An affirming story about international adoption, based on the author's own experience with her daughter.
A magical, reassuring story of one adoptive family's beginnings, told in words and pictures that are just right for the youngest child.
From the Publisher
Both text and pictures are suffused with anticipation and joyful welcome at the baby's arrival.” —Kirkus Reviews, pointer“An ebullient tribute for families whose members may have come from a faraway place.” —Publishers Weekly
“Katz's exuberance is contagious, bursting forth to make this as sunny as a warm summer day.” —Booklist
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
There is a contagious exuberance to newcomer Katz's playfully stylized collage, gouache and colored pencil illustrations, which display a vibrant palette and all the energy of a flamenco dance. The story, too, has a joyous ring, as it follows a couple's airplane trip "over the moon and through the night" to a "faraway place" where they adopt a baby girl. The story has ample measures of fantasy (on the night their baby is born, the soon-to-be mom and dad each dream of the baby they had been "longing for") and lyricism (lying on a blanket watching the stars, the couple tell the baby, "You grew like a flower in another lady's tummy until you were born"). The artwork accentuates the joy that bursts from the parents-to-be: when the happy phone call comes saying the baby has been born, they float above the town like Chagall characters. With its poetic flair and fanciful art, Katz's treatment is an interesting contrast to Allen Say's Allison (see review below), which presents the adoption issue from a more forthright perspective. Inspired by the author's own daughter, who was adopted from Central America, this is an ebullient tribute for families whose members may have come from a faraway place. Ages 2-8. (Sept.)
Children's Literature - Jeanne K. Pettenati
This colorful adoption tale illustrates the journey traveled by adoptive parents to meet their daughter and become a family. The journey begins when a baby is born and her parents dream about her before they actually meet her. The book depicts the sheer joy and the intensity of love these parents feel when finally united with their long awaited child. The book's message is that adoption is a wonderful and permanent way to create a family. "Forever and always we will be your mommy and daddy. Forever and always you will be our child," the baby's parents tell her. The bright illustrations, characterized by magical realism, are reminiscent of an island adventure. This tale is an appealing choice for adoption libraries.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 1Bright, fanciful folk-art illustrations set the mood for (but occasionally get in the way of) this loving story of adoption. The smoothly flowing text is reassuring throughout, reflecting the joy of the new parents and ending with the "forever and always" that is the promise of adoption. The foster parents ("the kind people who had taken care of her") are pictured. The first day includes the first telling of the adoption story to the baby girl, "You grew like a flower in another lady's tummy." However, the first couple of illustrations are problematic. On the first spread, a baby is shown alone on a hillside sitting on a beanbag cloud with a city in the distance. The text states: "Once upon a time a teeny-tiny baby was born." Babies aren't born alone on hillsides, and even though this one is smiling, the picture doesn't seem reassuring. Adopted children need to know that they were born like other children, and did not appear magically without human connection. Also, though the text realistically recounts the new parents' first-day nervousness, the baby is pictured as smiling throughout instead of showing a range of reactions to different activities and situations.Nancy Schimmel, formerly at San Mateo County Library, CA
Kirkus Reviews
A happy, colorful book about a man and woman dreaming of their soon-to-be-born adopted baby, receiving the news of her birth, and flying to the "faraway place" where they meet their child. Based on Katz's experience adopting a Central American infant and bright with mixed-media illustrations suggestive of folk art, this is a book for adults to use with children who were adopted in similar circumstances. The message is reassuring: "Forever and always we will be your mommy and daddy. Forever and always you will be our child." The birth mother is gently described as another lady in whose tummy "you grew like a flower," but who "wasn't able to take care of you, so Mommy and Daddy came to adopt you and bring you home." The baby has dark hair like the mother's and dark eyes like both parents' but with duskier skin than either. As in Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell's Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (1996), both text and pictures are suffused with anticipation and joyful welcome at the baby's arrival.
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