Book Review: Allison

Caldecott Medalist Allen Say, who has written about his own family’s connections with both Japan and America, here tells a story of an Asian girl who is processing her growing awareness of her adoption. The plot is simple: Allison is happy to receive an ethnic dress like her doll wears, but grows quiet as she looks at her family in the mirror and notice that the only one who looks like her is her doll. Allison asks where her doll came from, and her father tells how they brought both Allison and her doll back from “a far country”. (Allison … Continue reading

My Favorite Adoption Book Reviews of 2009

Last year, I wrote about my favorite books I reviewed in 2008. Here are favorites from the children’s adoption books I’ve reviewed this year. (These are books which I’ve reviewed here in the Adoption Blog in 2009. They may have been published in prior years.) In My Heart, by Molly Bang, is a wonderful book for any child. It’s a story of her mother telling her child that throughout the various activities of their separate days, he is always in her heart—and his parents, friends and teachers are in his heart too. The child pictured looks Indian or Latino and … Continue reading

Book Review: Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles

Sometimes a book comes along that manages to write about a single experience, but one that is so ubiquitous that we think, “Why didn’t anyone write a book like this before?” Star of the Week: a Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles is based on the authors’ own daughter. She has some unique circumstances not shared by her classmates, but the setting is one almost all kids in early school-age can relate to. I n preschool, kindergarten and early elementary school, a frequent occurrence is for each student to be assigned a week to be the “Star”. They … Continue reading