Review by Choice Review
Dubinsky (Queen's Univ., Canada) researched three ethnic and national sources of adoption in the postwar Americas that created political storms and left the field of transnational and transracial adoption polarized between those who view these adoptions as postcolonial baby snatching and those who believe these adoptions rescue poor abandoned kids. On research labeled "The National Baby," Dubinsky discusses the Peter Pan Operation that brought thousands of Cuban children to the US in the wake of false rumors of Communist monstrosities under Castro's regime in 1962. The saga ended with poor Cuban children raised in US orphanages as a result of the Cold War. In research on the "The Hybrid Baby," on adoption of black and Iroquois children by white couples, Dubinsky shows that when these ethnic communities were involved and supported the adoptive parents, the adoption was successful. Dubinsky's research about the "The Missing Baby," tracing Guatemalan adoptions, proves that adoptions through good agencies in Canada were conducted with the blessing of the natural mothers. Although it reads like three separate case studies put together artificially, this slim book establishes a more nuanced way of viewing cross-border adoptions. Summing Up; Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. N. Zmora Hamline University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
