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Title: The Spirit of Open Adoption by James L. Gritter ISBN: 0-87868-637-1 Publisher: Child Welfare League of America Pub. Date: May, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A little editing could go a long way...
Comment: This book is required reading by our adoption agency. While I applaud Mr. Gritter's committment to his subject I have to say that it's a hard read. I think a little editing would have gone a long way as he tends to make his points over and over and over. Plus he feels so strongly about his opinions that he comes off a little heavy handed. On the plus side, many of the chapters (particularly the one about pain) were valuable as was the chapter on commercialization which confirmed our feeling that advertising for a baby through independent adoption wasn't right for us. Maybe the most valuable thing was that reading the book helped us understand what our agency's values were and helped us feel that we'd made the right choice for our situation. I would highly recommend another book suggested by the agency, The Open Adoption Experience. It was a wonderful and non-judgemental book written for adoptive and birth families. It covered not just the adoption itself but raising the child and other issues. It had tons of examples and really helped me think through a lot of things I hadn't considered before.
Rating: 2
Summary: Too dry, not enough examples and true life stories
Comment: If you like intellectual musings and lofty philosophical principles about adoption, read this book. I could only take a couple chapters of Gritter. My wife read more and felt discouraged about adopting. An adoptive parent we know couldn't get through the first chapter. "Too dry", she said.
It puzzled me why the author, with many years of adoption counseling experience under his belt, wouldn't use real life stories and examples to illustrate his ideas. There's almost none. Instead he pontificates and lectures; I felt talked down to.
Fortunately, our experience with Open Adoption and Family Services in Portland, Oregon was far more positive and down to earth.
Rating: 1
Summary: BIAS AGAINST ADOPTION
Comment: Most of this book gives a fair and healthy picture of the advantages to open adoption. The target audience seems to be social workers in the field of adoption and NOT perspective adoptive parents. This book IS clinical in form and often long winded. But the author ends the text (chapters 14 & 15 in particular) by ranting about the evils of adoptions that are not completely open. By reading these chapters, it seemed as if the author wanted me to feel guilty for wanting to parent a child what was not my biological child. This leaves the feeling that the author is biases against choosing an adoption plan over parenting a biological child. We actually learned tonight that our agency (dedicated to the counsel and caring of birth parents) has pulled this book from it's recommended reading list. My wife and I are dedicated to being parents, and ministering to birth parents by raising their child in an open adoption. The negative tone of Gritter's book almost made us reconsider this option. If you are a perspective adoptive parent read Field's "Should You Adopt" and Silber & Speedlin's "Dear Birthmother," but do not read Ritter.
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Title: Open Adoption Experience : Complete Guide for Adoptive and Birth Families - From Making the Decision Throug by Lois Ruskai Melina ISBN: 0060969571 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 17 November, 1993 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Dear Birthmother by Kathleen Silber, Phylis Speedlin ISBN: 0931722209 Publisher: Corona Pub Pub. Date: December, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Children of Open Adoption and Their Families by Kathleen Silber, Patricia Martinez Dorner ISBN: 0931722780 Publisher: Corona Pub Pub. Date: February, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Lifegivers: Framing the Birthparent Experience in Open Adoption by James L. Gritter ISBN: 087868770X Publisher: Child Welfare League of America Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Raising Adopted Children, Revised Edition : Practical Reassuring Advice for Every Adoptive Parent by Lois Ruskai Melina ISBN: 0060957174 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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