Tag: adoption

The Unadoptables

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Milou, Egg, Lotta, Sem, and Fenna live together in Little Tulip Orphanage. All five of them were left at the orphanage the same summer, twelve years ago. Some are waiting for their birth families to come back to get them; others are waiting for new parents to bring them to a new home. But when a shady sea captain comes and offers to adopt all of them, they can sense that something is wrong with him. They decide to run away before he can get them – and so begins an epic adventure involving a windmill, puppets, and the chance to start a new family of their own.

Favorite Passage:

“Milou?” The voice seemed both familiar and new, raspy and quiet.
“Milou?” The next voice was more recognizable, sweet and soft.
“Milou?” The last voice was like home.
— Thirty
[This passage was quoted from an ARC; as such, it may change before final publication.]

What I Loved Most:

Tooke uses such an engaging and rich writing style in crafting this story. You can’t help but love each of the five main characters featured in this book. They have such strong bonds that they’ve formed in their time together in the orphanage. Each has their own strengths – Lotta is a mathematician and engineer, Sem is creative and great at sewing, Egg has geography and cartography skills, Fenna is kind, and Milou is imaginative. There’s a great balance of adventure and genuine friendships, so there’s something that every reader will find appealing in this book.

Read this book if you like:

Found families, overcoming adversity, low-key mysteries, strong relationships

Book Details:

  • Author: Hana Tooke
  • Publisher: Viking/Penguin Random House (Thank you for the ARC!)
  • Date of Publication: July 23, 2020
  • Age Recommendation: Grades 4-7
  • Look up The Unadoptables on Worldcat to find it at a library near you!

 

Rock Needs River

~ rachelbenzine ~ 1 Comment

Review:

Vanessa McGrady was pretty sure she wanted to be a mom… eventually. Before she knew it, she was in her forties and realized that she was ready to have a baby. After miscarriages and infertility struggles, she decided she would be open to adoption. It took a two-year journey, but she describes the adoption of her daughter, Grace, as a miracle. And when Grace’s biological parents experienced homelessness, Vanessa invited them to stay with her. Rock Needs River is McGrady’s memoir about family, in biological and adoptive and non-traditional forms.

My husband and I are planning to adopt children one day, so I have been devouring all the books I can find for the last couple years about adoption. The concept of Rock Needs River caught my attention right away, and I couldn’t wait to read it. It was a very quick read – I read it on a flight from Minneapolis to Orlando. Although it focused more on McGrady’s life than I had originally thought from reading the description (with almost half describing Vanessa’s pre-adoption life, and the rest discussing her adoption journey and post-adoption life), I still enjoyed this book.

Favorite Passage:

I knew from all my adoption training and subsequent learning that the original separation wound is something that heals to various degrees in different people, but it is always there – I could never truly, entirely remove the scar Grace carries from growing inside one mother and being handed to another. But I spend every moment of every day wanting to be the biggest star in her life. The one who loves her the most. The one she loves the most. It is torture for me to imagine my life without her, or hers without me.
— Chapter Thirteen

What I Loved Most:

McGrady says that this book is a love letter to her daughter, chronicling the journey of Grace becoming part of her family. She shares the good parts of her and Grace’s relationships with Grace’s biological parents, as well as the tough parts of having an open adoption. At the conclusion of the book, McGrady is no longer in contact with Grace’s biological parents, but she says that she is open to reconnecting with them in the future. The relationship between adoptive parents and biological parents in an open adoption can be messy and hard and beautiful, and I appreciate McGrady not shying away from describing the tough moments as well as the great moments.

Read this book if you like:

Stories about non-traditional families, memoirs, learning about parenthood, understanding why people make the decisions they do

Book Details: