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Rating: 
Summary: For a "non-fiction" book, there is a LOT of fiction in here
Review: A few years ago, NBC-TV did a story about a 43 year old Jewish woman who, when she sought out her birth parents, discovered that she was actually born to a Navajo family. Yvette was a lost bird, the name Native Americans give to their children who were stolen by "well-meaning" white social workers and others. This is Yvette's fascinating story. Yvette Melanson was born "out West" in the 1950's, adopted by a Jewish couple in Miami, and raised in New York City in a wealthy, doting, Jewish family. Although she knew she was adopted, her parents always deflected questions about her roots, but did let it slip that she had a twin brother. When her mother died a painful death when Yvette was just a young teenager, Yvette's father blamed Yvette, rejected her, and soon remarried a woman who treated Yvette worse than Cinderella. So I don't give away any more juicy details, suffice it to say that Yvette moved to a Kibbutz in Israel at 17, was injured as a soldier during the '73 Yom Kippur War, returned to the U.S., joined the US Navy, and settled in Maine to raise a family. Can you believe that at her father's funeral, a stranger had to ask her stepmother to move over so Yvette could sit in the family pew? Can you believe such a family? Upon discovering her true birth heritage a while after the funeral, we follow Yvette as she meets her Navajo family, learns the truth, tries to fit into Navajo culture, which is sometimes at odds with a more loud, New York City/Israeli/Jewish one, and finds similarities between her Jewish faith and Navajo culture. Will she fit in? Will she find her twin brother? Can a Jewish woman find peace on the res? A fascinating cross-cultural story
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Summary: A poignant uplifting story about finding one's roots + place
Review: A few years ago, NBC-TV did a story about a 43 year old Jewish woman who, when she sought out her birth parents, discovered that she was actually born to a Navajo family. Yvette was a lost bird, the name Native Americans give to their children who were stolen by "well-meaning" white social workers and others. This is Yvette's fascinating story. Yvette Melanson was born "out West" in the 1950's, adopted by a Jewish couple in Miami, and raised in New York City in a wealthy, doting, Jewish family. Although she knew she was adopted, her parents always deflected questions about her roots, but did let it slip that she had a twin brother. When her mother died a painful death when Yvette was just a young teenager, Yvette's father blamed Yvette, rejected her, and soon remarried a woman who treated Yvette worse than Cinderella. So I don't give away any more juicy details, suffice it to say that Yvette moved to a Kibbutz in Israel at 17, was injured as a soldier during the '73 Yom Kippur War, returned to the U.S., joined the US Navy, and settled in Maine to raise a family. Can you believe that at her father's funeral, a stranger had to ask her stepmother to move over so Yvette could sit in the family pew? Can you believe such a family? Upon discovering her true birth heritage a while after the funeral, we follow Yvette as she meets her Navajo family, learns the truth, tries to fit into Navajo culture, which is sometimes at odds with a more loud, New York City/Israeli/Jewish one, and finds similarities between her Jewish faith and Navajo culture. Will she fit in? Will she find her twin brother? Can a Jewish woman find peace on the res? A fascinating cross-cultural story
Rating:
Summary: CAPTURED BY ALIENS
Review: Imagine yourself a baby captured by aliens who smuggle you off to another planet. While there, you are adopted by an alien couple and indoctrinated into their cultural mores. You are truly an alien. Suddenly, as a teenager your alien mother dies. Distraught over his loss, your alien father takes his grief out on you and begins his process of rejecting you. Many years later you discover that you're not an alien and are not from their planet. SURPRISE! Such a story is a product of an imagination run wild or a scene out of science fiction. If only that was true. Yvette Melanson was that infant (Navajo) and the aliens were a Jewish couple desperate to have children. Thus begins the saga of a woman raised as a Jew who is now reclaiming her newly discovered Navajo family. Hers is the story of Native children taken away from their families to be indoctrinated into another culture. Yvette's story raises poignant questions regarding trans-cultural and trans-racial adoptions. All to often the adoption business becomes a trafficking in illegal babies particularly those from overseas and other cultures. Those individuals who have a great desire for a child will pay any price to have one. Their desire brings forth a trafficking in a new type of slave trade this time with babies. After all, who cares if these infants birth parents wanted them? If you have the money, you can have anything. Looking for Lost Bird also raises some emotional and psychological questions for the child who is adopted and given a new identity. For example, what makes you who you are? Culture? Religion? Race? Yvette was raised Jewish. Can she be anything else but Jewish regardless of her Navajo origins? Let us not forget the emotional questions. How much did the anquish of Yvette's birthmother contribute to her early demise and relationship to her other children? What resentment did Yvette's adoptive father harbor against her when his wife died? Fortunately, Yvette was able to find her Navajo family and began the process of reintergrating herself back into her original culture. Whether she is able to do this comfortably is her greatest challenge in her tumultuous life. This book is a must read for those thinking about cross cultural or racial adoptions, the ethics of the international "baby adoptions", and the ability to recover a lost identity.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful story about loved ones being reunited!
