From the Publisher: Biology does not bend to feminist ideals and science does not work miracles. That is the message of this eye-opening discussion of the consequences of delayed motherhood. Part personal account, part manifesto, Selvaratnam recounts her emotional journey through multiple miscarriages after the age of 37. Her doctor told her she still “had time,” but Selvaratnam found little reliable and often conflicting information about a mature woman’s biological ability (or inability) to conceive.

Beyond her personal story, the author speaks to women in similar situations around the country, as well as fertility doctors, adoption counselors, reproductive health professionals, celebrities, feminists, journalists, and sociologists. Through in-depth reporting and her own experience, Selvaratnam urges more widespread education and open discussion about delayed motherhood in the hope that long-lasting solutions can take effect. The result is a book full of valuable information that will enable women to make smarter choices about their reproductive futures and to strike a more realistic balance between science, society and personal goals.

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About the Author: Tanya Selvaratnam is a writer, producer, actor, and activist. She has produced films by many directors and artists, including Gabri Christa, Chiara Clemente, Catherine Gund, Mickalene Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jed Weintrob; and has performed in shows by The Wooster Group and The Builders Association, among others. Tanya is also the Communications and Special Projects Officer for the Rubell Family Collection. As an activist, she has worked with the NGO Forum on Women, Ms. & Foundation for Women, Third Wave Foundation, and World Health Organization. She received a BA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and an MA in Regional Studies East Asia from Harvard University. Her master’s thesis on the interplay of law and practice with regard to women’s rights in China was published in the Journal of Law and Politics. She has been a fellow at Yaddo and Blue Mountain Center. Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Long Beach, California, Tanya now lives in New York City and Cambridge, MA.

Brad Pitt is one of the most famous actors of his generation, thanks to a magical combination of commercial success, critical respect, universally acknowledged good looks, and endless tabloid coverage of his romantic relationships with fellow A-listers. Pitt is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner who has also become increasingly involved with humanitarian causes. Pitt started his career in television, appearing in Another World, and in four episodes of the hit show Dallas in 1987-88. In the later, he played the character Randy, whom Pitt described as a typical high schooler (Teen Beat, Teen Beat Makes a Pitt Stop to Meet Dallas Star Brad Pitt). By the end of the 1980s, he’d added numerous other TV credits, including 21 Jump Street, Growing Pains, Head of the Class, and thirtysomething. Pitt played a lead role in the 1990 TV movie Too Young to Die, starring alongside Juliette Lewis, paving the way for an off-camera romance. For half of our relationship, we were just unknown young actors in L.A., Lewis said recently. I even remember his little bungalow that we lived in off Melrose that we’d smoke lots of pot in (BlackBook, Juliette Lewis is a Natural Born Rebel).

This book is part of Hyperink’s best little books series. This best little book is 4,000+ words of fast, entertaining information on a highly demanded topic. Based on reader feedback (including yours!), we may expand this book in the future. If we do so, we’ll send a free copy to all previous buyers.

From the Dust Jacket: How would you feel if you never had a child? An increasing number of women today are wrestling with just that question. While careers, money, and birth control have given women an acute sense of freedom, one crucial fact remains: The years of fertility are finite—the biological clock keeps ticking.

Based in part on the author’s unprecedented survey which appeared in Working Woman magazine, this eloquent and wonderfully informative volume presents the voices of hundreds of American women, from twenty-five to forty-five who are “clockwatchers”—both married and single, from all walks of life, and at various stages in their adult lives. It is also about former “clockwatchers” who have taken the plunge and are now experiencing the joys and hardships of motherhood in this complicated era. Articulately and honestly, these women share their most intimate thoughts and feelings. Their stories, often touching, sometimes amusing, and always interesting, cover each and every concern of the career/motherhood dilemma: Am I willing to give up my career for a baby—or will I be able to manage the responsibilities of both a job and a child? Is single motherhood a viable option? Can I cope with the monetary “sacrifices” a child will bring into my life? I like my life as it is right now What if a child changes that? Am I capable of being an unselfish mother, or am I “too set in my ways”?

Here, too, the physiological realities of the biological clock are explored in-depth: the debate over whether “maternal instinct” is biological, psychological, or learned behavior; the hormonal changes that occur with each passing year; and the problems older women face with infertility and pregnancy, including first hand accounts of birthing experiences both joyous and traumatic.

The Biological Clock offers common sense advice and invaluable insight for anyone who has considered—or is now considering—having children. It is an important, revealing, and compassionate study of an issue of monumental concern in the 1980s and beyond.

