It is National Adoption Week in Australia from 10th -17th November. This week is designed to raise community awareness of adoption and the issues surrounding it in Australia. It aims to increase insight and empathy, remove the stigma, and work towards a more positive adoption environment because every child has the right to a family. The figures on the website show that the number of adoptions in Australia is decreasing but there are still a large number of children in need of positive and permanent homes. The subject of adoption is not one I have thought about at length, but lately I have had reason to search in my library for books for families and teachers on just this topic. Presently there are at least six children at school who have been adopted from overseas and they do like to see themselves in stories. This was brought home to me while I was reading a group of Year 2s, Randall Jarrell's The Animal Family and one of the students wrote a very moving piece in her journal making text to self connections between herself and the bear cub who the hunter and mermaid 'adopt'.
I was surprised how many books were in the library that could be used to discuss adoption, so I have put them together on a pinterest page.
Thanks! I was wondering if you could recommend any middle-grade chapter books on this topic. My 8-year-old suddenly has a lot of questions about adoptions (she is not adopted): do the adoptive parents and child keep in touch with the birth mother? (sometimes) does the birth mother get to choose the adoptive parents? (sometimes) what if the adoptive parents raise the child in a religion or culture different from that of the birth mother? etc. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI don't have a ready list of chapter books on the topic that will answer any let alone all of these questions. There is a book in the Just Grace series called Just Grace and the Double Surprise by Charise Mericle Harper that might elicit conversation with your daughter. Pinballs by Betsy Byars although about foster children also has plenty to talk about.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't expect a single or even several books to answer those questions! They were just examples of the kinds of issues she has been bringing up and I think that fiction might be a great way to approach them. Thanks for your suggestions!
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