Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles Deborah Stevenson Friedman, Darlene . Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles; illus. by Roger Roth. Bowen/HarperCollins, 200932p. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-06-114137-9$18.89 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-114136-2$17.99 R 6-9 yrs "Star of the Week is when you bring in a poster that's all about YOU," explains Cassidy-Li, our narrator. As she pulls together her family pictures, Cassidy-Li, a transracial adoptee, revisits her past as a baby in China and touches on the ways in which she remains connected to that part of her life (Chinese school, orphanage reunions) as she discusses more generally common life experiences (best friends, relatives, pets). She observes with modest regret that she has no picture of her birthparents, about whom she thinks a great deal, but she solves that problem by drawing a portrait of them to include in her poster. Though this is more message-driven than story-powered, the exploration of an adoptee's concerns is realistic, and it expands naturally and calmly into some delicate territory. The acknowledgment of the importance of birth parents is helpful, especially since adoption books often glide past the question of origins, and there's useful modeling of ways to approach the subject both with and for the adoptee ("I don't like to talk about it sometimes. Mom and Dad say I can tell people it's private if I want to"). Roth (husband of author Friedman) brings a cozy, unassuming realism to his pencil and watercolor illustrations, and the "photos" are particularly lively and believable; they also serve to effectively place Cassidy-Li's origins in perspective as a part, not the whole, of her multifaceted life. This is a sympathetic approach for youngsters not yet ready for Cummings' Three Names for Me (BCCB 12/06), and it will help clarify some aspects of adoption to kids who've been there, kids who haven't, and adults looking for a way into the conversation. There's no note, but the jacket information implies that the book draws on the author and illustrator's own family experience. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois