Rating: 
Summary: One of the better adoption stories, but it has its flaws
Review: I read virtually every adoption story that is published, and this is indeed one of the better ones. Ms. Newman is a skillful writer, and she tells the story of her son's adoption from Russia with humor and clarity. It is impossible not to admire Ms. Newman and her husband for their perseverance and determination in completing Alex's adoption. That said, however, there are a few annoyances in this adoption memoir. Although she went through an admittedly trying experience in Russia, Ms. Newman occasionally lapses into a whiny self-pity more typical of an overindulged adolescent than a 40-something grown woman. For example, when a friend gives her a book depicting a woman's first year with her baby, Ms. Newman turns the book "facedown on the ... table, not wanting to read about a woman who already had her son." I was also troubled by the Newmans' lack of research when they embarked on Alex's adoption. They decided on an adoption agency based on some sales talk and a photograph of an infant. In a sense, they have only themselves to blame for most of the difficulties they encountered in Moscow. Finally, it bothered me that the Newmans apparently didn't make the effort to learn Russian (beyond the few phrases they picked up in a Russian travel guide), nor did they acquaint themselves with Russia's history. It is obvious that the Newmans love their son, but at least initially, it seemed that Alex was simply a commodity for two bored and spoiled Yuppies who wanted to "have it all."
Rating: 
Summary: Desperation does not make for a good model
Review: I really disliked this book's portrayal of a woman so desperate for a baby that she would jump head first into the first adoption "opportunity" that came her way and then bemoan the constant difficulties she got herself and her shell-shocked, though supportive, husband into. A much better look at international adoption can be found in A World of Love by Maggie Francis Conroy. I definately do not recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Desperation does not make for a good model
Review: I really disliked this book's portrayal of a woman so desperate for a baby that she would jump head first into the first adoption "opportunity" that came her way and then bemoan the constant difficulties she got herself and her shell-shocked, though supportive, husband into. A much better look at international adoption can be found in A World of Love by Maggie Francis Conroy. I definately do not recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A touching tribute to falling in love with a little boy
Review: Janis Cooke Newman's book was delightfully candid about the process she and her husband Ken went through - first deciding to be parents, and then to adopt against the odds after falling in love with their son Alex after seeing him on an video tape of available Russian orphans. This book is a fine story of love and triumph, of tenacity and tenderness. Get a copy. You won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Sort of agree with the "good writer/bitter woman" reviewer
Review: Ms. Newman is a very skilled writer, and the story told in this book makes compelling reading. I am, however, put off by the negative way in which she portrays virtually everyone she deals with in the process of adoption. And I wish she had explored the cultural or political conditions that produce a surplus of adoptable children in Russia. For a sweeter, although not saccharine, story about Russian adoption, I would recommend Adopting Alyosha by R. Klose. Mr. Klose may not be the writer that Ms. Cooke is, but he is clever, and even though he ran into his share of jerks, the humanity comes through in his book in a way that it does not in Ms. Newman's.
Rating:
Summary: Good example of what not to do
Review: Newman sets a good example of how not to proceed with an international adoption. No background checks of the agency, no research done, impetuous trip, demanding and complaining...pretty much the ugly American.
Rating:
Summary: Parents aren't perfect people
Review: Reading this book was a wonderful journey of life and hope. I found I did not want to put it down until the whole story was told. Being of the older generation I was so impressed with her truth and honesty before reaching the descision that she and her husband did. I especially enjoyed her refrences to small things, such as no baby showers till after a child is born,etc. These were the beliefs of so many of my own friends families. Also having children of my own in her age group I have known many who have tried all the the things which they did. Her book is a salute to all young people who have the courage to fulfill their dream of a family. Something I am not quite sure my generation had. Her descriptions made one feel they were at the doctors offices with her or walking the streets of Moscow. I would like to recomend this book to young and old alike.
Rating:
Summary: An Eloquent Adoption Chronicle
Review: Sometimes the most unexpected books turn out to be page turners. I found this book very difficult to put down! Janice Newman does a wonderful job of chronicling her efforts to have a baby -- first biologically and then by adopting from Russia. The details brought back so many memories from my own adoption journeys to Russia (e.g. straddling the middle seat while cramped between two adults in the backseat of a Lada that barely runs). But, the book's appeal should be much broader -- to anyone who wants to ride vicariously the roller coaster of adoption. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Russian Word for Snow : A True Story of
Review: The beautiful title and cover image drew me to this little book. I have such fond memories of our own adoptive experience in Moscow that I promptly ordered this book. I was very disappointed with the book. Our experience was so different and we saw a different Russia and people. We prepared ourselves differently than the author for our experience in Russia. It served us well. We were the visitors to this amazing land and lived there for three weeks and absorbed as much as we could of our child's birthland. I am sorry the author was so isolated from the real gem of Russia, it's people and deep history. I did enjoy reading about the places and stories of their experiences. At least it brought back many memories for me. Not all Russian adoptions are so isolating. I recommend people never travel to another country and expect it to be America!
