Drawing from her own experiences and those of others who have adopted children from outside the United States, the author here addresses a range of issues arising from the controversial practice. As the single parent of two Korean-born daughters, Register ( Living with Chronic Illness ) is often faced with the query posed in the book's title. How she and other parents help their foreign-born children ease into American society is examined and evaluated. Larger questions, such as the ethics of uprooting children from their heritage, the global issue of wealthy versus poor countries, the racism often encountered by these children, the wrenching issue of the rights of birth parents, are presented in very personal terms. Internationally adoptive parents will find this an empathetic guide.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As the adoptive mother of two Korean girls, Register has often been presented with this remark, either spoken or implied. Yes, the girls are "hers," now, but the question does bring out some of the practical and ethical issues involved in cross-cultural adoption: are the parents in the wealthier nations "entitled" to raise children left homeless in other parts of the world by poverty or social stigma? Do adoptive parents have a responsibility to their children's birth countries or to other disadvantaged children and their families? What does it mean to "own" a child, anyway, and who can ultimately make that claim? In this sensitive, compassionate guide, Register addresses these and other issues and shows how they are played out in the actual, day-to-day experience of her own and other adoptive families. With the number of these adoptions increasing each year, most public libraries will want to purchase this book.
- Marcia G. Fuchs, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ingram
Cherie Register drawns on her experience as the mother of two Korean-born daughters and interviews with adoptive families to illustated the special challenges multicultural families face.

Unusual and interesting, September 14, 2003

This book is not intended as a practical guide on how to adopt internationally but addresses the paradoxical nature of adoption and the ethical questions inherent in international adoption. It will make the general reader and adoptive parent of children from another race more sensitive about honoring the child's original culture.
My first reaction to the title "Are Those Kids Yours?" was: "Yes, some people are really rude to ask such a question of parents whose children look decidedly different from them." The author asks "How many other parents are regularly approached by strangers demanding to know, 'Are those kids yours?' She thinks that this question reflects the paradoxical nature of adoption itself and while she answers the question with an "unqualified yes" she lives with the paradox that "they are mine, yet not mine." The title of her book suggests that international adoption complicates the issue of entitlement because the child "race remains unchanged. A Korean-born girl named Bridget O'Leary is still Asian to the world-at-large, and that facet of her identity needs to be affirmed and nurtured." Children's ethnic group, race and nation of origin all are involved in the competing claims of entitlement, not simply between birthparents and adoptive parents. Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?