Nutmeg Gets Adopted

this is not a pretty airy fairy tale.This book actually tells is as it is...albeit carefully and using animal characters.Mummy squirrel actually fails to look after her children and this is shown in the story,the children are dirty and hungry and mum and dad are fighting.These facts aren't hidden..but then the children go into care and are adopted into a new loving family.

This book has been really useful for talking to a confused 4 year old about his journey from birth family, through foster care, to his adoptive home. It provides a number of scenarios as reasons that children enter the care system & there are a number of ways to use the book depending on the needs & age of the specific child. The book comes with a guide on how to use the book effectively, providing much needed help for prospective adopters in the early days of child placement as a useful tool to help your child through the early stages of placement.

The idea behind this book is good, and I'm sure it could be very useful in the right circumstances. However in trying to cover every possibility and every detail of the process the book is a bit clumsy. It's not a simple charming book that captures the feelings of the characters (like "A Mother for Choco"), and in being so specific it does limit those it would be relevant to. However on the positive side it does tackle every issue you could possibly want (from the neglect and harm children may suffer in their birth families, to the different professionals involved) and it is consistent with the English care system and has British spellings.

This was great for other kids to read so that they could understand what adoption is all about. Sometimes it's a difficult concept for those outside the immediate family to comprehend but this book explains it in simple terms.

One of many books we bought to smooth the way and explain adoption to our son. A great easy read. Thoroughly recommend

If you like us are going down the adoption route then the Nutmeg series of books are a must for forever children and forever Mum & Dads alike. they explain the process by linking them to a family os squirrels which was quite apt as we live in the middle of a family of squirrels. The books are a resource with adult notes at the back, to explain to children why they are feeling the way they do.

we read this with our two when they arrived (3&5) and it is lovely, they recognised the animals in their lives which helped with their understanding. We gave it to the foster carers as we no longer had a needed it and they have used it with all the kids who have new families.

very impressed with these books,bought them as a present for my foster child as an adoption gift,so his new mummy and daddy can read them to him when he gets a little older,well written and very suitable for young children,i read them first to make sure they were okay and enjoyed the story.