{"product_id":"prison-baby-isbn-9780807098103","title":"Prison Baby","description":"\u003cb\u003eA deeply personal and inspiring memoir recounting one woman’s struggles—beginning with her birth in prison—to find self-acceptance\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ePrison Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is a revised and substantially expanded version of Deborah Jiang Stein’s self-published memoir, \u003ci\u003eEven Tough Girls Wear Tutus. \u003c\/i\u003eEven at twelve years old, Deborah, the adopted daughter of a progressive Jewish couple in Seattle, felt like an outsider. Her mixed Asian features set her apart from her white, well-intentioned parents who evaded questions about her past. But when she discovered a letter revealing the truth of her prison birth to a heroin-addicted mother—and that she spent the first year of life in prison—Deborah spiraled into emotional lockdown. For years she turned to drugs, violence, and crime as a way to cope with her grief. Ultimately, Deborah overcame the stigma, shame, and secrecy of her birth, and found peace by helping others—proving that redemption and acceptance are possible even from the darkest corners.CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER ONE: The Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWO: Lucky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER THREE: River of Quiet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER FOUR: On the Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER FIVE: Duets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER SIX: From the Back of the Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER SEVEN: BFD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER EIGHT: On the Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER NINE: Act Normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TEN: Gnawed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER ELEVEN: White-Knuckle Ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWELVE: One More Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Weeping Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Full Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Baby Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Another Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Telegram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Yarn Toy—More Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER NINETEEN: Less Afraid of the Dark Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWENTY: Blue Socks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Return to the Veiled Lady . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Curious and with Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Freedom on the Inside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Then, This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Frozen in Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Beautiful Uncertain World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171“A book of hope for lives that need turning around.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jiang-Stein’s journey and her captivating account of it are beyond astonishing.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star-Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] unique and startling memoir...poetically written.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“The moving story provides a glimpse at the heart and struggles of adoptees and the importance of learning the truth of their stories and getting help in understanding the sometimes difficult information. …definitely a must-read.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eAdoption Today\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"What shines through \u003ci\u003ePrison Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is Stein's intrepid spirit. Hers is a story of self-actualization born of a constant search for hidden truths in the world's cracks and crevices.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTruthOut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The ways this woman discovers herself, via the revelation of her birth mother and her reconciliation with her adoptive mother, show us how dramatically different worlds intersect, and why those intersections are so important to who we are… A powerful story.”\u003cbr\u003e—Piper Kerman, author of \u003ci\u003eOrange Is the New Black\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Deborah Jiang Stein has beaten the cycle of intergenerational  incarceration, despite the odds against her—multiracial, born in a  federal prison to a heroin-addicted mother. Her story offers hope to the  possibility of personal transformation for anyone.”\u003cbr\u003e—Sister Helen  Prejean, author of \u003ci\u003eDead Man Walking\u003c\/i\u003e and Pulitzer Prize nominee\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Thank you for emerging the kind and whole person your words make clear you are.”\u003cbr\u003e—Gloria Steinem\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A harrowing, heartfelt glittering diamond of a memoir that shows that being born in prison does not have to imprison the spirit. Gloriously alive and important.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Caroline Leavitt,\u003ci\u003e New York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003ePictures of You \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eIs This Tomorrow\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Prison Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, one woman's profound quest for family and identity, is also a soul stirring call to arms on behalf of incarcerated women and their children. It's a story of lost and found, conflict and peace, and proof that with love, forgiveness, and support, people really do change their lives.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Tayari Jones, author of \u003ci\u003eSilver Sparrow\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"This book defines what it is to be American, a woman caught in the whirlwinds of change, who finds the strength in herself to confront the challenges and overcome them. Wonderful.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Jimmy Santiago Baca, author of \u003ci\u003eA Place to Stand\u003c\/i\u003e and American Book Award winner\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A compelling story of loss, addiction, and healing…told with grace and much heart.”