In recent years more children have been adopted from Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Bloc countries than from any other region of the world. Yet until now, there have been no picture books designed to tell their stories of finding a forever family through adoption.
Long time social worker Joan McNamara has ably filled that gap with a new children’s book that acknowledges the sense of security and comfort that many children have with the “familiar” in their daily life in an orphanage compared to the unknowns of a new adoptive family. This delightful book gently illustrates some of the confusion children feel when they are removed from the multiple caretakers and groups of children whom they know within their (often deprived) orphanages and are moved into a loving but unfamiliar new family with a sensory-enriched (but possibly overwhelming) home environment. With their whole world turned upside down, children are still able to struggle to make sense of these changes and ultimately blossom within a new family, with a parent or parents who will be theirs forever.
A good introduction for young, recently arrived children, this unique book will also become an often-used conversation starter for slightly older children ready to talk about their prior lives, their prior caretakers and companions, and what adoption has meant in their young lives.
Author: Joan McNamara
Publication Year: 2005
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