This guide to openness, communication, and truthfulness in adopter-adoptee relationships is designed to meet the practical and informational needs of adoptive parents, foster parents, adoption professionals, mental health professionals, and school teachers and counselors who have adopted or foster children.

The power of secrets on family relationships -- Truth or consequences : a great debate -- Just the facts, ma'am : why do children need them? -- Learning about your child : a fact-finding mission -- Adoption through a child's eyes : developmental stage -- Through a parent's eyes : the challenges in creating an environment of ongoing adoption communication -- Principles of talking about adoption -- Sharing the hard stuff : the adoptive parent's challenge -- Twelve tools of parent/child communication -- Transracial or transcultural adoption : talking about adoption and race -- Kinship foster care and adoption : telling the truth when it's "all in the family" -- Adolescence : parents matter : keeping lines of communication open -- Managing communication with openness in adoption : questions most asked by parents -- Communication about adoption outside the family -- Appendix A: Information needed to prepare a case for adoption -- Appendix B: Triggers for adoption issues -- Appendix C: Lifebooks : they are effective for children in understanding their story.