I don't know that I've seen a book directly about foster care and adoption that addressed the actual realities so specifically before. It's unsettling, but very well done, and very needed.
Elliot
Julie Pearson, illustrated by Manon Gauthier
ISBN: 9781927485859
Read August 2016
Elliot is a small bunny who has parents who don't know how to care for him, so he lives with different families instead.
In scratchy drawings and minimalist backgrounds, we learn about Elliot. "His mother and father loved him very much. BUT... When Elliot cried, his mother and father did not understand why. When Elliot yelled, his mother and his father did not know what to do. When Elliot misbehaved, his mother and father did not know how to react." So they ask for help from Thomas the social worker, and Elliot goes to stay with other families while his parents try to learn to care for him. He stays with one family for a while, and then goes back home, but then has to go to another family, and eventually Thomas explains that his mother and father will never know how to take care of him, so Thomas will find a forever family for Elliot.
What I really like here is that the text specifically ties Elliot's fears and worries and anticipation into his misbehavior (or desire to misbehave) because that is actually true, and something that normal attached families and children have a hard time understanding. I also like the scratchy informal artwork, that looks like it could have been drawn by a child, and the focus on Elliot and keeping his needs met and making sure he's informed of the process, while very specifically not giving him any power over how the situation unfolds: it's not because Elliot misbehaves or does anything, it's all based on his parents and on the decisions Thomas makes.
Very good resource, and I'm very glad to have it.
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2016
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Adopted Families
Another super-specific storytime theme, just because I had the books to do it with. I've read both A Mother for Choco and Little Miss Spider before, with different storytimes.
A Mother for Choco
Keiko Kasza
ISBN: 0399218416
Adorable, soft-edged anthropomorphic animal mothers, and a cute yellow and blue bird.
Choco is an adorable motherless bird, who is searching the world for his mother. He finds various animals that look like him in different ways: Mrs. Giraffe is yellow like he is, Mrs. Walrus (grumpy!) has puffy cheeks like his, but all of them kindly point out their differences and demur - that is, until Choco sees Mrs. Bear. He isn't even going to ask her - even he can tell she looks nothing like him, but she comforts him and asks him how a mother would act. After meeting her other three children (spoiler alert: a pig, a hippo, and an alligator), Choco realizes that love and kindness are more important in a mother than physical appearance. Cute and just on the edge of moralizing - a line Kasza walks very well.
We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families
Todd Parr
ISBN: 978036016681
Faux-childish stick figures in vibrant nonrealistic primary colors illustrate various families.
I have to admit that I'm slightly ashamed of myself, because part of the reason I prefer this to Parr's other "family" book is that this one has all of the non-traditional family arrangements safely in the illustrations, not in the text. I'm a wimp, I know, but I live in South Carolina. One must pick battles and fight the long fight. Besides, this book is delightful even so - the text is lovely. There are pairs of pages - a child on one "You needed x" and people on the other "We had x to give" followed by a spread that unites them as a family with a simple statement of love. Example: A page of a purple child with glasses, imagining a dog. "We belong together because you needed a friend." Facing page, an orange person with wild hair standing in front of an animal shelter with a similar dog in the window. "and I knew where to find one." Next spread, The two people playing catch with the previously imagined dog "We all needed someone to play catch with." Simple, powerful, and true-hearted without being sappy.
Little Miss Spider
David Kirk
ISBN: 0439083893
Miss Spider's childhood is just as interesting as her adult life!
David Kirk's Miss Spider is one of the only spider books I can actually read and enjoy without any niggling phobia-related nerves or jumpy sensations. She's cute and small and essentially two yellow dots with anime-eyes. Here we learn about her childhood. Born with her zillion brothers and sisters, Little Miss Spider is the only child who is interested in finding her mother - they all scatter, and she's left alone to search, but not for long, as Betty the Beetle comes by and offers to help the sad child. The text is printed at a HUGE size, and the rhymes are short and simple, as the duo look for a missing mother. A betrayal by a mean fat spider (why did it have to be fat, one wonders) means peril, but Betty comes to the rescue once again, and offers to be an interim mother. A moral epilogue at the end is addressed directly to readers, advising them to look for mothers in the "creature that loves you best."
A Mother for Choco
Keiko Kasza
ISBN: 0399218416
Adorable, soft-edged anthropomorphic animal mothers, and a cute yellow and blue bird.
