Book Review: Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Green Ghost, by Robert Arthur, illustrations by Harry Kane.

OK, so this was a bit of a peculiar realization I had recently. This book was pretty much the book that made a reader out this humble typist. It was third grade, you see, and our teacher read a bit from a book every day before recess. She got halfway through this one when she suddenly had to transfer to another class, and the replacement teacher didn't do reading time at all. And this was a mystery. One simply *had* to... more

The Wall Street Journal just ran a piece on International adoption in the workplace that hopefully will have the baleful eye of a many a CEO upon it.

Well does this humble typist remember the anxiety of the wait. The first time, it just went on and on because we really had no idea how and when that "pack your bags and GO!" call would come in. The second time was no better, because we had too many ideas. The time stretched and compressed like a zydeco accordion.

Thankfully,... more

Rather than continually boring you with stories of my superior family and our superior children, I thought it might be interesting to try interviewing other people who've adopted (or been adopted) from China to get a few different perspectives. Carol S. is a realtor from Atlanta, Georgia.

---- How many children do you have?

I've got two daughters, S., who's 6, and L., who's 2, who're both from Guangdong province.

What made you decide to adopt from China?

I think it was growing up in the 1970s when the big threat was always overpopulation that put the idea in my head that I wanted to adopt when I grew up.

Like a... more

As if a person who has become intimately involved with China (as adoptive parents and parents-to-be do), the drums are continuing to rise in volume somewhere in the background. "Is China preparing for war with the U.S.?" the articles ask (and more often than not, the answer is yes - and, in fact, in the case of the one behind that link, the war has already started, just not with guns).

This,... more

People talk a lot about the conspicuousness of families formed by transracial adoption. There's no way around it - people always notice you. The white dad with the Asian kids. Sidelong glances at the playground. Furrowed brows at the cash register. It's something one has to get used to in this situation, parent and (moreso) child. So how about when the curious gaze comes from a camera wielded by someone who knows how to make an image that lasts longer than the barely noticeable sidelong glance?

The outstanding... more

There are interesting things afoot at one of our favorite charities, Half the Sky. They've gotten the go-ahead from the Chinese government to help improve over 300 children's welfare institutions across the country. The Blue Sky plan is starting with 31 model children's centers, starting with one that's already underway in Wuhan. They want one center in every province... more

One of the things about my family is that some of them are adopted. It's only one thing, and I'm thinking more and more lately that dwelling on "adopted-ness" isn't really terribly constructive. I'm reminded, in fact, of the passage from Borges listing categories of animals (taken, as I had completely forgotten until looking it up just now, from a notional ancient Chinese encyclopedia). The question posed by that list is, "Why those qualities? What does 'looking like flies at a distance'... more

Faithful readers of this space will recall the tragic plight of the baiji, the Yangtze River dolphin, that isn't around any more to complain about the noise and bustle of modern industrial China. Before adopting son (son!) last year, we took a river cruise. It was gorgeous, memorable, gave an unforgettable perspective on ... more

By now, you may have heard about the Russian government's latest goofy idea: Let's celebrate conception day!

It's funny, you see, because people are being told by the government to take a day off work and have sex. In order to make more babies, because this lack of... more

You have to love a China adoption story that starts with an Alaskan grizzly bear attack. Global adoption an answer is really not as much a news article as sort of a taster for an hour-long radio documentary about adoptions in southern Indiana. Even so, it's loaded with thinkfood (in the form of statistics and brief interviews) for people from anywhere who're considering following this path to making a family.

The documentary, Internationally Born, Indiana Raised, has even more to think about, whether or not you live... more