Rating: 
Summary: Less ambivalence, more analysis needed
Review: I commend Karin Evans for tackling this subject, and for sharing a deeply personal story with universal applications. I have often wondered how adopting families feel about benefitting from such an appalling situation. The author is honest about her ambivalence, but I felt frustrated that she cast the problem largely as a rural vs. urban dichotomy, where "progress" and "jobs" and "education" were offered as the answer to rural poverty and the backward ways of those poor farm folk. Perhaps this is China's solution, but it needn't be ours. North Americans buy vast amounts of goods made by China's sweat shops, so you can be sure that there are many more "red threads" tying us all together than simply those of love for an unknown child in a distant land. The author just barely scrapes the surface of our relationship with China, of our willingness to exploit their labour and their lives so that we have access to cheap goods. We need more dialogue on this whole issue: The Lost Daughters of China is a start.
Rating: 
Summary: the lost daughters
Review: I cried a thousand tears. having adopted 2 daughthers from China I now have a better insight into what there mothers where feeling, thinking when giving up there girls. Explains the boy vs girl issue in China quite well. A must read
Rating:
Summary: Many books will tell you "How." This one tells you "Why."
Review: I do not give five star ratings lightly. This book is a gem. As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is part Chinese adoption "how to" and part travel diary. Both those sections are admirably done, but I treasure this book because Karen Evans presents a succinct summary of the causative factors of child abandonment in China. I would strongly recommend that anyone who has adopted from China or may adopt in the future read this book, for the sake of your daughter. Ideally, adopted children should have some contact with their biological parents. This isn't possible for our Chinese daughters. They will almost definitely want to know why they were abandoned. Evan's book explains the subordinate position of women in Chinese society, the factors that drive the need of Chinese parents for a son, and the origins of the one-child policy and how it works (or doesn't work.) In addition, _Lost Daughters of China_ will educate anyone with an interest in the status of women in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Many books will tell you "How." This one tells you "Why."
Review: I do not give five star ratings lightly. This book is a gem. As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is part Chinese adoption "how to" and part travel diary. Both those sections are admirably done, but I treasure this book because Karen Evans presents a succinct summary of the causative factors of child abandonment in China. I would strongly recommend that anyone who has adopted from China or may adopt in the future read this book, for the sake of your daughter. Ideally, adopted children should have some contact with their biological parents. This isn't possible for our Chinese daughters. They will almost definitely want to know why they were abandoned. Evan's book explains the subordinate position of women in Chinese society, the factors that drive the need of Chinese parents for a son, and the origins of the one-child policy and how it works (or doesn't work.) In addition, _Lost Daughters of China_ will educate anyone with an interest in the status of women in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended but...
Review: I found the book to be well researched, written, and quite informative but, as with all non-fiction books, by the time it is written, published and marketed things change. I feel that it does not currently reflect the situations or the social changes that have happened in China in relation to adoption, the one child policy and orphanages, since it was written. I am not suggesting that everything is wonderful, just that they have improved significantly. I think it would be great if she re-edited the book noting the current changes. While it would still be sad and heartwarming, I believe that it would give a much more positive view.
Rating:
Summary: Unbalanced, repetitive, outdated
Review: I gave this three stars because there is some interesting information here, and it presents a few useful ways to think about Chinese birth mothers. But overall, it isn't a very good read. I have a low tolerance for sanctimoniousness, and the tone of this book is pretty irritating. I found it very anti-China and quite blind to the ways that some of the problems she illuminates about China are both present in the U.S. and partially a result of US policies on birth control/abortion and foreign/UN aid. It also needs some serious editing. There's enough material here for an excellent long-ish article. As a book, though, it is repetitive. And, if you like sugary sentimentalism, you'll like what she has to say about motherhood, but if you prefer more balanced prose, this isn't your book. MUCH BETTER is Emily Prager's Wuhu Diary, which offers a much better way of thinking about China AND a better way of understanding Chinese birth mothers. Finally, as someone going through the adoption process, I found the information about adoption here a bit outdated.
Rating:
Summary: Read Selectively
Review: I had read an excerpt of this book in the San Francisco Examiner (describing the paper chase process and the trip to China to get her daughter) and that, coupled with Chapter 4, The One Child, Maybe More Policy, gave me a cogent picture of Chinese adoption. On the negative side, I felt that there were organizational problems with the arrangement of the chapters, and within the chapters themselves, and that the prose was sometimes meandering, moving around from one topic to another - an editing issue as much as a writing one. There were too many quotes from other books, which felt like 'padding' to me. I'm more interested in first hand experience and research. I look forward to the time when China is more open and women who have abandoned their daughters can speak for themselves about their experience.
Rating:
Summary: American Parents of China's Lost Daughters Must Read!
Review: I have been waiting for a book like this since I adopted my daughter Chen Jiang Jing (now Lucy Roesch) from Nanjing in October 1998. I read this book with tears streaming down my face, feeling both profoundly sad and proud to be a part of such an emotionally overpowering experience. As my beautiful baby turns into a toddler, I find myself more and more in awe of an experience that I think, at the time, I did not fully understand. Ms. Evans' book provides a cultural perspective, some helpful but not overwhelming statistical data, and a touching account of her own wonderful experience. I know I will refer often to this book, its notes and its resources as I come to explain to my very lovely girl how she came to be in my life and how very lucky I am because of it.
Rating:
Summary: The best book for 1st hand info on adopting from China!
Review: I love this book! I am waiting to adopt from China and have already read the book twice. I am buying copies of it for my parents and my in-laws. I hope everyone in my family will read it before my child arrives. It is a great resource from someone who has been through the experience of adopting from China. WONDERFUL! Insightful, interesting, and informative! I wish she would right another one!
Rating:
Summary: Great reading on China Adoption!!
Review: I must admit that this is the ONE book that WILL make you cry! We have done this "amazing" journey ourselves (adopting in China) and it is the best book I have ever read, and even recommended to my entire family to understand the tedious process of our daughter's amazing adoption. I have bought three copies (one to keep for my daughter) and 2 for relatives! Amazing reading! You will read it over and over again and never get tired of it! It is a book I will treasure forever!
| 