Review: Like many of the readers I couldn't put the book down until I read it from cover to cover. While reading the story I found out these people were my extended family! I know everyone mentioned in the book. As a youngster I remember the crusade of Aunt Desbah, Uncle John and others in finding the twins who were stolen as babies. I wept at the end when Yvette participated in the holy Hozhoji ceremony to be reunited with her birth place, family, culture, and environment. Very moving! Aunt Betty, Yvette's biological mother lived a very brave life as she longed and searched everyday of her life wanting to be reunited with her twins. May God bless her soul.
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Summary: Enthralling story written from the heart!
Review: LOOKING FOR LOST BIRD is an extreamly well-written book. Yvette takes us into the private details of her life - from growing up in a loving Jewish household, to her trials and tribulations as a fighter in Israel, to the difficult and rewarding search and homecoming to her "true" birth family. It was emotional to follow her journey on the roller coaster of life. She lets you in on the intimate moments of Navajo life, and how she was able to mesh it with her own ingrained beliefs. You find yourself laughing, crying, and wanting to encourage her family (both of them!) not to give up. I couldn't put it down! Living in Arizona, this book opened a new world for me - one I want to learn more about!
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Summary: Looking for Lost Bird: A Review
Review: Looking For Lost Bird:
A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots.
Yvette Melanson with Claire Safron
Bard Books. 233 pages. $22.00
By Elliot Fein Looking For Lost Bird is a true story that is disturbing yet compelling. A Native American Navajo Indian woman gives birth on her reservation home in Arizona to twins, a girl and a boy. During their infancy, both children get sick. The mother takes the children to the nearest local hospital for a diagnosis. Hospital staff members instruct her that they will need to keep the two children over night for observations. When the mother returns the next day, the children are gone. The hospital has no record that they were ever admitted. The kidnapped infant children are each adopted in Florida by two different families. One of the families is a young Jewish couple that lives in a New York City suburb. Looking for Lost Bird is the story of the Navajo girl, Yvette Melanson, who is raised in that Jewish household. As an adult, Melanson discovers her Navajo origins and searches for her family roots. She finds her family (minus her mother, who died of a broken heart grieving for two lost children) still living on the Navajo reservation in which she was born. At the age of forty-three, Melanson decides first to visit her birth family in Arizona, then to move there permanently with her husband and two children. While adjusting to the reservation, Melanson learns and begins practicing the religion, culture, and way of life of her birth family. In this process, she abandons many of the Jewish cultural practices (but not necessarily Jewish values) in which she was raised. Melanson's Jewish parents (particularly her mother) provide a loving and caring environment for their daughter. In Yvette's recollection of how she was raised, their warts do surface, particularly the shortcomings of her father. After her mother becomes ill and eventually dies during her teen years, the father changes into a different, less appealing character. Melanson never reveals whether her Jewish parents knew about her Navajo origins. The reader is left to speculate whether the knowledge, if known by her Jewish parents that she was stolen from a Native American Indian family would have impacted their decision to adopt. What is surprising in the telling of this life story is the absence of any form of anti-Semitism by the author. When Melanson writes critically about her mother and father, she writes about them as individuals. She does not associate her criticism of them with Judaism as a faith tradition. On the reservation, when she begins taking on Native American Indian ways, Melanson naturally compares Navajo culture to Judaism. In this comparison, Melanson writes with respect, affection, and even admiration about the religious tradition in which she was raised. Melanson tells her life story (with the help of Claire Safron) with compassion, humor, and eloquence. I recently led a book club at my synagogue. A member of the club recommended that I read Looking for Lost Bird. After reading it, we immediately decided to include Looking for Lost Bird one of our featured selections. The book provides a great opportunity to learn about Navajo culture and to see how it compares to Judaism as a religious tradition. The book is also a true gift for adopted individuals, particularly native American Indians, seeking to uncover their past. Elliot Fein teaches Jewish Studies in the Tarbut V'Torah School in Irvine.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for Lost Bird: A Review
Review: Looking For Lost Bird:
A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots.