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About the Author: Molly McKaughan, a former senior editor at New York magazine, is a writer and journalist who also worked for Quest, the Paris Review and other publications before becoming a mother at thirty-four and the mother of a second child at forty-one. Her articles have appeared in Woman’s Day, People, and Home. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, where, in order to better combine career and motherhood, she began writing from a home office four years ago.

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Compiler’s Note: The author concludes the book with an Epilogue detailing her own path to (natural and married) motherhood. Tellingly, a brief section in an earlier chapter bears the heading, “Settling for Adoption.”

A dark comedy that has it’s beginnings in the true and never-before-told story of a 1950s-era Sicilian-American mafia insider, a recently liberated New York Jewish Holocaust survivor, and the young boy they both claimed to be their own.

Birth, A Conscious Choice! reveals astonishing insight into who we were before we came to this planet. Learn what a baby has to undergo to become physical. Discover the necessary physiological and energetic changes that women make to facilitate the incredible process of pregnancy and birth. Author, Hannah M. Bajor, a certified nurse midwife and profound energy and spiritual healer, telepathically communicates with babies, both inside and outside the uterus. The information Hannah’s own children shared with her during her pregnancy was so fascinating it compelled her to write Birth, A Conscious Choice! Following her first child’s birth, Hannah was able to travel back in time and experience the entire birth process from the baby’s viewpoint. She describes in full detail what the baby feels during birth. Included in this book is the profoundly powerful message that her seven week old baby telepathically dictated for humanity. There is no doubt that you will stand in awe at the consciousness level of her newborn baby. Hannah had a near-death experience with her second birth. Obviously, she decided to change her death exit time, and has now taken on an entirely new contract to be a world healer. About the Author: Hannah M. Bajor has been a certified nurse midwife for over twenty years and holds numerous credentials in the field of spiritual healing. She has an active telephone healing practice and is an international traveler performing live group soul reweaving events called “Time to Heal.” Hannah was born and raised in Ireland and has been living in the USA since 1987.

Family stories have a secret power: they play a unique role in shaping our identity, our sense of our place in the world. The give us values, inspirations, warnings, incentives. We need them. We use them. We keep them. They reverberate throughout our lives, affecting our choices in love, work, friendship, and lifestyle. Elizabeth Stone, whose grandparents came from Italy to Brooklyn, artfully weaves her own family stories among the stories of more than a hundred people of all backgrounds, ages, and regions, clarifying for us predictable types of family legends, providing ways to interpret our own stories and their roles in our lives. She examines stories of birth, death, work, money, romantic adventure, all in the context of the family storytelling ritual. And she shows how stories about our most ancient ancestors may provide answers at milestone moments in our lives, as well as how stories about our newest family members carve out places for them so they will fit into their families, comfortably or otherwise. About the Author: Elizabeth Stone is professor of English, Communication, and Media Studies at Fordham University’s College at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. She is the author of The Hunter College Campus Schools for The Gifted and A Boy I Once Knew: What a Teacher Learned from her Student, and has contributed to several publications, including the New York Times Magazine and the Smithsonian.

A guide for parents, teachers, counselors, and librarians to 500 children’s fiction books that portray more than 100 common issues kids face, from bullies, siblings and fear of the dark to divorce, moving and chronic illness. The only comprehensive source of great children’s books on nearly every issue kids experience. See also, John T. Gillespie’s Best Books for Children (Libraries Unlimited, 2003) and Carolyn W. and John A. Lima’s A to Zoo (Greenwood, 2001).

From the Publisher: Presented here are fiction and nonfiction books—from folklore to poetry—focusing on separation and loss themes for young people. Highly selective, the guide profiles only “classic” and recommended titles from School Library Journal, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, The Horn Book, The Bookfinder, and other publications.

Arranged by topic, each annotated entry provides a review of plot and theme, interest/reading level, suggestions for use, and full bibliographic information. Issues include Homelessness, Economic Loss/Parents Out of Work, and Race Relations. This is the ideal reference guide for those who have the opportunity to help children facing tough personal roadblocks, ranging from going away to camp to the death of a sibling.

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Compiler’s Note: Experiences of separation and loss are not unique to adopted children, but they nevertheless have their own specific issues, and so the author devotes one section specifically to adoption-related books, necessarily listing only a limited number of titles: 20 in the initial volume; 25 in the second edition; 17 in “Volume 3”; and 19 in the 4th edition. Fortunately, there is little repetition, and so each edition has its own unique set of titles, largely encompassing newer books published in the interim since publication of the last prior volume. In any event, the thing I noticed most in a cursory review is the choices made by the author(s) regarding which volumes they consider most relevant to the issues of “separation and loss,” not all of which seem to me to be logical or obvious.

