Interview With Jane Annunziata About All About Adoption

Interviewer [female voice]: Why did you write All About Adoption and how is it helpful to kids?

Jane Annunziata: Well, we wrote All About Adoption because we had worked over the years with many children who were adopted, and we noticed that children and parents were really having a lot of feelings and questions about the adoption process. And we thought it was time for a book that would answer some of those questions and really help kids to understand that families are made in different ways and there isn't a right or wrong or better or worse way to have a family. And we wanted a book that would address some of the feelings — the very normal feelings — that kids would have about adoption. But those feelings can be very challenging for them and challenging for their parents to handle. So we wrote the book to address those concerns.

Interviewer: What are some of the ways that you've heard of therapists using this book?

Jane Annunziata: I think therapists and parents can use the book to help children with specific questions they have about their adoption. There are many common questions that adopted kids have. Probably the most common one being, why was I adopted? Why did my birth parents give me up? Why didn't my birth mother or father — sometimes children would say it as — "want me?" That's their experience. That, of course, is not the reality. So we find that therapists and parents can use pieces of the book to address some of those very hard questions.

Interviewer: Why is it important for parents to discuss adoption with their children and explore their feelings about it?

Jane Annunziata: Because children have a lot of feelings when they are adopted. No matter how well the adoption is handled, how well the adoptive parents try to explain to their child and welcome their child and show so much love to their child, there are inevitable questions about the process. As I say, the number one being, why was I adopted? Who were my birth mommy and daddy? What were they like? And these are tough questions to answer as parents. And so we hope that therapists and parents can use the book for help with answering those questions and that the book can be a jumping-off point for conversations — whether that's in a therapy room or at home with parents.