\u003cbr\u003e—Heidi W. Durrow, New York Times best-selling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Girl Who Fell From the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“At a time when more and more women are being incarcerated worldwide, Deborah Jiang Stein's story of the secrets and ignominy surrounding her prison birth gives readers a brave account of the backlash children and society encounter when families are torn apart by addiction, prison, and shame. More than anything, Deborah's book is a call for an open-eyed examination of our broken criminal justice system, and a heartfelt plea for more compassionate responses to poverty and mental illness.”\u003cbr\u003e—Naseem Rakha, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Crying Tree\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"A profoundly moving search for identify, \u003ci\u003ePrison Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is as inspiring as it is haunting. Deborah Jiang Stein’s bold, and intrepid honesty will speak to anyone who has struggled with grief, forgiveness, and finding their place in the world.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Katrina Kittle, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Blessings of the Animals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Prison Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is an emotionally charged, transformative story about one woman's search for her true origins. Candid and searing, Deborah Jiang Stein's memoir is a remarkable story about identity, lost and found—and about the author's journey to reclaim—and celebrate—that most primal of relationships, the one between mother and child. I dare you to read this book without crying.”\u003cbr\u003e—Mira Bartok, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Memory Palace\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003ePrison Baby\u003c\/i\u003e hits all the emotions of the who, what, where, when and why's of adoption right on the head of the nail! Some real deep life stuff is in these pages. It stirs the soul. I can relate to being in a similar predicament where I didn't look like anyone in my family. If you want to know the truth about finding who you really are, this is the story! Adopted or not.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Darryl \"DMC\" McDaniels, adoptee and Founder of hip-hop group Run-DMCDeborah Jiang Stein is a national speaker, writer, and founder of The unPrison Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit which serves to build public awareness about women and girls in prison and offers mentoring and life-skills programs for inmates.CHAPTER ONE\u003cbr\u003e THE LETTER\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e SWEAT GLUES MY PALM TO THE brass knob of my parents’ bedroom door. It’s an off-limits, by-invitation-only room, sacred, like a boudoir. We kids don’t dare go in on our own. Until today. \u003cbr\u003e It’s my first breaking and entering. But what else does a twelve year-old girl do when she’s grounded but sneak around the house?\u003cbr\u003e I listen for a second at the door of their room to make sure no one’s in there and then twist the knob. A ray of Seattle’s noon sun slants through the glass of the patio door on the far side of the room. I’m glad for that door. Good thing my dad just fixed the sliding device, though. Short on patience, he isn’t much of a handyman. Things break in his hands more often than they are repaired. If my parents come in, I can slip my slim five-foot frame out the sliding door and escape. \u003cbr\u003e I creep across the room, around the footboard of their bed, and face my mother’s nightstand where a bird book, two novels, and three volumes of poetry pile high against her alarm clock. Her quick-fire brain keeps her engaged in no less than three or four books and magazines at the same time, each one bookmarked midway—\u003ci\u003eAudubon News\u003c\/i\u003e, the Sierra Club magazine, the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, the ACLU newsletter, books about the history of ancient Rome and Greece, poetry. \u003cbr\u003e A mechanical pencil alongside pages of my father’s typed manuscript, with scribbled notes in the margins, cover his nightstand. He keeps his dresser top bare except for a tray of pipe and cigar paraphernalia—always a Zippo lighter, pipe cleaners, a box of wooden matches, a pipe damper, and an Italian leather box with gold fleur-de-lis engraved on the outside. Inside, his Italian cufflinks crafted in gold, silver, and leather jumble together. \u003cbr\u003e I tiptoe to my mother’s dresser where her clip-on earrings and a strand of pearls scatter across the top. If it weren’t for her tray of Chanel bottles and collection of perfume atomizers, I’d have to pinch my nostrils to block the reek of my father’s tobacco. \u003cbr\u003e I slide open my mother’s top dresser drawer.\u003cbr\u003e “Shhhh,” I whisper and grab Kittsy, our Siamese, to quiet the rattle of her purr. Then I set her down and she weaves in and out between my feet, her tail in a fast flicker around my ankles. But the sweep of her purr and her tail across my skin comfort me. She calms my nighttime monster dreams when she nuzzles on my pillow, her belly curved around my head, her almond-shaped eyes more like mine than anyone else’s in my family. \u003cbr\u003e The scent of Mother’s French soap collection wafts out of her dresser drawer. Each bar, the size of a silver dollar wrapped in parchment paper, perfumes her drawers. Neat stacks of folded underwear and silk slips bunch in a pile at the back of her top drawer. \u003cbr\u003e I glance through the sliding-glass door—nobody’s in sight on the other side. Mother’s in her garden where she snips dead tulip heads and prunes her rose bed. My father’s secluded in his study out back, a room connected to our detached garage. He’s always hunched over a manuscript about John Donne or Milton, deep in thought and taking long puffs on either a Cuban cigar or one of his pipes. Jonathan hotdogs on his bike somewhere in the neighborhood with his friends. He’s older than me by eighteen months and never in trouble. He leaves the back talk and smarty-pants to his little sister. \u003cbr\u003e Nothing here. I nudge the top drawer closed, but a corner of white catches my eye. A crisp piece of paper peeks out from under the plastic drawer liner, printed with miniature roses. \u003cbr\u003e I peel up a corner of the liner.