God has a unique plan and purpose for you to fulfill in the earth. God has designed a birthing time, a “delivery date” for your purpose and destiny to be made a reality in the kingdom. Without purpose, people live by default, instead of by design. Don’t take the treasure God placed within you to the grave, stand and fight for it! Your God-given dreams are not religious options, but they are prophetic imperatives. When you unlock your own purpose and destiny, you can change a city, transform a nation, and reach the world.

For those who feel as if they came into this world afraid, or whose child is fearful for no discernible reason and ask, “Why do I have this? Why is it happening to me or my child?” Born Scared provides answers. Through the use of fascinating case stories, hypnotherapist, Julia Ingram, demonstrates that when clients are prompted to go to the source of their fear, they find when and under what circumstances it was created. From there the path to recovery becomes evident and easy. Ingram’s clients found the origin of fears, phobias, eating disorders, low self-esteem and other limiting beliefs. A seven-year-old boy, afraid to have his mother out of sight, even for a moment, discovered the source of the fear originated prior to his birth, when his mother was critically ill. A woman who felt extreme guilt, akin to survivors guilt, but with no idea why, discovered it began as she watched her twin brother slowly die during their first trimester in the womb. A young man believed he should never have been born until he realized he was conceived by rape and during the grueling months of his gestation heard his teenage mother being shamed for his very existence. Fans of Ingram’s earlier books, the New York Times bestseller, The Messengers, and The Lost Sisterhood will not be disappointed. When she prompts her clients to go to the source of a problem, they will often regress further back than even their conception and report what they believe are past lives. A college student discovered the source of her fear of the dark and of closed spaces was a past life in which she was buried alive. A preteen girl found several lifetimes which explained her snake and bug phobias. What is astonishing, is that phobias were cured in a session or two, as compared to the lengthy and painful mainstream process of “exposure therapy.” A woman with anorexia came to understand her compulsive need to eat as little as possible, when she recalled being in a concentration camp in her prior life. Along with the stories, the author describes the variety of therapeutic (non-drug) tools she uses to help her clients recover. In a chapter called “The Brave Girl: A Micro-preemie Who Survived All Odds,” Ingram urges parents of struggling children to explore the myriad of alternatives there are to medicating a still-developing brain. There is a surprising variety of reasons for eating disorders, as well as limiting beliefs and self-sabotage. But with each story, once the origin was discovered, the client was able to change and grow. The final chapter is a three-step process for dealing with anxiety which readers can try on their own, or options to pursue to find additional help. Born Scared offers a new way of looking at lifelong anxiety (or nipping a child’s fears in the bud). It will help you be more compassionate towards yourself and those who suffer, and will bring hope to those who have been told, often unsympathetically, that their fears are irrational. About the Author: Julia Ingram is an internationally acclaimed author, teacher, and hypnotherapist who specializes in regression therapy—a process of helping clients access the subconscious mind. She has been in practice for over four decades, and has assisted thousands of people to overcome past trauma, and to glean the greatest benefit from spiritual and emotional growth. She is co-author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Messengers and author of The Lost Sisterhood. She is in private practice in Portland, OR.

A little nod to those of us who are still feeling slightly half-baked: those with struggling families, cracked relationships, and a world that’s showing a little wear around the seams. When God wants to create the remarkable, He chooses to work with the less-than-perfect. Genesis is a book of beginnings. It is deeply concerned with the origins of things—of the universe, of humankind, of relationships, of sin, of civilization, of families, and of one special family created and chosen by God to be the instrument through which He would bless the world. That family is our family, yours and mine. Like all good family stories, it starts with not just a something or somewhere, but a someone. Part memoir, part biblical inspiration story, Broken & Blessed is about how change begins when one person decides to believe God’s promises and how that makes a change in a family, like ripples on water. Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 1: “In Seacrh of Beginnings: Chaos,” pp. 1-18.

My fondest hope is that my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will learn to follow their hearts, love their parents, and depend on God and keep His laws. Always putting God first will keep them free from the destructive forces in life. I have known the pain of a child who puts drugs before everything else. There is in all parents a sense that we should have been able to protect our children from those things; learning not to blame ourselves is a long, hard battle. Finally, I hope that one day my children and grandchildren will realize how much they mean to me and how much I love them, and that the day I leave them on this side will not change that love.

Cheryl Swanson was inspired to write Busting Loose when a confluence of events had her undergoing treatment for breast cancer, adopting a child from Guatemala and writing her first suspense novel—all at the same time. More than a quarter-million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year in the United States. Many of these women will succumb to the passive role of a medical victim, not realizing that alone might kill them. Busting Loose shows women how they can use the light of their cancer experience to reveal the path to climb the mountains in their lives. It explains how to deal with fear in a positive way. Most of all, it encourages women to never let their diagnosis limit them and to get back quickly to what ignites their passions and brings them balance and peace.

