Book Buds Kidlit Reviews

Adoption and the ties that bind

The Red Thread
by Grace Lin

Albert Whitman & Company

For those who don't follow blogs much, Grace Lin is the darling of the kidlitosphere, with a reputation for being one of the kindest people in a field already chock-a-block with gentle souls. Really, what mean person ever wrote for little kids?

Lin often draws on her own life as a Taiwanese-American, offering glimpses into the struggle to straddle two cultures, and she always manages a certain, well, grace to her spare prose and illustrations.

She recently lost her husband to cancer, and many bloggers -- myself included -- are taking up a fundraising cause in his memory. I say this in the interest of full disclosure, though Grace and I aren't personally acquainted.

Throat-clearing aside, this is a more melancholy story of longing and sacrifice than I might've expected, so prepare your heartstrings for some gentle tugging before a well-earned Happily Ever After. The story takes its name from a Chinese legend that a red thread binds all those who are destined to be together.

When a medieval king and queen feel pain in their hearts, really more of a pang, a magic pair of spectacles reveals this thread. They're forced to follow it across a frozen countryside, untangling it from branches and spooling it as they cross the ocean to China and a waiting baby girl.

Lin makes the parable to modern-day adoptions plain with opening and closing scenes showing a Chinese-American girl asking her Anglo parents to read her favorite story (this book, of course). At the end, they're also wearing toy crowns. I'd almost argue that this framing device wasn't necessary, except that I know Lin's natural empathy for families and her gift for portraying their dynamics with great optimism and affection.

The biggest achievement, however, is that the fairy tale format takes a difficult subject -- what is adoption, why do people adopt -- and makes it vivid and somehow more real, where a factual explanation would fall flat.

Rating: *\*\*\

Bringing home that bundle of Joy

A Celebration: The Year of the Boar begins Feb. 18th

Finding Joy
by Marion Coste; illustrated by Yong Chen

I put off reviewing this book because I knew it would make me teary. I was wrong. I wept.

Y'see, the hubby and I talk about adopting a baby from China. We know we're a few years and many dollars away from acting on our dream, so it's just talk for now. Talk, and an emotional obsession for both of us.

This story pairs one abandoned little girl, Shu-Li, found under a bridge wrapped in a red blanket, and one older American couple whose children have grown. Under new rules, these parents might not be allowed to adopt, so it's twice as heartbreaking for me to turn the pages, wondering if I'll ever have the same opportunity.

Chen's watercolors are all soft focus and sunlit, awash in optimism and good feeling. The couple renames the child Joy, and there's no reason to think she didn't live up to her name. This is a good book for adopted kids, or for teaching about foreign adoptions.

Or, you know, if you're in need of a good cry.

Rating: *\*\