Hosted by Special Guests Academy Award ® Winner Octavia Spencer
and Betsie Norris from Adoption Network Cleveland
Hailed a “Best Book of the Year” by Publishers Weekly , The Baby Thief was written by nonfiction author and Lakewood resident Barbara Raymond, who will be signing books on Sunday, August 13th, at the Root Café from 1-2:30pm EST. The book signing will feature special appearances by Academy Award ® Winner Octavia Spencer, who optioned the book, and Executive Director of Adoption Network Cleveland Betsie Norris.
Raymond, author of the award-winning book, says, “I’m excited to bring this important story to light to a wider audience.”
The Baby Thief tells the long-buried story of Georgia Tann, who, operating out of Memphis, Tennessee from 1924 to 1950, was widely known as an “angel of adoption.” Tann was, in reality, a child trafficker who stole thousands of children from poor people and sold them to wealthy people across the United States. Her friendship with a political boss ensured that, even after her death, only two robbed parents ever got their children back. Tann’s legacy continues today in the form of sealed birth certificates that often prevent adopted adults from finding their birth families and learning their health histories. Some adoptees have died because of this. Barbara Raymond was the first person to discover the connection between Tann and the secrecy in adoption that has hurt so many Americans.
Betsie Norris, Executive Director of Adoption Network Cleveland, spent decades working to change legislation to finally allow access to original birth certificates to adopted people in Ohio. Adoption
Network Cleveland is co-sponsoring the event along with Author Barbara Raymond.
Octavia Spencer, an Academy Award ® -winning actress of The Help and Oscar ® nominee for the 2017 movie Hidden Figures , will appear as a special host of Raymond’s book signing. As an actress and a producer, Spencer is drawn to compelling stories and has optioned the rights to the book and will produce a movie based on Georgia Tann and The Baby Thief .
What : Author Barbara Raymond will hold a signing for the award-winning book, The Baby Thief, with special guests Academy Award ® Winner Octavia Spencer and Executive Director of Adoption Network Cleveland Betsie Norris
When : Sunday, August 13, 2017, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm local time
Where : The Root Café, 15118 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107
Lakewoodite, Award Winning Author, Journalist, and member and contributor of the Lakewood Observer!
ABOUT BARBARA RAYMOND
Barbara Bisantz Raymond is an adjunct professor at John Carroll University, adoptive mother, and writer.She has received two awards for feature writing from Women in Communications, and was an author of a childcare section that won the National Magazine Award for Public Service. She contributed to The Handbook of Magazine Article Writing , and has written for The New York Times , USA Today , Working Mother , Parents , Writer's Digest , Reader's Digest , Good Housekeeping , Redbook , McCall's , and Ladies' Home Journal . She received an award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute for her work on The Baby Thief . Publisher's Weekly named The Baby Thief a 2007 Best Book of the Year.
ABOUT ADOPTION NETWORK CLEVELAND
Adoption Network Cleveland, a non-profit organization, provides support, education and advocacy for adoptees, birthparents, adoptive parents, prospective adoptive parents, foster youth and parents, foster care alumni and professionals. Founded in 1988, Adoption Network Cleveland recognizes adoption as a complex, lifelong and intergenerational journey for all those whose lives are touched by it. http://www.AdoptionNetwork.org . Adoption Network Cleveland is a member of Greater Cleveland Community