The traditional childbearing ages for women have been 20-29. Today, however, the trend to later childrearing is significant, with the numbers of mothers over the age of 35 having grown 75% in the last decade, while the numbers in the traditional ages continue to decline. From celebrities to the woman next door, later childrearing is no flash-in-the-pan fad “and isn’t going to subside; future trends only show women will continue to delay motherhood,” according to the National Center for Health Statistics. But I Don’t Feel Too Old to Be a Mommy! is the first and only book to fully address the concerns of the ever-growing but greatly ignored audience of literate, educated women who have delayed motherhood. In this comprehensive work, women who are considering parenting in their 30s, 40s and later—whether for the first time or starting over—will find all the information they need to make informed choices. Author Doreen Nagle, herself a first-time mom over 40, details the risks, rewards, rumors and resources—from making the decision to start a family, to every imaginable way to get there, to the realities of motherhood beyond 35 and 40. Issues covered include infertility, pregnancy, surrogacy, adoptions, the pros and cons of later motherhood, single parenting, and financial and career considerations. Complete with quotes from medical experts, later-in-life moms and their kids, this one-stop book will calm the doubts and fears of women considering motherhood after 35 and beyond 40 by providing supportive yet realistic information. About the Author: Doreen Nagel writes a weekly column called “Parenting in a Nutshell.” Her work, which includes writing on lifestyle and health topics, has appeared nationally (Family Circle, Gannet newspapers) as well as in radio syndication. Originally from New York, she lives in California with her psychotherapist-husband, Jules, and their son, Skyler.

From the Back Cover: THE MOST FATAL MISTAKE?

Trust. It’s the foundation of any enduring relationship between friends, lovers, spouses, and families. But when trust is placed in those who are not what they seem, the results can be deadly. Ann Rule, who famously chronicled her own shocking experience of unknowingly befriending a sociopath in The Stranger Beside Me, offers a riveting, all-new collection from her true-crime files, with the lethally shattered bonds of trust at the core of each blood-soaked account. Whether driven to extreme violence by greed or jealousy, passion or rage, these calculating sociopaths targeted those closest to them—unwitting victims whose last disbelieving words could well have been “but I trusted you. ...” Headlining this page-turning anthology is the case of middle-school counselor Chuck Leonard, found shot to death outside his Washington State home on an icy February morning. A complicated mix of family man and wild man, Chuck played hard and loved many ... but who crossed the line by murdering him in cold blood? And why? The revelation is as stunning as the shattering crime itself, powerfully illuminating how those we think we know can ingeniously hide their destructive and homicidal designs. Along with other shattering cases, immaculately detailed and sharply analyzed by America’s #1 true-crime writer, this fourteenth Crime Files volume is essential reading for getting inside the mind of the hidden killers among us.

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About the Author: Ann Rule is the author of more than two dozen New York Times bestsellers, all of them still in print. A former Seattle police officer, she knows the crime scene firsthand. She is a certified instructor for police training seminars and lectures frequently to law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and forensic science organizations, including the FBI. For more than two decades, she has been a powerful advocate for victims of violent crime. She has testified before U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittees on serial murder and victims’ rights, and was a civilian adviser to the VI-CAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). A graduate of the University of Washington, she holds a Ph.D. in Humane Letters from Willamette University. She lives near Seattle, Washington.

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By the Same Author: Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (1995, Simon & Schuster) and Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder, and Other True Cases (2007), among many others.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “But I Trusted You.”

Life in London’s docklands in the 1950s was tough. The brothels of Cable Street, the Kray brothers and gang warfare, the meths drinkers in the bombsites—this was the world Jennifer Worth entered when she became a midwife at the age of twenty-two. Babies were born in slum conditions, often with no running water. Jennifer Worth describes the romance and beauty of the great port of London, the bug-infested tenements, the spectre of disease, the sense of community and the incredible resilience of women who bore more than ten children. Funny, disturbing and moving, Call the Midwife brings to life a world that has now changed beyond measure. Compiler’s Note: Basis for the long-running British television series of the same name.

From the Back Cover: Once upon a time, there was a strict definition of what made a successful family. Father worked outside of the home to make money; Mother cleaned house and had babies. Children were seen and not heard and grew up to raise families just like their own.

Somewhere along the line, this notion of the family unit changed. Or, perhaps we just admitted that it had never been accurate in the first place. And as we approach the twenty-first century, we must develop new solutions for today’s challenges and re-evaluate what it truly means to be part of a family unit: How family ties shape us into the people we become and how our families can provide essential support and nurturing throughout our lives.

