... and Baby Makes Two (38 page)

B:
What's next? Are you going to write about us some more?

JS:
What, you have more to say?

My next book is entitled
Women in Hats,
and it's set in the world of the theater. It's a mother-daughter story, where both are grownups. Mom is a famous actress, a former TV sitcom mom. She has a difficult relationship with her daughter, who is a theater director off-off-Broadway. The daughter gets her big break to direct a Broadway play, but it will star her mother. Ouch.

As for writing more about you, Beth, my best answer is
maybe.
I have an idea for a sequel to this story, which would focus on you, Ariel, and Grace at age thirteen. Jane and Peter are finally going to
get married, and you three girls are sort of thrown together into a forced friendship while you attend a Chinatown summer school. It's about first love, lasting love, friendship, and figuring out who you are. Wow, that sounds like a big book. I'd better get to work on it right now.

The book begins with the image of a Christ Child who awakens a baby hunger in Jane. How does this image change as it recurs in the book? Have you ever experienced a similar encounter? Have other people's children made you want to have children or scared you away from having children of your own?

1. Jane often thinks in terms of lists. What is the significance of the lists, and how do they change through the book? Do you depend on lists in your life?
   

2. Ray undergoes a series of changes throughout the book. Why? How does he complement Jane?
   

3. How do you think Betty would have responded to Jane's decision to adopt a child from China? Do you think she would have reconciled with Sheila in time?
   

4. What kind of mother will Jane be? What will Karen and Teresa be like? Do you think that the three mother characters can maintain a friendship?
   

5. How do you feel about the fact that Jane and Peter are together at the end of the story?
   

6. Have you considered adoption? Why did you decide to or not to adopt?
   

7. Beth asks Judy in the interview portion of this reading group guide why she had Howard overreact to the adoption. Did you agree that Howard overreacted? How do you think you would react if one of your children or friends revealed that they were adopting a baby from another country either as a single parent or otherwise?
   

8. Did you relate to Jane's sudden desire to have a child? Did you experience a similar sensation yourself?
   

9. Do you have friends or family members that do not have children by choice? What factors have gone into their decisions to not have children? How do their decisions and experiences differ from Jane's and what do you think made them choose the opposite path from Jane?
   

10. If you are not a single parent, would you have made the same choice as Jane—to adopt a child on her own? Or is having children something you would only do with a partner?
    

11. If you are a single parent, do you think you responded to the themes in this book in a more or less different way than the other members of your group who are not single parents?
    

Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America
by Adam Pertman. Pertman writes as both a reporter and an adoptive father to create a comprehensive look at adoption in America.

Are Those Kids Yours?: American Families with Children Adopted from Other Countries
by Cheri Register. An adoptive single mother of two Korean kids explores daily life as well as the bigger questions that surround her transracial family.

A Love Like No Other
edited by Pamela Kruger and Jill Smolowe. Twenty adoptive parents share their experiences.

Adoptive Families:
www.adoptivefamilies.com
. The award-winning national adoption magazine is the leading information source for families before, during, and after adoption.

Mei:
www.meimagazine.com
. A bimonthly publication for and about adopted kids, with a special emphasis on Chinese adoptees.

Families With Children from China:
www.fwcc.org
. FCC is a non-denominational organization of families who have adopted children from China. The purpose of FCC is to provide a network of support for families who have adopted in China and to provide information to prospective parents. This site consolidates information that has been put together by the families of FCC in order to make it easier for future parents to consider adopting from China. It also tries to provide pointers to other adoption and China-related resources available on the Web.

Note: there are many local chapters of this organization. Use
www.fwcc.org/contacts.html
to find yours.

Adopting:
www.adopting.org
. This resource is for anyone touched by adoption. The Web features articles, resources, and online discussions.

Adoption Resources:
www.adoptionresources.org
offers resources for adoptive parents and birth parents.

J
UDY
S
HEEHAN
started her career as one of the original cast members and creators of the long-running stage hit
Tony n' Tina's Wedding.
Currently Sheehan is the playwright-in-residence at New York City's prestigious Looking Glass Theatre, which produces her work every season. Excerpts from her plays have appeared in the popular anthologies
Monologues for Women by Women
and
Even More Monologues for Women by Women.
In
2000
, Sheehan joined the growing ranks of adoptive parents when she traveled to China to adopt a ten-month-old girl. She and her daughter, Annie, live in New York City. Sheehan is currently working on her second novel,
Women in Hats.

… And Baby Makes Two
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living
or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright ©
2005
by Judy Sheehan

Reading group guide copyright
2007
by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved.

B
ALLANTINE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. R
EADER'S
C
IRCLE
and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Sheehan, Judy.

And baby makes two : a novel / Judy Sheehan. p. cm.

eISBN 978-0-307-48150-4

1. Single women—Fiction. 2. Childlessness—Fiction. 3. Greenwich
Village (New York, N.Y)—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3619.H439A85 2005

813‘.6—dc22 2005040983

www.thereaderscircle.com

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