Rating:
Summary: The English word for ¿razdrazhayushchaya¿
Review: The best thing Janice Cooke Newman could have done for her book was to change everyone's names and market it as fiction. Had she done so, this tale of a shallow, self-absorbed Bay Area yuppie who trots off to Russia with her wiser, loyal husband to adopt a boy she's smitten with after her very first contact with an adoption facilitator would doubtless have earned critical plaudits as perceptive and arch satire. Unfortunately, she wasn't that smart. Having myself gone through an unsuccessful, sadder attempt to adopt from Russia, I add my second to the other commentators here noting that her descriptions of the process are accurate but that this is definitely not the way to do it. But there's something else about this book that stands out that I feel compelled to point out. Is it as obvious to any other reader as it is to me (but not her) that Ms. Newman adopted out of some serious unresolved issues with her late mother that she tries to deal with not just by becoming a mother, but her own mother? I have no doubt she's a good mother, but this may cause some issues as Alex grows up. To help the reader grasp this, I have included references to the page numbers so you can just leaf through the book instead of buying it. The first sign of this is in the book's title. Nowhere in the volume does she actually tell you what the Russian word for snow is ("sneg"). Since this word points to her son's biological origins, that which Newman needs to deny to enhance her own motherhood, it is easy to see why she's so hostile to the Russian language and especially the Cyrillic alphabet (pp. 76, 93, 104, 124, 161, 167 and 168. The last one is particularly egregious: "K's and C's and backwards R's that looked as if they would scratch and tear at my throat if I tried to pronounce them.") Earlier in the book, before her mother dies, Newman recounts no less than three instances where the two of them stopped communicating (pp. 15, 17 and 20. The one on 17, where the daughter's well-intentioned gift of a book to help her mother through cancer treatment rubs her the wrong way and leads her to hang up the phone. On page 145, Newman herself gets angry at a friend's well-intended gift of a book, again echoing her mother). And her self-identification with her mother is again explicit early on and continues throughout (pp. 6-7, 8, 15, 82, 114, 115, 197, 201). The infamous bath scene (pp. 201-4) is, as noted below, one of the most embarassing scenes in the book. I sure wouldn't have wanted to have lived through it, and if I did you can bet I wouldn't write about it. Not only does Newman insist on replicating her mother to the point of traumatizing Alex, in the face of her husband's correct advice about how you bathe a child fresh from an orphanage, she then gets into a screaming match with him, treating the poor boy like a prize toy in the process and displaying the emotional maturity of an eight-year-old. What was she thinking? Was she thinking? Then there's the curious reappearances of penises (Alex's, p.6; her husband's, p. 48; a statue, p. 115) and feminine protection products (pp. 25, 170 and 212), which are mostly superfluous to the narrative. One could assume, especially in the case of the latter, that these are simply a way of flaunting her "chick writer" credentials, but at 40ish, she's a little too old to have to do that. They symbolize the biological process of reproduction, a reminder to the author that she has not fully assumed her mother's mantle since her son came through adoption. For equality's sake, she makes sure Alex never forgets he's adopted, either (OK, not wrong to do that but it seems like the way they did that was too forceful). On p. 229, there is one last attempt, in a conversation between her and Alex, to resolve the birth/mother issue that even Newman realizes is "insufficient." Despite her effort to give the book a cutesy, upbeat ending, this insecurity haunts everything else. I finished this book with the uncomfortable feeling that I'd been sitting in on her therapy sessions (if she has them). If I, with just pop-psychiatric credentials, can pick all this out, what might a real professional see? All this said, this book is still not without some value. She has enough perceptiveness as a traveler to note the details of contemporary Russia which ring accurate to anyone who's been there. And, any reader undergoing the adoption process will get an idea of what to expect, if not how to actually do this. However, she does not earn the praise of being a good writer with this book. If she is, it's offset by her lack of storytelling skills. The long passages of novelistic dialogue that give an unwarranted sense of the portentous to conversations that include more than their fair share of non sequiturs and sometimes border on the Pinteresque, the flat characters (one is relieved when the Russians show up, on p. 71, as they bring a refreshingly cynical sense of humor to the narrative: "That used to be KGB headquarters," "What do they do there now?" "Same thing.") are just the most obvious obstacles to the reader. She is, though, telling one very good story, just not the story she thinks she's telling.
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