Books, booklets & multimedia

Nutmeg gets a Letter

	Price: £12.00 24 pages A4 + 18 pages guidelines Full colour illustrations	BAAF, September 2003 ISBN 1 903699 44 4

Another story suitable for post-adoption work with children, this book is about contact in adoption.

In this story Nutmeg's birth mother's letter arrives late for his birthday and he is sad. As with the earlier stories featuring Nutmeg and his family (Nutmeg Gets Adopted and Nutmeg Gets Cross), this new book offers adoptive parents and carers a practical way to help adopted children identify and explore the strong feelings likely to be aroused by contact with their birth families - often triggered by special occasions in the child's life such as birthdays.

The story will again help parents explain to their young adopted child why their first mummy could not look after them and that it is all right to feel both happy and sad when they think about her. The author explores the helpful role of friendships with other adopted children likely to be dealing with the same issues, and also the importance of reassuring the child that their birth mother is herself being looked after.

In a separate booklet, practice guidelines written by Hedi Argent plus a feature on contact issues and arrangements written by Judith Foxon will help parents and professionals to get the most out of the story and to deal with the often complex and emotional issues around maintaining links between adopted children and their birth families. The story will help children to understand their own feelings and come to terms with their past and their new family life.