Pact's Multicultural BookSource

by Pact, An Adoption AlliancePact Press; $23.95

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Adoptive parenting is parenting plus: We have all the same joys and challenges as families formed by birth, plus some extras that come with the territory. Books can help us navigate both the ordinary issues and the special ones life brings to us and our children.

Books to Grow With, by Cheryl Coon, is a new guide to fiction that can help children deal with bullies and bed-wetting, sharing and sleepovers, anger and alcoholism, disabilities, divorce, and death, and scores of other "everyday issues and tough challenges." The adoption section is good but limited, with fewer than 20 titles.

Parents will find this 308-page guide much more useful than an Internet search to find fiction on difficult topics. It includes five indexes, and there's an online newsletter at www.lutrapress.com with updates on new books. This book makes a great gift for teachers, counselors, and librarians.

For more detailed guidance on books about adoption, race, and nontraditional families, nothing beats Pact's Multicultural BookSource. This "opinionated guide" rates hundreds of books, including those from specialty adoption publishers, and it highlights hard-to-find resources for a wide range of families. The full subtitle says it all: An Opinionated Guide to Books That Reflect, Open, and Address Issues for Adoptive Families, Blended Families, Families of Color, Foster Families, Interracial Families, Gay or Lesbian Families, Kinship Adoption, Multiracial Families, Single-Parent Families, Families with Special-Needs Kids, Transracial Families.

The second edition, published in 2000, is available from Pact's Web site, www.pactadopt.org.

Reviewed by Amy Klatzkin, a contributing editor to Adoptive Families magazine.

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