Reviews for Weaving a Family: Untangling Race and Adoption

The average rating for Weaving a Family: Untangling Race and Adoption based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-13 00:00:00 Teck Li Andrew Koh I always appreciate Rothman's writing on mothering, adoption, and race. She is earnest, thoughtful, and grounded in both social science and personal experience. In particular here, I appreciated that she exemplified a moral approach to the adoption of a black child by white parents. So much of the rhetoric around white/black adoptions is not thoughtful. Rothman particularly underscores, for instance, that the acceptable premise for a white person or couple adopting a black child is that there is not black person or couple available to adopt that child. She notes that the inherent flaws in the institution of adoption make this a frequent possibility -- and that those flaws should be addressed. In the meantime, however, babies need loving parents. On the other hand, she can be a bit rosy and idealistic about adoption, about families with adopted and biological siblings, and about the perspectives of adoptees. Granted, she is very much protecting her daughter's interests when she writes about their relationship (which I appreciate) but she might have brought in a variety of voices of black individuals adopted into white families. Sometimes, the book felt a bit like it was "selling" moral inter-racial adoption. Note with regard to other reviews -- Rothman is not providing a guidebook for white parents wishing to adopt black children. She is a sociologist. But the book is written in a casual, accessible vernacular. If you are considering adopting a child of any race (including your own), I'd recommend it.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-11-05 00:00:00 Chen Wei Some reviews of this book by prospective adoptive parents remark that it wasn't helpful in terms of their upcoming adoption...wow. For me, this was a challenging, eye-opening, mind-expanding read. It is absolutely, at times, a scholarly discourse on consumerism, race, identity, and culture...but it also is intensely personal and even funny. I loved reading it, even though it was uncomfortable to search my own soul and ask the provocative questions Barbara Katz Rothman raises. I plan to buy a copy and read it many times.