Adoptions

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29270, 30 July 1960, Page 3

Adoptions

And Four To Grow On. By Frances Palmer. Hodder and Stoughton. 222 pp. This is the story of an experiment carried along to a happy conclusion through the goodwill, faith, and steadfastness of purpose of those who made it. When Frarices and Bill Palmer decided to adopt a couple of unwanted children they surprised the United States Department of Welfare by agreeing to accept them unseen.

This was to be a happy day for Joe, aged eight, and Ruth, aged five, though the fact was not as yet apparent to any of the four people concerned, for Joe and Ruth had the anti-social surliness and uncared for appearance that betokened their experience as temporary wards of many heedless and indifferent fosterparents. Bill and Frances, while prepared to succour them, found them almost impossible to love. Being, however, deeply religious people they sought to break down the hostility of their charges, and disregarding the best psychiatric principles walloped them when they became unbearable, which had the curious effect not only of 'rendering the children amenable to necessary discipline, but of convincing them that they were, in fact, cared for by their sponsors. As a consequence of Joe and Ruth’s visible improvement in health and outlook the Palmers were granted early facilities for taking out adoption papers, and two happy youngsters found themselves in possession of a real mother and dad. With this modest triumph to their credit the Palmers launched out on -a second similar experiment, and Tom and Beth joined the Palmer household. In this case the challenge to patience and understanding was . even greater than it had been in the first one. Tom and Beth proved to be small fiends, and heavily taxed the endurance not only of their guardians but that of their far less tolerant contemporaries. However, after numerous cat and dog fights in which lawlessness, low cunning, dishonesty and other characteristics of th ■ underprivileged young were freely displayed, Tom and Beth yielded at last to the power of love, and the family developed" into a unit bound together in the bonds of mutual respect and affection. The author errs a little on the side of sentimentality, but the art of fashioning, crude specimens of humanity into well-integrated upright members of society is a feat of which anyone could be justly proud, and the humility with which the Palmers viewed this considerable achievement is worthy of the reader's respect.