Books….
If you come across a good book on or relating to adoption, we’d love to hear about it. Please send the title, author(s) and a short review to us at adoption@xtra.co.nz.
Check out your local library to see if these books are available.
Adoptee Reading: Books written and recommended by adoptees
Adoptee Reading is a catalog of adoption books of interest to adopted people. The catalogue features books written and reviewed by adoptees.
The bookseller at the end of the world - Ruth Shaw 2022. Autobiography. Ruth lost her first born son to adoption at age 17 and spent many years running and having numerous adventures until she finally settled in Manapouri where she established two wee bookshops in the far south of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption - Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom. 2019. Lisa was born in South Korea and was adopted by a couple from Sweden where she grew up. In her early 30s Lisa began searching her roots and learnt that her adoption was illegal. Lisa now lives in Auckland and is a graphic artist and writer. You can read more about Lisa here and read an interview with Lisa here.
Lisa’s book Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption about her adoption and search for her family in Korea is a journey through the myriad of emotions of adoption, searching and reunion.
Death by Adoption - Joss Shawyer. 1979. Joss was an activist and single mother who campaigned for the rights of single mothers from the 1970s. She founded The Council for the Single Mother and Her Child in 1973 and was a foundation member of Jigsaw (established in 1976), which helped women find children who had been taken from their mothers for adoption. She argued that social policies, practices and adoption law forced women to give up their babies.
The Primal Wound – Nancy Verrier. Written in 1993 by a psychologist and adopting mother, The Primal Wound explores the trauma inflicted on a baby when the child is separated from it’s mother by adoption.
Coming Home to Self – Nancy Verrier. Published in 2003, this book explains the influence imprinted upon the neurological system of an adopted child and aims to help adopted people find their authentic selves.
Ever After: Fathers and the Impact of Adoption – Gary Coles. Published in 2006, this book is written by a New Zealand born birth father and is an account of the impact of adoption on fathers and the influence of fathers on adoption.
Invisible Men of Adoption - Gary Coles 2011. Gary is a birth father and has been involved in adoption support for many years. In 2012, he was appointed to the Forced Adoptions Apology Reference Group that was instrumental in Australia’s National Apology to people impacted by adoption on 21st March 2013.
My Beautiful Trauma. Daciana. 2018. This is a personal story of a woman adopted from Romania in 1990 into a New Zealand family. She tells of her journey through abuse, rejection and illness. A truly moving account.
The Right to Know Who You Are – Keith Griffith
Tera - Online encyclopedia of New Zealand - Adoption. The pages in the Adoption section provide some interesting data on adoption in New Zealand, and some photos and videos documenting the thinking and attitudes of the time. Thank goodness we’ve made some ground in Aotearoa New Zealand since then - but the journey is not over yet, and road ahead will not be smooth.
Oranges and Sunshine - Margaret Humpreys. 2011. Margaret’s book looks into the tragedy of the child migrants sent from Britain to Canada, Australia and New Zealand up until the 1970s. Many of these children were stolen from their families and told their parents had died or didn’t want them, when that was simply not true.
Relative Strangers - A Mother’s Adoption Memoir - Pip Murdoch. 2019. Pip Murdoch gives an account of her journey, giving birth and placing her child up for adoption during early seventies New Zealand. She expresses the fear, shame and trauma of having to part with her baby.
Adopted - Jo WIllis and Brigitta Baker. 2022. Jo and Brigitta were both adopted in Aotearoa New Zealand. They share the complexity of their closed adoption journey, the emotional challenges they faced, and the ongoing impacts of their adoptions.
A General Theory of Love - T Lewis, F Amiini, R Lannon
Tree of Strangers - Barbara Sumner. 2020. Barbara was born in 1960 in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her autobiography tells about her journey to find her mother amid the struggles of raising her daughters and managing through the challenges in her life.
The girls that went away: The hidden history of women who surrendered children for adoption in the decades before Roe v. Wade - Ann Fessler 2006
A Question of Adoption - Anne Else. 1991. Try your library for a copy of this original print edition. See Anne’s 2023 updated ebook version A Question of Adoption: Closed Stranger Adoption in New Zealand 1944–1974 and Adoption, State Care, Donor Conception and Surrogacy 1975–2022
Brave New Humans: The Dirty Reality of Donor Conception by Sarah Dingle. 2021 The author’s account of her search for the truth about her conception and heritage uncover a raft of far too common unethical practices surrounding this means of creating a child. A must read.