Book Review: A Mother for Choco

by Pam Connell | More from this Blogger

30 Aug 2009 05:56 PM

A Mother for Choco is a book very popular with adoptive families.

Choco is a young bird who lives all alone and wished he could have a mother. One day, he sets off to find her. First he spies a giraffe, and says, "Oh, Mrs. Giraffe, you are yellow like me! Are you my mother?" Mrs. Giraffe replies, "I'm sorry, but I don't have wings like you." The scene is repeated as Choco finds a penguin with wings, but not large cheeks; a walrus with large cheeks, but no striped feet. Choco "just couldn't find a mother who looked just like him".

When Choco sees Mrs. Bear, he knows she can't be his mother because she has none of his characteristics. But Mrs. Bear hears him crying, "Mommy, Mommy! I Need a Mommy!" and rushes over. She asks him what a mother would do. Choco replies that she would hold him. "Like this?" asks Mrs. Bear, and does so. Choco says a mother would kiss him, and Mrs. Bear does so. Choco says a mommy would sing and dance to cheer him up, and Choco and Mrs. Bear dance.

Finally, Mrs. Bear suggests, "Choco, maybe I could be your mother." Choco exclaims that she doesn't look anything like him, but Mrs. Bear urges him to come to her home for some apple pie. When they arrive, Mrs. Bear's other children rush out to greet them. They are a hippo, an alligator and a pig. Choco joins the family, and is "very happy that his new mommy looked just the way she did".

I have written a previous blog sharing my concerns with books that seem to imply that the child was abandoned and is responsible for finding a parent, rather than that adoption is an adult decision which is never the child's fault, and cannot be done or undone by the child's wishing it. However, many people report that this is a favorite book of their adopted child. Like in the book Little Miss Spider, the message is that a mother is a mother because of how she care for the child, not because she looks like or is "the same as" the child.

Please see these related blogs:

She Just Abandoned Me!

In the Chill of Midwinter

Learn more about Pam Connell

Pam Connell is a mother of three by both birth and adoption. She has worked in education, child care, social services, ministry and journalism.

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