When I first received an email with the story suggestion for a book titled: No Biking in the House without a Helmet I was instantly intrigued. A story with such a title should be a good match for the semi anarchistic way in which we raise our children--well, at least that’s how most people view the way we parent.
Reading the pitch for the story got me drawn in even more.
Melissa Fay Greene’s book tells the tale of a big family (again, seen from the general public, as four children doesn’t strike me as a particularly large family any more), getting even bigger through international adoption.
Now adoption is a theme close to my heart, as we’ve flirted with the idea time and again. Should I really read this?
After having read the book, the answer is a definite yes. No Biking bares it all: the good, the bad, the ugly and the particularly magnificent of large families and international adoption. Don’t mistake this autobiographical work for a “how to” on international adoption--if you are looking for this kind of information, you’ll need to look further. Yet it is a honest and humane insight into one family’s journey.
Melissa isn’t afraid to share the hardship and the joy her family encountered while adding children from Bulgaria and Ethiopia, how it affected every member and how her adoptive children adapted to American family life.
Even though I don’t agree with every aspect of Melissa’s parenting, I read the book in one trait with great joy and the occasional tear. No Bikingis well written, the anecdotes Greene shares are nicely chosen, all together definitely a book I recommend to people who want to read more about adoption and large families.
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