The Lucky Ones: Our Stories of Adopting Children from China

edited by Ann Rauhala and foreword by Jan Wong

ECW, 2008

Recommended readers – Adults

Cautions: All clear

Description from publisher:

What a lucky girl!” Everybody who has adopted a daughter from China has heard that one. And every parent has said, or thought, in reply: “No, we’re the lucky ones.” This anthology sets out to explain why people who have adopted children from China feel as though they’ve won the lottery.

Since the late 1980s, as many as 7,000 Chinese-born girls have been adopted annually and now live in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. They are officially orphans, victims of a rigorous birth control policy limiting most families to one child. These thousands of girls have formed an international Diaspora, a human wave with no exact parallel and yet numerous points of comparison – sharing issues with war orphans from Vietnam or even with Chinese workers who built the New World’s railroads.

The memoirs collected in The Lucky Ones are organized beginning with infertility, moving to acceptance of a multiracial family, anticipating the adoption, reflecting during the trip to China and, at last, grappling with an odd destiny – turning terrible beginnings into happy endings.

The story of these girls is compelling as a narrative of hope and optimism but it may also become a story of dislocation and crisis of identity. These baby immigrants add unusual texture to the lives of the families they join – they come here not by choice but by someone else’s design.

Kiwi Magazine Review

Each of these 22 stories is unique and beautiful. Adoptive parents share the joy, the challenge, the love and the sadness of becoming parent to another mother’s child. Anyone who wants a more personal look at everything from the decision to adopt to the blending of a new family must read this book. It will make you smile, cry and admire these wonderful families who are willing to give us a window into the world of adopting a child from China.

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We Belong Together: A Book about Adoption and Families by Todd Parr

Little, Brown, 2008

Recommended readers – 4-8

Cautions: All clear

Description from publisher:

In a kid-friendly, accessible way, this book explores the ways that people can choose to come together to make a family. It’s about sharing your home and sharing your heart to make a family that belongs together.

Kiwi Magazine Review

Todd Parr has now written books about every aspect of a family. With his color-blasted stick figures and simple text, the loving messages of blending families and belonging together are perfect. Todd’s colors tell us love is color blind. His words tell us how simple it is to join us when one has a need and another can fill it. This is a joyful, beaming book that must be shared.

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Rebecca’s Journey Home by Brynn Olenberg Sugarman


illustrated by Michelle Shapiro

Kar-Ben, 2006

Recommended readers – 4-9

Cautions: None

Description from publisher:

Two young Jewish brothers eagerly await the arrival of their new baby sister from Vietnam. A picture book story of a little girl’s journey to a new land, culture, and family.

Kiwi Magazine Review

This book is a lovely story of the blending of a Jewish family and their traditions with a newly adopted daughter (and sister) from Vietnam. The family’s excitement and anticipation about their new member is told warmly and genuinely by the author who adopted her daughter Rachele from Vietnam.

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Motherbridge of Love Illustrated by Josée Masse (Barefoot Books)

Barefoot Books, 2007

Recommended readers – 4-10

Cautions: None

Description from publisher:

This beautiful poem celebrates the bond between parent and child in a special way. Through the exchanges between a little Chinese girl and her mother, Motherbridge of Love offers a poignant and inspiring message to parents and children all over the world.

Text royalties from the sale of this Barefoot book will be donated to Mother Bridge of Love, a charity that reaches out to Chinese children all over the world in order to develop a connection between China and the West, and between adoptive culture and birth culture.

Kiwi Magazine Review

Break out the tissues for this lovely poem about the two sides of love: the love of a birth and an adoptive mother. “Once there were two women who never knew each other. One you do not know. The other you call mother.” Richly illustrated and deeply touching, this book will span decades.

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