Rating: 
Summary: a wonderful story..................
Review: I loved this book not only because of the wonderful author, but also because LuLu is simply a delightful child. There were many passages in the book that touched me. I didn't read the book because I wanted facts. Instead, I wished to learn more about the interactions between a mother and a child who are not of the same race. I was far from disappointed.
This mother loved her child so much that she wanted to return to the country where LuLu was born so that LuLu could better understand her origins and why she doesn't look like her adoptive mother. Some readers were troubled that LuLu might have been too young, but they are underestimating a child's capacity and resilience. I find LuLu fascinating. I wish her mom (the author) would write more about her adopted daughter and their life together.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderful story..................
Review: I loved this book not only because of the wonderful author, but also because LuLu is simply a delightful child. There were many passages in the book that touched me. I didn't read the book because I wanted facts. Instead, I wished to learn more about the interactions between a mother and a child who are not of the same race. I was far from disappointed.
This mother loved her child so much that she wanted to return to the country where LuLu was born so that LuLu could better understand her origins and why she doesn't look like her adoptive mother. Some readers were troubled that LuLu might have been too young, but they are underestimating a child's capacity and resilience. I find LuLu fascinating. I wish her mom (the author) would write more about her adopted daughter and their life together.
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly, a big disappointment
Review: I must agree with the writer from Honolulu, also as a parent of a daughter adopted from China, I find this book very haunting in the fact that there is a lot of acting out from Lulu and Ms. Praeger just assumes that it is Lulu's way of "connecting" with China. The fact that Lulu so easily attaches herself to every person they meet in China and Ms. Praeger doesn't think anything of this is almost a little much. This journey was clearly for mom and not for Lulu. Have I taken my daughter back to China? Yes, but she was older than Lulu when we made the journey and certainly we did not spend more than a month drumming my daughter's past into her head. There are many other books much better for understanding China and the adoption process. I won't be sharing this book with my daughter when she is older.
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful China, A beautiful Daughter
Review: In Wuhu Diary, Emily Prager portrays China and the Chinese culture/people with sharp perceptiveness, sensitivity and a great sense of humor. Her role in China is as complex as her emotions: She is on the one hand a foreign tourist, an outsider of the Chinese society but on the other hand she is also the mother of a China-born girl, which inevitably makes her part of the Chinese scene. Her reflections and explorations of the deeper thoughts and emotions rendered by this contradicatory position are clear and poignant. She has eyes for things subtle enough that others would easily miss. I, a Chinese student studying in America, feel I have been reeducated by her book. I laughed hard when I read Wuhu Diary. I cried, too. It's a book that is both enjoyable and informational. It is a must read for people who are interested in the Chinese culture and especially people who have adopted, are adopting or will adopt a child from mainland China.
Rating: 
Summary: Puzzling, misleading and too cute
Review: The premise of this book is troubling: the author takes her not-yet-five year old daughter to trace her Chinese roots. As a parent who has also adopted, I find the idea of taking a child on such a long "roots" journey to be questionable, considering the child's youth and the complexity of this particular journey (and, of course, it's expensive). What can such a young child understand and retain of this experience? And if this little girl is as confused and concerned about her roots as the mother says, doesn't such a trip prompt even more confusion? My sense is that Prager wanted to write another book and take a good trip and her daughter provided a lot of good material for one. The two really good things about the book - and that's why I give it two stars - is that 1) it's well written - Prager is good at that and 2) it lists some other good books for folks who have adopted or are thinking of adopting. But otherwise, this book gave me the creeps.
Rating:
Summary: Negative reviews unfair
Review: The reviews dated September 16,18 and 23, below, I think really have it wrong. There may be a germ of truth in them, but each betrays a particular rigid perspective on the part of the reviewer. Moreover, none of them is truly a literary review, but instead each is an intolerant political/social diatribe with which many of us will not agree. I think it is frankly outrageous and arrogant to say that the book tells us precisely how not to raise an adopted Chinese daughter. Ms. Prager seems to me to be a loving and thoughtful mother, who grants her daughter appropriate autonomy and respect. The book is well worth reading by China adoptive parents.
Rating:
Summary: A very charming and interesting story
Review: This book really is a diary, and is not even partially investigative journalism. But I do not fault it in this regard; it is appropriately cast as a personal story. It is extremely well written, and, I think, insightful. I would recommend it to any adoptive parents of Chinese-born children, as well as to anyone else with an interest in adoptive families or China.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing account of adoption and China
Review: This diary reveals just how earnest the author is to inculcate into her daughter adopted from China her own brand of Orientalist fantasies. For example, she exoticizes her daughter by having made for her a Sun Yat-Sen coat and Red Army hat and she has her daughter learn an ancient Chinese instrument. Comments such as how "simple" and "gentle" the Chinese are serve to reinforce the stereotypes the author revels in, disturbing my Chinese-American husband and myself when we weren't laughing at these simplistic characterizations of the Chinese. More disturbing still is the question of what will become of the daughter, the five-year-old who disturbingly and repeatedly verbalizes her adoptive mother's obsessive interest in finding the birthmother and showing her daughter exactly where she was left. More than a study of China or adoption, this account is a lesson in exactly how not to raise internationally adopted children, especially ones from China.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, loving, a mother's love story
Review: This is a beautiful book. It is warm and loving, a mother's love story actually. I am also a mother of a Chinese daughter and I
found this book an honest and fascinating discussion of the formation of identity as well as an evocative memoir with which
most mothers of children from China can easily identify.
Prager's daughter reminded me very much of my own daughter and the struggles she has gone through and that was the consensus of my adoptive mother friends who read it too.
Rating:
Summary: Felt like I was visiting China with them
Review: When we adopted our daughter in 1999 we were not able to visit her hometown of Wuhu. This book helped us to connect with her birthplace, and let us relive the excitement of forming our family through adoption. Through detailed descriptions of the people and places Emily Prager has given us a great gift. I felt like I was right beside her. Maybe I am biased, but I think this is a wonderful book for anybody adopting internationally. It hit home for us in a big way!
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