urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:path2adoption The Long Journey path2adoption 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:path2adoption:9087 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z Catherine and Sherry Bunin, Is That Your Sister? (Our Child Press, 1992)<br /><br />Is That Your Sister? is another of the adoption books I've been<br />reading recently. It's more vertical-market than the others (as the<br />title implies, it's about how to deal with questions from ruder<br />sections of the populace when your parents have adopted a child who<br />doesn't look much like you), but still holds up quite nicely under<br />scrutiny. (To clarify and explain that comment: books are like<br />computer programs. The more vertical-market they are, the shoddier<br />they tend to be. Think back to the worst of your school textbooks for<br />an excellent example.) The big drawback is that there's not much there<br />to hold up for scrutinizing. This isn't to say it's bad-- nothing<br />impressed itself upon me as really awful (as the creepy pictures in<br />This Is How We Became a Family), but within two weeks of first reading<br />it, I had to read it again in order to refresh anything but the basics<br />of the book's mission in my head. It doesn't stand out either in a<br />good or a bad way, but that puts it ahead of about 90% of<br />vertical-market books of any type. Thus, if you are in a situation<br />like this (if you have adopted children of two different races, for<br />example, or if you have a birth child and an adopted child from<br />another country), you may well find this a valuable book to have<br />around. ***