\u003cbr\u003e Lodged under silky slips, under all the softness and the scent of perfume, stashed like a rumpled stowaway in a first-class cabin, I unveil a copy of a typed letter, just a paragraph long.\u003cbr\u003e My neck throbs—boom da boom—my pulse in a loud pump of anticipation all the way into my shoulder muscles. High and tight as usual, my clenched shoulder blades draw in my neck so much it aches. \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Must be important if it’s hidden\u003c\/i\u003e. I already know I’m adopted, so the letter can’t be about that. Maybe it’s about my race, or races. No one’s explained to me why I’m caramel-colored in a white family. \u003cbr\u003e My mother writes to the family attorney: \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Can you please alter Deborah’s birth certificate from the Federal Women’s Prison in Alderson, West Virginia, to Seattle. Nothing good will come from her knowing she lived in the prison before foster care, or that her birth mother was a heroin addict. After all, she was born in our hearts here in Seattle, and if she finds all this out she’ll ask questions about the prison and her foster homes before we adopted her.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Impossible. Read it again. \u003c\/i\u003eEverything blurs.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Foster care? \u003c\/i\u003eI’d no idea about my life before my adoption or even how old I was at the time or where I lived before then.\u003cbr\u003e I read the letter over and over, these new truths forever imprinted into my memory.\u003cbr\u003e I step back a few paces from the dresser and sink into the folded comforter at the end of my parents’ bed.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Prison?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Born in prison? No one’s born in a prison.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e The worst place, the worst of the worst: prison. \u003c\/i\u003eAnd the worst people, from everything I’ve heard in cartoons and seen in magazines and heard from talk.\u003cbr\u003e I tuck the paper back under the liner and float from the dresser into my parents’ bathroom and stare at myself in the mirror over their sink, my body in overload. Time and space distort inside me. I don’t know where I am. My feet seem to lift, my body and brain separated by some wedge, and I’m disconnected from my house, from my neighborhood, from Earth, from humanity.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e It can’t be true. If it is, what’s wrong with me? When people find out,\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003ethen what? Who loves anyone from prison?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e My skin itches as if tiny ants crawl along the bones in my forearms, and I scratch so hard red streaks rise on my skin. I splash water onto my burning face but give up after a while. I can’t wash away what I know isn’t there, but I feel dirty, as if grime coats my cheeks, hot to my hands. Still, I can’t stop splashing my face to rinse the grit from my eyes. My mouth has a sour taste.\u003cbr\u003e Then something sinks in. My “real” mother’s an addict and a criminal. My “real” home is a prison.\u003cbr\u003e The trauma of learning about my birth sends me into a deep dive, an emotional lockdown behind a wall that imprisons me for almost twenty years. The letter forces me into an impossible choice between two mothers, two worlds far apart. One mother behind bars, a criminal, a drug addict, tugs at me, her face and voice buried deep in my subconscious. The other, the mother I face every day, the one who keeps fresh bouquets of flowers on our teak credenza, I don’t connect with this mother.\u003cbr\u003e I’m not hers. Not theirs.\u003cbr\u003e It’s the first and last time I read the letter, and I never see it again. I don’t need to, for every word is etched in my brain, and it’s given me all the proof I need. I’m not the daughter of parents who toss Yiddish quips back and forth, of the mother who spends her Saturday afternoons throwing clay with a pottery teacher, then comes home with darling miniature ceramic vases, the mother who writes poetry with a Mont Blanc fountain pen and uses the same to correct her students’ papers. I’m not the daughter of the mother who cans cherries and whips the best whipped cream ever, the mother who says “I love you, Pet” so many times I want to smack her, the mother who waits for me after my ballet class every Saturday.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Don’t think about it. It’s not true, none of it happened. Not even\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003ethe letter.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Some things we need to unthink and erase, just to endure living.\u003cbr\u003e That night at dinner, everything moves in slow motion as if on a conveyor belt. The voices of my family echo far away, as if from a faint cave. I forget I’ve ever read the letter, forget everything in\u003cbr\u003e it. Gone. Zip. Out of my mind, and it doesn’t show up again until a flash about a month later. Maybe not a month, maybe eight. I forget this too. These new facts about my prison birth never stay in my\u003cbr\u003e brain or anywhere inside me long enough to grasp. But something this big can’t hide for long. Buried secrets live forever, glued to our insides like sticky rice.\u003cbr\u003e I convince myself: “Don’t think of it. Then it’s not true.”\u003cbr\u003e Thus begins more than a decade of emotional lockdown, a feeling I’d experienced before but never understood what it was.\u003cbr\u003e The anguish seeps out of me like poison trapped in a balloon sized blister. \u003cbr\u003e My brain battles as I force it to divorce from reality, the one way to metabolize what I’ve just learned: \u003ci\u003eI was born in prison.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Beacon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300253454565,"sku":"NP9780807098103","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780807098103.jpg?v=1767735133","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/prison-baby-isbn-9780807098103","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}