Whether you’re part of a traditional nuclear family, the head of a single-parent household, or a gay parent trying to raise a family in an often intolerant world, Caring for the Family Soul will show you how to nurture your family while dealing with its ever-changing role. It shows how parents can encourage love and intimacy, communicate openly and honestly with their children, and create meaningful family traditions. Most important, it demonstrates how the family can attain a common spiritual wellness that encourages independence among family members while establishing important bonds that will be passed from generation to generation.

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About the Author: Amy E. Dean is a full-time writer who has successfully published nine meditation and self-help books. Her titles include LIFEGOALS: Setting and Achieving Goals to Chart the Course of Your Day; Letters to My Birthmother: An Adoptee’s Diary of Her Search for Her Identity; Facing Life’s Challenges: Daily Meditations for Overcoming Depression, Grief, and the Blues; and Night Light: A Book of Nighttime Meditations.

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By the Same Author: Letters to My Birthmother: An Adoptee’s Diary of Her Search for Her Identity (1991, Pharos Books), among others.

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Compiler’s Note: In its review of the book, Publishers Weekly noted, “Dean isn’t a psychologist, a cleric, a family counselor or a social scientist. She relies on secondary sources, makes sketchy generalizations and repeatedly uses impact as a verb. But this book is nonetheless filled with real common sense and kindness [emphasis added].”

From the Dust Jacket: Seventeen essays about our families, children and culture from Center of the American Experiment’s first five years ... by 15 of the most trenchant writers and scholars in Minnesota and across the country.

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About the Author: Center of the American Experiment is a nonpartisan, tax-exempt, public policy and educational institution which brings conservative and alternative ideas to bear on the most difficult issues facing Minnesota and the nation. A conservative think tank for short, it pays particular attention to questions of families, education and poverty and the ways in which they are shaped by both cultural values and public policies. The Center opened in Minneapolis in 1990.

Chester E. Finn, Jr. is John M. Olin Fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he directs “The New Promise of American Life” project and codirects the Educational Excellence Network. A prolific writer, Dr. Finn’s nine books includes We Must Take Charge: Our Schools and Our Future. Among other public posts, he served as an assistant secretary of education in the Reagan Administration. An original member of American Experiment’s Board of Directors, he is now a member of the Center’s Board of Advisors.

Mitchell B. Pearlstein is president and founder of American Experiment. Prior to the Center, Dr. Pearlstein made his career in education, government and journalism, having served on the staffs of University of Minnesota President C. Peter Magrath and Minnesota Gov. Albert H. Quie; as a reporter for the Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, New York and as an editorial writer for The St. Paul Pioneer Press; and in the U.S. Department of Education in the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Richard D. McKenzie is the Walter B. Gerken Professor of Enterprise and Society in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine.

Judith D. Vincent is an adoption lawyer in Minneapolis.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Reforming Adoption: Putting Children First” by Judith D. Vincent and “Orphanages: Did They Throttle the Children in Their Care?” by Richard B. McKenzie.

Charles Cameron Kingston was a leading player in Australia’s Federation. Highly intelligent, hard working and politically honest, he was also a formidable bully with a short fuse. He was dearly loved by some and vehemently hated by others. He became Premier of South Australia in 1893, yet Kingston cared little for the norms of the polite, colonial society of late 19th century Adelaide and, together with his wife Lucy, was ostracised accordingly. His alcoholic elder brother was goaled for shooting a cabman; Charles was accused of adultery and subsequently adopted an illegitimate child; he challenged a political opponent to a duel; he brawled in the street. The notorious Adelaide Hospital dispute haunted the later years of his political career. Yet he introduced much radical and progressive legislation on industrial conciliation and arbitration, on the creation of the State Bank of South Australia, and on trade and tariff reforms. Thanks to him, South Australia led the world on the enfranchisement of women. And Kingston’s commitment and contribution to the cause and creation of Australian federalism was beyond question. What was the source of these contradictory traits? And why—until now—had his contribution to Australian Federation never been adequately acknowledged? In this lively and meticulously researched biography, Margaret Glass seeks answers to these questions, revealing in the process a complex, brilliant and controversial man.

From the Back Cover: Parents everywhere know the joys and sorrows, challenges and triumphs of raising a family. This special collection of inspirational stories has been created for you, the parents of the world. Whether you are expecting your first baby, busy raising a toddler, watching your teen grow into adulthood or have arrived at the grandparenting years, these wonderful stories will remind you that parenting is possibly the most worthwhile and fulfilling role of your life.

