Joan E. Kaufman

Joan E. Kaufman is an author, adoptee and former Weight Watchers leader.

Call Me Ella is a memoir about Kaufman's twenty-four year search to find her roots. More than just one woman's search for information about the biological mother she believed had died in childbirth, this book explores the mind and feelings of an adopted child. Call Me Ella is a heartwarming and uplifting story about an adoptee who considered her adoptive parents her "real parents," yet wanted to know more. She wanted to know her roots. Her heritage. With a burning desire to have someone who "looked like her," she couldn't wait to marry and have children of her own. She had no idea that her twenty-four year search, which did not begin until after both of her parents had passed away, would involve Sopranos-like tales of organized crime, gambling, and infidelity.

As an adoptee, Ms. Kaufman had been denied her original birth certificate by the State of New Jersey. That didn't stop her from learning about her background.

Kaufman's novel, Who Moved My Cookies?, is loosely based on her experiences as a Weight Watchers leader. It is about a woman who is struggling with her weight and her new marriage. Jessie is afraid that she will lose her husband if she puts on weight. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that her obsession with her weight might actually be pushing him away. Pushing him into the arms of another woman. What will she do? She will get control of her life, even if it means becoming a vegetarian, as soon as she finishes that pint of Ben & Jerry's.