I am always looking for new books that deal with issues of adoption. I picked up Darlene Friedman's STAR OF THE WEEK: A STORY OF LOVE, ADOPTION, AND BROWNIES WITH SPRINKLES. This is the story of Cassidy-Li. As part of being "Star of the Week", Cassidy-Li has to create a poster telling about herself. She adds many things to her poster--including the photo in China when her parents adopted her, she and her cousin at the beach, playing soccer and more. But, she realizes that the one thing that is missing is a picture of her birthparents. I am not a huge fan of "Star of the Week" routines, but I liked this book because it is one of the few that deals with issues adopted children face when doing some of the assigned school projects that are pretty typical. So many classrooms ask students to share baby pictures, create timelines and to make family trees. All of these things, along bring up some unique issues for children who are adopted. This book seems like a good one to start conversations about those issues and how to deal with them in a way that makes sense and respects privacy. Although my 9 year old is a little bit older than the anticipated audience for this book, I am glad to add this one to our shelf at home. It seems like a good one to have on hand to revisit when difficult school projects come up.
I also picked up a copy of TEN DAYS AND NINE NIGHTS, an adoption story by Yumi Heo. I reviewed it here earlier before it was released. It is now available.
You're right -- I do give assignments like that, and I never thought about it from an adopted child's point of view. I do the "history of me" before starting social studies to bring into perspective that we all have history. Something for me to think about...
ReplyDeleteWe're adopting from Ethiopia (http://ethiopiascalling.blogspot.com). Always looking for great adoption picture books. Thanks for this needed post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for raising awareness about this. I am a teacher with two adopted children.
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