Giving a child a strong foundation—a home, a family to love, and a safe place to grow—is one of life's greatest and most generous gifts … We celebrate National Adoption Month to recognize adoption as a positive and powerful force in countless American lives, and to encourage the adoption of children from foster care. —Presidential Proclamation—National Adoption Month
115,000 kids are living in foster care, awaiting adoption into a caring family. November is National Adoption Month, intended to raise awareness about the need to find loving families for these children. The Child Welfare Information Gateway is a promoter of this event and offers lots of information on how to adopt, including adoption preparation programs, support groups for those considering adoption, legal matters, and how to be a good parent to your adopted child. Several of their publications are available free online.
And November 20 is National Adoption Day, a day for celebrating adoptive families, and "an opportunity for courts to … finalize the adoptions of children from foster care." Over the past decade, the adoptions of 30,000 children have been made official on this day. View toolkits for promoting this day.
Of course, any day, any month is a great time to start considering adopting a child, and to be supportive toward adoptive families.
Here are some books on adoption, from the Libraries' collections:
Strangers and kin: the American way of adoption, Barbara Melosh. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Adoption in America: historical perspectives, edited by E. Wayne Carp. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, c2002.
And a children's book:
I bet she called me Sugar Plum, by Joanne V. Gabbin. Harrisonburg, VA: Franklins Street Gallery Productions, 2004.
Details of images from the Libraries' Galaxy of Images.
Top: Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Du Châtelet Du Châtelet, Institutions de physique, 1740. Vignette of woman, child and geometric figures.
Bottom: Frank F. Taylor Co., Inc. Famous Taylor-Tot and Other Taylor Juvenile Products. Front cover of catalog.
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