What’s a Hoot?
Hoots are the rating system we use to rate various media that we review for foster and adoptive families. A piece of media has the opportunity to get 5 total hoots awarded to it. Hoots take into account the overall quality of the media but weigh more heavily on the usefulness that the item will pose to a foster/adoptive family in helping them to nurture and grow. Consequently, the best children’s book of the year may receive a low Hoot score if it does not show anyway to help foster/adoptive parents care for the children in their home.
One Hoot:
AVOID
Transfiguring Adoption believes this media will have a low impact (if any) for nurturing your family. Media in this category tends to be seen as lower quality (i.e. “Cheesy” storyline, poor illustrations, B-rated movie class, etc.) Media in this category may contain elements which will be harmful or have a negative impact on your family or clash with your child’s past trauma.
Two Hoots:
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Transfiguring Adoption believes this media will have some impact for nurturing your family. The quality of the product is more than likely adequate. Media in this category may contain trauma triggers or have elements which are not beneficial to your family. Transfiguring Adoption is suggesting that parents take a look at the media before releasing it to the children in their care.
Three Hoots:
STARTING POINT
Transfiguring Adoption believes this media will have a good impact on assisting you to nurture your family. The quality of the products in this category is what we want to see as the BASELINE standard for all media for our families. Items in this category are more than likely products we would begin to consider purchasing. We DO NOT see this category as neutral because it’s in the middle. Media in this category more than like contained an element which we believe strongly needed to be examined before caregivers release it to their children. This category may also have simply had elements (graphics, illustrations, storyline, etc.) of which were not as high of quality as other media sources.
Four Hoots:
GREAT
Transfiguring Adoption believes this media will have an above average impact on assisting you to nurture your family. The quality of the media in this class will be palpable for the senses and perform well for holding your attention and immersing you into the media. There is a good chance that our staff would suggest purchasing these products. In fact some mainstream items might be found in this category simply because they do not directly relate to the topic of foster care or adoption. This category may contain cautionary elements, which parents will need to be available to have a healthy and open dialogue about with their children.
Five Hoots:
PERFECT
This is the highest honor that Transfiguring Adoption will award a piece of media. An item in this category will perform superbly in assisting you to nurture and grow your foster or adoptive family. Likewise the quality of the product will be top notch. Transfiguring Adoption will only consider media that directly addresses the issues of adoption or foster care in this category – in other words you won’t find media that simply discusses a general topic like making friends, lying at school or hurting someone’s feels. Items in this category are ones that would be perfect to be housed in your media library at home.