With contributions from single parents, stepparents, foster parents, adoptive parents and parents of two-parent families with biological children, each story explores the rich and diverse range of family experiences. Whatever your situation is, these stories will speak to your heart, move you to laughter and tears, inspire, uplift and entertain you. They will help put the difficult times into perspective, renew your faith in yourself as a parent and remind you to cherish the moments.

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About the Author: Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling coauthors, are professional speakers who have dedicated their lives to enhancing the personal and professional development of others.

Kimberly Kirberger is the coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul series. She is also president of Inspiration And Motivation for Teens, Inc. (I.A.M. for Teens) and speaks in support of teenagers at high schools and youth organizations.

Raymond Aaron is a professional speaker and business coach who has mentored thousands of people to achieve success. Through The Raymond Aaron Group, he offers a worldwide coaching service, The Monthly Mentor, which teaches bow to double your income by doing what you love.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Daddy’s Hair is Red” (The Best of Bits & Pieces), “The Gift of Life” (Beryl Paintin), “Against All Odds” (Elizabeth Enns), “What Odds” (Lou Ogston), and “My Son, My Grandson” (Debbie Rickley).

From the Dust Jacket: Author Anne Ortlund believes one of today’s greatest needs is a reconciling of the “generation gap.” The responsibility is on the adults of this world to reach across the gap, in love and humility, to their children, and to do this quickly, while the children are still moldable and impressionable.

From babyhood on, the author suggests, verbal affirmations are a simple but powerful technique, and she takes us through specific suggestions for each age. “The way (a child) thinks of himself later on, before God, will have been very much influenced by the way you’ve talked to him, treated him, handled him.”

From our guidance of children comes a clue to a deeper attitude about ourselves. Children Are Wet Cement is for every adult, parent or not, since it explores how we all are the “wet cement” children of eternity. Even as adults, we need to become childlike and humble, and there is always the possibility of renewal and revival through confessions, apologies, and new beginnings between the generations.

Anne Ortlund takes you through each age of childhood, offering specific suggestions for practicing verbal affirmation, a simple but powerful technique for raising children to be secure, loving adults. You’ll receive the guidance you need to help your child grow joyously toward his or her goals.

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About the Author: Anne Ortlund is the author of several books, an award-winning musician, and a popular speaker at women’s conferences throughout the country. She has shared in a team ministry with her husband to many countries and in 1978 was awarded the national SESAC award as the gospel musician who had done the most for the cause of humanity that year. Mrs. Ortlund’s husband is Raymond C. Ortlund, pastor of Mariners Church, Newport Beach, California. They are the parents of four children.

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Compiler’s Note: The author includes a “chapter” (33, pp. 117-18) about Nels, her one adopted child.

A wide-ranging review of child actors includes references to films dealing with various aspects of adoption, including such examples as The Bad Seed, et al.

From the Publisher: She was young, attractive and intelligent; but life held little meaning for the author until the day she volunteered to work at the New York Foundling Hospital. There a new world opened up to her as she helped overworked nuns to care for the homeless and neglected children of the city. Each child won a special place in her heart, and each responded in his own way to the love she gave so generously. Their stories, sometimes pitiful, often humorous, are a deeply moving reading experience.

From the Back Cover: “What if we could glance through the curtains to see our neighbors? What if we could not just see their actions, but hear their thoughts and know their histories?”

With these questions in mind, this moving collection of twenty-four personal essays—from both emerging talents and established authors—illuminates the complexity of women’s reproductive decisions.

In addressing a wide range of choices—from giving up a child for adoption to adopting a child, from having an abortion to bringing a pregnancy to full term, from using birth control or battling infertility to choosing not to have children at all—these brave women invite us into their lives, emotions, and physical struggles with searing honesty, grace, and humor.

Together, these collected voices offer a look at the real, human stories behind the reproductive rights debate, and allow us to truly understand the meaning of the word “choice”—regardless of which side of the debate we stand on.

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About the Author: Karen E. Bender is the author of a novel, Like Normal People. Her fiction has appeared in magazines including The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, Ploughshares, The Harvard Review, and Story, and has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and the Pushcart Prize series. She has received grants from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Nina de Gramont is the author of a collection of short stories, Of Cats and Men. Her first novel, Gossip of the Starlings, is forthcoming. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including The Harvard Review, Isotope, Post Road, Nerve, Exquisite Corpse, and Seventeen.

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Relevant Contributors: “If” by Susan Ito describes a devastating late term abortion. The author weaves in reflections on her earlier, first trimester abortion and her relationships with the birth mother who placed her for adoption as an infant. Susan Ito lives in Oakland with her multigenerational family. She is the co-editor of A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption (1999, North Atlantic Books). Her essays and fiction have appeared in Growing Up Asian American, Hip Mama, Making More Waves, the Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is the Fiction Co-editor at Literary Mama, an online literary journal, where she also writes a monthly column about life in the Sandwich Generation.

