A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
Asgarian, Roxanna. We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. 2023. 320p. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, $19.99 (9780374602291) Recommended for adult readers.
“We like our adoption stories to be happy endings.” But, in 2018, the country was captivated and shocked by the murder-suicide of the Harts and their six Black adoptive children. Roxanna Asgarian approaches the story from a new perspective, through the experiences of the birth family that went unrecognized and uncared for at the time of the tragedy. This book intertwines storytelling with interviews and research, providing evidence of the flaws and failures of this country’s adoption and foster care system. 2023 Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, this is a challenging and essential read. This book reckons with child and family separation in our country making direct links between foster care and the prison pipeline and interrogating how these failed systems punish the poor or needy. Asgarian’s book is a call to action and justice for families like the Hart children. This is a 5-star read that has received accolades recognizing it as such. Anyone working in the foster care system should move this book to the top of their bookshelves.
Buy it for your bookshelf at home and public library!
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