptee, birth parent or adoptive parent. It is unreal how an adoptive parent could speak so well on behalf of the other two members of the triad! It reads as tho he were all three himself! Any member of the Triad would do well to read this book.
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Summary: Letting in Sunlight on a Complicated Topic
Review: Adam Pertman's open minded approach to the tough topic of adoption will help the next generation of adoptees and their families. Pertman writes from the vantage point of a happy adoptive parent--as such he is sure to inspire others to adopt. He also champions adoptees' rights to information and access to whatever biological and ethnic roots can be determined. His confidence about the benefits of adoption enables him to tackle the secrecy and attendant sense of shame that has made adoption difficult both for couples seeking to adopt and for adoptees. Pertman's energy and optimism virtually bounce off the page. The vast community of people affected by adoption should welcome this approach. Not everyone will agree with Pertman, but his book is a must-have for the latest wave in thinking about adoption.
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Summary: A Landmark In The Understanding of Adoption
Review: Adoption Nation is a remarkable contribution to the understanding of adoption today. Not only does it discuss past practices and their impact on adoptive triad members -- birth and adoptive parents as well as adoptees -- it brings adoption out from behind the secrecy and stigma of those practices. Adam Pertman has single-handidly helped his readers both at The Boston Globe and of Adoption Nation understand adoption and the triad members as never before. He also offers a hope that, as adoptive and birth families are mainstreamed, that the lingering impacts of that secrecy and stigma will ultimately dissipate altogether. Perhaps of greater importance is his discussion of topics that remain problematic for the adoption community, especially practitioners and parents. These include the treatment of birth parents and the ethics surrounding the adoption of children everywhere. The ethics is, perhaps, the toughest discussion this community has yet to address. Following in the footsteps of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute which held an important conference an adoption ethics a few years ago, Pertman frankly discusses things few want to discuss much less address. Yet, as he points out, without such action, adoption will remain questionable and cloudy in the public mind. Well done, Mr. Pertman. You have contributed much to the adoption community and our children. ...
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Summary: Adoption Nation - a MUST!
Review: Adoption Nation is a well written book that should be read by all - not just by those people affected or "touched" by adoption. For decades, the subject of adoption has been "off limits". Birth parents had long been shamed into "forgetfullness", Adoptees were taught it wasn't nice to ask questions about their status as adoptees, and Adoptive Parents were afraid to speak of it. In fact, to this day, even the lawmakers and judges project negative tones with regard to adoption. It's time the world opened their eyes to adoption and embrace it. There is no reason that Adoption should have negative over tones surrounding it all in the name of secrecy. Finally, with Adoption Nation and with adoption reform movements all around the country, Adoption and adoption triad members are coming out of the closet and the stigmas are beginning to be washed away! My hat is off to all who actively work for adoption reform and especially to Adam Pertman for writing such an eye opening and compelling book! Everyone deserves truth, dignity and honesty!
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Summary: Adoption issues finally explained - it's about time...
Review: Adoption Nation is superbly researched and concisely written with a sensitivity that is finely balanced. It is a textbook for birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents and facilitators alike. If we have learned as a result of reading this book, then Pertman has achieved a remarkable goal - a more enlightened society that can work towards a greater understanding and acceptance of adoption. As a birth mother who searched for her son for 20 years, I understand only too well the anguish and despair that so many women suffer on this journey through a minefield of social expectations and misconceptions. As a birth mother who has reunited with her son and has experienced the most profound joy, I acknowledge the fears of adoptive families and the need to support and educate those who still cannot fathom the intricacies of adoption and the negative fallout that can occur. Adam Pertman's, Adoption Nation, is a definitive resource focusing on the true realities surrounding adoption. As he explains in depth, the keys to understanding the adoption "triad" are love, tolerance and patience along with the willingness to be educated regarding the effects of technology in today's world. Pertman attacks the myths of adoption; that birth mothers, on the whole, never want contact with the children they were willing to give away, that birth fathers have never wanted access to their children, that adoptive parents will never cope with their fear that their adopted children will search for their birth parents and then abandon the families chosen for them. He has chosen in this book to challenge "accepted practice and belief" that shame and guilt are the basic premises birth parents must accept and that secrecy and sealed records are viable and acceptable for adoptees. Basic human rights are at issue here and Pertman explores these rights. The changing face of social expectation needs to encompass the rights and emotional needs of all involved in the adoption process. If adoption is about finding babies for childless couples, it also needs to be about acknowledging the grief and anguish birth mothers experience in relinquishing their children. It is time to confront the issues and discuss adoption openly, not keep it buried as it has been for several generations. Politically, it is time for change as well; adoptees, regardless of their origins, should never be denied their basic human rights. If the average citizen has the civil right to their birth certificate so should adoptees have the same basic right. Slowly, the changing face of adoption, is allowing those involved, directly and indirectly, the opportunity to assess and accept the life forces that operate here. Those who search for answers are vastly assisted by access to information previously unattainable before the advent of computer technology. Greater openness has allowed the participants choices, which previously, were never an option. The consequences and conflicts that have arisen as a result are not unsolvable when time and dedication to positive change are ultimate goals. Adam Pertman's answers to this life phenomenon are that with patience, persistence and acceptance, anything is possible.
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