“Bearing Sorrow” by Janet Ellerby takes place in 1965, when so many young women waited out pregnancies at homes for “unwed mothers,” then gave away their children with little or no understanding of their own legal rights. Janet Mason Ellerby is a Professor of English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She is the author of Intimate Reading: The Contemporary Women’s Memoir (Syracuse University Press, 2001) and the forthcoming Following the Tambourine Man: A Birthmother’s Memoir (Syracuse University Press, 2007).

“Mother’s Day in the Year of the Rooster” by Ann Hood is a powerful essay about adopting a baby girl from China in the wake of a terrible tragedy. Ann Hood is the author of, most recently, The Knitting Circle. Her other books include Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine and An Ornithologist’s Guide to Life. Her essays and short stories have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Paris Review, O, Food and Wine, and Traveler. She lives in Providence, RI.

“A Complicated Privilege” by Elizabeth Larsen describes an adoption from Guatemala, and how the connection between birth mother, adoptive mother, and child is even more complex and weighted when international borders are involved. Elisabeth Larson was a member of the team that created Sassy magazine and was also an editor at Utne Reader. Today she’s a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Child, Travel & Leisure, and Ms.

“Portrait of a Mother” by Stephanie Andersen is a layered examination of a seventeen-year-old girl’s decision to place her child for adoption, and the aftermath of that decision more than ten years later. Stephanie Andersen lives in Reading, PA, with her dog, Daisy, where she teaches writing. She is presently working on completing a memoir about giving up her daughter for adoption.

From the Dust Jacket: A Christianity Worth Believing offers an engaging, “come-with-me-on-a-journey-of-exploring-the-possibilities” approach to what it means to be a follower of Jesus in our day. Written by Doug Pagitt—a leading voice in the Emergent conversation—this beautifully written book weaves together theological reflections, Christian history, and his own story of faith transformation.

Pagitt invites readers to follow him as he tells the story of his un-churched childhood, his life-altering conversion at age 16, his intense involvement in the church, and his growing sense of unease with the version of Christianity he was living. On page after page, Pagitt lays out his journey toward an authentic, passionate expression of a faith that feels alive, sustainable, and meaningful.

A Christianity Worth believing is for the growing numbers of people who have serious and thoughtful questions about Christianity, who have lived for years with deep-seated wondering and doubts about their faith. Pagitt points the way to a new kind of faith by asking “off-limits” questions about God, Jesus, sin, the Bible, humanity, church, and the Kingdom of God. Rather than rehashing old debates, he offers new insights, provocative possibilities, and hopeful alternatives.

In A Christianity Worth Believing you may well discover questions you didn’t think you could ask, ideas you didn’t think you could pursue, beliefs you didn’t think you could hold onto.. Ultimately you will discover a Christianity worth believing.

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About the Author: Doug Pagitt is the pastor of Solomon’s Porch, a holistic, missional Christian community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has written a number of books, has worked in Churches and for a non-profit foundation, and owns two businesses in Minneapolis. Dog is a sought-after speaker for churches, denominations, and businesses throughout the United Sttaes ad around the world on issues of culture and Christianity.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 1: Confessions of an Adopted Son. Pagitt is not an adoptee; rather he is characterized as “an adopted son in the Christian family” whose “lack of Christian heritage gives him an unconventional set of eyes and leads him to some unconventional conclusions.” Nevertheless, in this opening chapter, he describes adopting two boys from Mexico with his wife.

From the Dust Jacket: Except for walking on the moon, spending time in the City of Joy is the most fascinating experience a man can have at the end of the twentieth century.

One day in Calcutta a rickshaw puller took internationally bestselling author Dominique Lapierre to one of the poorest and most overpopulated areas of this haunting city, where five million people live out their lives on the streets. The district was called Anand Nagar—the City of Joy—and being there would change the writer’s life forever.

At the heart of this extremely poor community, Lapierre found more heroism, more love, more sharing, and ultimately, more happiness than in many a city of the affluent West. Above all, he was overwhelmed to discover that this seemingly inhuman place had the magical power to produce heroes and heroines of all ages and from all walks of life. For Calcutta is the home not only of such saints as Mother Teresa, but also of countless other inspiring people, who are ordinary and completely unknown.

Lapierre discovered Stephan Kovalski, the Polish Catholic priest who came to the City of Joy to share and ease the plight of the most underprivileged; Max, the young American doctor who came to treat people who were without any medical resources; Bandona, the beautiful Assamese nurse who became an Angel of Mercy for the afflicted; and the thousands of men, women, and children who rose above harsh destinies to conquer life with a smile.