Yvette Melanson with Claire Safron
Bard Books. 233 pages. $22.00
By Elliot Fein Looking For Lost Bird is a true story that is disturbing yet compelling. A Native American Navajo Indian woman gives birth on her reservation home in Arizona to twins, a girl and a boy. During their infancy, both children get sick. The mother takes the children to the nearest local hospital for a diagnosis. Hospital staff members instruct her that they will need to keep the two children over night for observations. When the mother returns the next day, the children are gone. The hospital has no record that they were ever admitted. The kidnapped infant children are each adopted in Florida by two different families. One of the families is a young Jewish couple that lives in a New York City suburb. Looking for Lost Bird is the story of the Navajo girl, Yvette Melanson, who is raised in that Jewish household. As an adult, Melanson discovers her Navajo origins and searches for her family roots. She finds her family (minus her mother, who died of a broken heart grieving for two lost children) still living on the Navajo reservation in which she was born. At the age of forty-three, Melanson decides first to visit her birth family in Arizona, then to move there permanently with her husband and two children. While adjusting to the reservation, Melanson learns and begins practicing the religion, culture, and way of life of her birth family. In this process, she abandons many of the Jewish cultural practices (but not necessarily Jewish values) in which she was raised. Melanson's Jewish parents (particularly her mother) provide a loving and caring environment for their daughter. In Yvette's recollection of how she was raised, their warts do surface, particularly the shortcomings of her father. After her mother becomes ill and eventually dies during her teen years, the father changes into a different, less appealing character. Melanson never reveals whether her Jewish parents knew about her Navajo origins. The reader is left to speculate whether the knowledge, if known by her Jewish parents that she was stolen from a Native American Indian family would have impacted their decision to adopt. What is surprising in the telling of this life story is the absence of any form of anti-Semitism by the author. When Melanson writes critically about her mother and father, she writes about them as individuals. She does not associate her criticism of them with Judaism as a faith tradition. On the reservation, when she begins taking on Native American Indian ways, Melanson naturally compares Navajo culture to Judaism. In this comparison, Melanson writes with respect, affection, and even admiration about the religious tradition in which she was raised. Melanson tells her life story (with the help of Claire Safron) with compassion, humor, and eloquence. I recently led a book club at my synagogue. A member of the club recommended that I read Looking for Lost Bird. After reading it, we immediately decided to include Looking for Lost Bird one of our featured selections. The book provides a great opportunity to learn about Navajo culture and to see how it compares to Judaism as a religious tradition. The book is also a true gift for adopted individuals, particularly native American Indians, seeking to uncover their past. Elliot Fein teaches Jewish Studies in the Tarbut V'Torah School in Irvine.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story about loved ones being reunited!
Review: Yvette's oldest daughter Heather is my best friend...I bought the book with my own money and after reading this book right after I met Heather, I learned respect for them. Yvette is a second mother to me and it is amazing what she went through. Although the editor messed up some facts....99% of it is honest, its amazing what cold hearted things can happen to nice innocent people...
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