Three Cheers for PBS!

I was reading my fall edition of Adoptive Families magazine (www.adoptivefamilies.com) and I was thrilled to see an article about the show Arthur. Isaac has long enjoyed PBS Kids shows like Barney, Curious George and Clifford. He also likes Arthur. Well-apparently there is a two-part episode showing in September where one of the characters, Binky Barnes, gets a baby sister from China.

The article said that an episode aired a couple years ago where Arthur's sister DW makes a comment about some letters Arthur is reading. She says "Are those from your real parents?" Adoptive families were in an uproar about this and sent letters to PBS. The producers stated that they did not see anything wrong with the comment. But after Adoptive Families magazine got involved, the Executive Producer of the show saw how harmful that episode was, so through 2 years of research and thought, he came up with "Big Brother Binky" Part I & II. The episodes address real issues of adopting and the aftermath of bringing the child home. Binky gets frustrated by all the crying his baby sister is doing as she adjusts to her surroundings and says to his parents that she is not happy and wants to return to her real home. "This is her real home," says their parents. "When we adopted her, we became her family forever."

Way to go, PBS!! We look forward to taping and watching these episodes for years to come.