In order to tell the saga of this remarkable place, Lapierre immersed himself for months in its awesome reality. He slept in a hovel; came to know the fascinating cultures intermingling in the City of Joy; and spent days with Mother Teresa and the godfather of the local Mafia, a character worthy of the Mogul emperors in the India of old. He witnessed births, marriages, funerals, and festivals of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians—a vast mosaic of races and religions. And he learned firsthand what it was like to pull a rickshaw, to light a stove in the tornadoes of the monsoon, to wash with a half liter of water, and to survive on less than six cents a day.

What Dominique Lapierre created from these unique experiences is an epic story about the soul of humanity: a song of love, a hymn to life, a lesson in tenderness and hope for all people for all times. This is The City of Joy.

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About the Author: Dominique Lapierre is the renowned co-author (with Larry Collins) of such worldwide bestsellers as Is Paris Burning?, Or I’ll Dress You in Mourning, O Jerusalem!, Freedom at Midnight, and The Fifth Horseman. He has a daughter, Alexandra, who is also a writer. He and his wife and main collaborator, Dominique, live in Ramatuelle, France.

From the Back Cover: Storytelling is a crucial element of primary education: it helps children to develop emotional literacy, make sense of their world and appreciate different points of view. Classroom Tales is an engaging and practical guide to enriching children’s learning through storytelling.

Teachers and educators will find a range of simple stories and tips on adapting these for different situations and objectives, as well as discussion of individual and group dynamics. Fox Eades also considers the recognised therapeutic uses of stories and shares her own unique storytelling method, which integrates meditation, silence, “story boxes” and other tools for prompting interaction. Sections on collective stories and inspiring children to compose their own tales give children the opportunity to practice self-expression and negotiation.

Classroom Tales provides all the necessary materials and techniques for using storytelling effectively to promote social and thinking skills. It is an essential resource for primary school teachers and educators, social workers and parents.

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About the Author: Jennifer M. Fox Eades has an MA in Psychoanalytic Observation of Children and Families and has been teaching for over 15 years. She currently works as a freelance education advisor and is a member of the editorial board for 5 to 7 Educator magazine. Her articles have appeared in publications including Early Years Educator, Emotional Literacy Update and The Times.

From Kirkus Reviews: Bare-bones biography of a purported WWI hero who was in fact a woman. Lillias Irma Valerie Barker, born in 1895 on the Channel Island of Jersey, was a tomboy whose father taught her cricket and boxing, though Valerie also attended a convent school and had a formal debutante ball. She married in 1918 but fled her husband within six weeks and enrolled in the Women’s Royal Air Force. At war’s end, she took up with Australian soldier Ernest Pearce Crouch and had two children; when the couple split up, Valerie gave up the daughter for adoption. In 1922, she arrived in Brighton, young son in tow, claiming to be war hero “Victor Barker.” Victor met and married Elfrida Haward, supporting her and the son (who had learned to call Victor “Daddy”) as a stage actor, antiques shop owner, and gentleman farmer. In 1929, after a restaurant venture failed, Victor was arrested for contempt of court, and her true identity became known. A series of lurid newspaper stories followed; Elfrida left Victor, claiming to the press she’d had no idea of his true gender. Victor/Valerie was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for “outrag[ing] the decencies of nature.” After her release, she adopted various new aliases, including “John Hill” and “Jeffrey Norton.” Plagued by financial troubles and brushes with the law, Valerie was reduced to selling her story to the press; one summer she joined a sideshow. She died in 1960 in a small village where she was known as retired shopkeeper Geoffrey Norton. Because Valerie left behind no personal papers, she remains little more than a caricature here. Perhaps due to this dearth of material, Collis continually interrupts the narrative with similar tales of women living as men that derail the main story’s momentum. Heartfelt, but it’s hard to see how the end result differs from the sensationalistic contemporary newspaper accounts.

The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Benjamin Spock is a book on infant and child care first published in 1946. The book “challenged the child-rearing orthodoxy of the early 20th century—that babies should be fed according to a tight schedule, and that showing them too much affection made them weak and unprepared for the world. Instead, Dr. Spock encouraged a more gentle approach to bringing up children, and told parents to trust their own instincts and common sense.” For the book’s fifth and sixth editions, Spock co-wrote the book with pediatrician Michael B. Rothenberg; for the 7th edition, his co-author was Steven Parker. Benjamin Spock died in 1998, shortly after publication of the 7th edition. The 8th and 9th editions were revised and updated by Dr. Robert Needlman.