"Their reward will be a lovely daughter": The Mobilization of "Hard to Adopt" and the Portrayal of Adoption as a Gift

We analyzed 4300 advertisements of children featured in the Today's Child column, a daily written by Helen Allen in The Toronto Telegram and The Toronto Star 1964–1982, to illustrate the movement of "hard to adopt" children through the network of adoption. Children featured in the column were characterized by adoptable or unadoptable traits and made into objects. Through an actor network theory framework, we understand how the hierarchy of specific characterizations of "hard to adopt" reached the Canadian public.