Choco is an adorable motherless bird, who is searching the world for his mother. He finds various animals that look like him in different ways: Mrs. Giraffe is yellow like he is, Mrs. Walrus (grumpy!) has puffy cheeks like his, but all of them kindly point out their differences and demur - that is, until Choco sees Mrs. Bear. He isn't even going to ask her - even he can tell she looks nothing like him, but she comforts him and asks him how a mother would act. After meeting her other three children (spoiler alert: a pig, a hippo, and an alligator), Choco realizes that love and kindness are more important in a mother than physical appearance. Cute and just on the edge of moralizing - a line Kasza walks very well.
We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families
Todd Parr
ISBN: 978036016681
Faux-childish stick figures in vibrant nonrealistic primary colors illustrate various families.
I have to admit that I'm slightly ashamed of myself, because part of the reason I prefer this to Parr's other "family" book is that this one has all of the non-traditional family arrangements safely in the illustrations, not in the text. I'm a wimp, I know, but I live in South Carolina. One must pick battles and fight the long fight. Besides, this book is delightful even so - the text is lovely. There are pairs of pages - a child on one "You needed x" and people on the other "We had x to give" followed by a spread that unites them as a family with a simple statement of love. Example: A page of a purple child with glasses, imagining a dog. "We belong together because you needed a friend." Facing page, an orange person with wild hair standing in front of an animal shelter with a similar dog in the window. "and I knew where to find one." Next spread, The two people playing catch with the previously imagined dog "We all needed someone to play catch with." Simple, powerful, and true-hearted without being sappy.
Little Miss Spider
David Kirk
ISBN: 0439083893
Miss Spider's childhood is just as interesting as her adult life!
David Kirk's Miss Spider is one of the only spider books I can actually read and enjoy without any niggling phobia-related nerves or jumpy sensations. She's cute and small and essentially two yellow dots with anime-eyes. Here we learn about her childhood. Born with her zillion brothers and sisters, Little Miss Spider is the only child who is interested in finding her mother - they all scatter, and she's left alone to search, but not for long, as Betty the Beetle comes by and offers to help the sad child. The text is printed at a HUGE size, and the rhymes are short and simple, as the duo look for a missing mother. A betrayal by a mean fat spider (why did it have to be fat, one wonders) means peril, but Betty comes to the rescue once again, and offers to be an interim mother. A moral epilogue at the end is addressed directly to readers, advising them to look for mothers in the "creature that loves you best."
Friday, December 12, 2014
New Arrivals: Picture Book: Dragon's Extraordinary Egg, Debi Gliori
Too cute for words.
Dragon's Extraordinary Egg
Debi Gliori
ISBN: 9780802737595
First published in UK as "Dragon Loves Penguin"
Textural, close-up views, colorful drawn characters reminds strongly of Mo Willems' Pigeon books.
A penguin is telling her young chick a bedtime story. This story is epic and filled with mystery and fantasy - a clan of dragons lives on top of a frozen volcano, while penguins live down below on the ice. An eggless dragon spies an abandoned egg on the ice, adopts it, raises it, and teaches the very undragon-like creature (spoilers: its a penguin) how to live happily among dragons, until one day when the penguin notices a certain change in the temperature that the thicker-scaled siblings and friends don't notice. At the end, a character returns in a surprise cameo, revealing a much closer relationship between the current happily-listening chick and the amazing story (or history) being told.
A bit on the long side for storytime, sadly. It's hard to get adoption-friendly stories that aren't polemics or utterly treacly (sorry, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, but the shoe fits) or really specific. This one is just cute and outre enough to be enjoyable for most kids, but with a special pop of meaning for anyone adopted (or really, anyone who feels like they just don't fit in with their family).
Dragon's Extraordinary Egg
Debi Gliori
ISBN: 9780802737595
First published in UK as "Dragon Loves Penguin"
Textural, close-up views, colorful drawn characters reminds strongly of Mo Willems' Pigeon books.
A penguin is telling her young chick a bedtime story. This story is epic and filled with mystery and fantasy - a clan of dragons lives on top of a frozen volcano, while penguins live down below on the ice. An eggless dragon spies an abandoned egg on the ice, adopts it, raises it, and teaches the very undragon-like creature (spoilers: its a penguin) how to live happily among dragons, until one day when the penguin notices a certain change in the temperature that the thicker-scaled siblings and friends don't notice. At the end, a character returns in a surprise cameo, revealing a much closer relationship between the current happily-listening chick and the amazing story (or history) being told.
A bit on the long side for storytime, sadly. It's hard to get adoption-friendly stories that aren't polemics or utterly treacly (sorry, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, but the shoe fits) or really specific. This one is just cute and outre enough to be enjoyable for most kids, but with a special pop of meaning for anyone adopted (or really, anyone who feels like they just don't fit in with their family).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)