Dim Sum, Bagels, and Grits: A Sourcebook for Multicultural Families

by Myra Alperson

An informed, comprehensive guide to raising a multicultural family. How many times do you celebrate the New Year at home? Just once? If your family is Jewish, Chinese, and a few other things besides, you might celebrate twice or even three times a year As the rate of cross-cultural adoption grows in the United States, new traditions are emerging. These are part of a new multiculturalism which, with its attendant joys and challenges, has become a fact...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374526117
• ISBN13: 9780374526115
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

food for thought for adoptive parents

Dim Sum, Bagels, and Grits is a guide to adoptive parents & parents-to-be on the journey toward creating a multicultural family with appropriate traditions, religious observances, role models & developing alternative ways to draw a family tree. The face of adoption has changed dramatically in recent years, a fact that the author, whose daughter is from China, knows very well. In this invaluable handbook "for multicultural families formed through adoption," she offers not only her firsthand experience & wisdom, she also offers those of other adoptive parents & experts from around the U.S. Simply what it is: a really useful & thorough handbook providing an expansive resource directory of adoption agencies & publications, Web sites & sources. It affirms the importance of balancing birth culture & adoptive culture within the family. The author also lists discussion groups, support organizations & heritage camps for both parents & kids If you have ever considered adopting across cultural lines - this fine book should be at the top of your resource list.

A wonderful book

"Dim Sum" is an absolutely wonderful book for anyone who is thinking about adoption or who has adopted - internationally or domestically. It is also a wonderful resource for anyone (adoptive parent or not) who wants to help their children be proud of their heritage. With two children adopted internationally, my husband and I refer to it quite often for resources dealing with our childrens' heritage as well as issues related to adoption in general. Full of resources as well as advice and snipets of the author's own experiences, it is simply a wonderful resource and a great read!

A Valuable Resource

This book is a valuable resource for all who are living in a multicultural family, or who want to create one. It focuses to a large extent on families with children adopted abroad. These families are multi-ethnic but not necessarily multi-cultural. It is a daunting task for a parent to try to teach a child about a cultural heritage that the parent does not share. "Dim Sum, Bagels and Grits" can help those families take that first step. It is also useful for families that are mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity by birth.

An Indespensable Resource

Myra Alperson, a wonderful writer writer and the single mother of a daughter adopted from China, has finally written a book which addresses the issues and concerns of multicultural families. Dim Sum, Bagels and Grits: A Sourcebook for Multicultural Families, helps guide adoptive parents and parents-to-be on the journey toward creating a family cross-culturally. If only I had had a books like this when I adopted my son 18 years ago! In her book, Alperson looks at the importance of balancing birth culture and adoptive culture within the family, and shaping a multicultural home with traditions, and role models. As Alperson tells us, being a multicultural family is not just about acquiring multicultural books and other materials and going to cultural festivals. It is also about addressing our child's emotional and psychological needs as cross-culturally adopted children. It is not something, as Alperson says, that we celebrate on special occasions but is " a fact of our daily lives"As one who has experienced cross-cultural single motherhood for nearly two decades, I know how long overdue this book is! Lee Varon LICSW. Ph.D. Adopting On Your Own: The Complete Guide to Adopting as a Single Parent.

Dont Leave Home Without It, Dont Build a Family without it

Dim Sum, Bagels, and Grits sound different at first, but they are all breakfast foods, and they are all based on a grain. The same holds true for these families. They may be shaped or sound differently, but they are all based on kids, who underneath are all the same. I wanted to make sure that I recommended this book today, February 27, 2001. This week, the U.S. Child Citizenship Act takes effect. It makes it easier to provide children adopted from abroad with U.S. citizenship. It is nearly automatic for most children. But I digress, let's discuss Ms Alperson's sourcebook. Each year in the USA, about 15% of all adoptions are of children born outside the USA. (About 20,000 children last year, about 16,000 per year in the past few years, and several hundred thousand over the past 40 years). These parents, grandparents, and children (children adopted across what are perceived as racial, ethnic and cultural boundaries) face a harder time than some other adoptions, since there is the added bonus of multiculturalism. Alperson's sourcebook is an excellent guide and a must read for anyone considering adoption or raising a multicultural family. As the adoptive mother of Sadie Zhenzhen Alperson, she speaks from experience. She tells the stories of strangers not thinking that her daughter and she are daughter and mother. She discusses the need to honor both the child's birth heritage and the new family's heritage, and seeking out mentors and role models (American, Chinese, and Jewish in Alperson's case). Speaking of religion, she also discusses the subject of religious practice and preferences in the new family. (Sadly, you know that some imbecile is going to tell Sadie one day, "funny you don't look Jewish"; hopefully you can protect your child from those relatives who will make them feel that they are in the family as part of some sort of affirmative action program). Speaking of which, a full chapter is devoted to the many forms of prejudice that adoptive families can face. The chapter also includes actual accounts of how other families have responded to prejudice. Alperson gives advice on finding and forming groups where your child can play with children who "look like" or are like them, and what to do if that isn't possible. The sourcebook provides a compendium of resources that can help you create and strengthen multicultural homes, and it also will help you to understand what it means to be multicultural. Alperson includes interviews with adopted children and experts in the field. The bottom line is (1) read it if you are adopting; (2) read it if you know families facing these issues, (3) read it if you are teaching children from these families, and (4) read it if you minister or lead congregations with multicultural families.