By Jean MacLeod, illustrated by Qin Su
“I am nine years old and someone a lot like you. Part of my life has been like a puzzle needing pieces, but I am understanding more about myself and my life everyday. This is my story...”
So begins the honest, lyrical reflection of a pre-adolescent girl on what she knows of her adoption from China, and the strength she gains from her acceptance of her bittersweet experience.
The book addresses the underlying feelings and emotions that color the world of an International adoptee. At Home in This World effectively describes and empowers a young girl looking for acknowledgement, empathy and emotional validation. It also enables pre-teen readers to put their early lives into perspective, while emphasizing the supportive love that encircles them within their own families. Children adopted from other cultures often have one foot in each. This book helps to understand that you need both to stand tall.
What is your life story? Everyone has a one, and with a little detective work you will be certain that no one has a life story as extraordinary as your own...
Jean MacLeod is a free-lance writer who has been published in Adoptive Families Magazine, Adoption Today Magazine and in the adoption essay book "Passage to the Heart". She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English/ Creative Writing from Western Michigan University, and has written a children’s book on adoption that was published by EMK Press in September 2003. Jean has co-developed and facilitated a series of parent education workshops on attachment, transition, trans-racial families and the lifelong core issues of adoptees. She also has a position on the Spaulding for Children Post-Adoption Resource Coalition, and advocates for adoption awareness by providing local, state and national resources to families requiring pre and post-adopt information or assistance. Most recently, Jean accepted a position with the Beijing-based Our Chinese Daughters Foundation, and is Director of the OCDF Institute and Family Outreach.
Jean is the mother of three daughters, two of whom were adopted from China. In her former life as an international flight attendant, she traveled extensively within China and throughout the world; at home Jean drives kids to the ice rink and to Brownie meetings, and heads the Adoption Resource and Support Committee of the Families with Children from China-Metro Detroit chapter.
Illustrator Bio-Qin Su
Qin Su was born in 1950 in Liaoyuan, Jilin Province, China. He has a B.F.A. in Oil Painting, has taught in the Fine Arts Department of Siping Normal College, and has produced the major artwork “Scenes from Beijing” and “The Still Series”. Qin Su is currently preparing for a solo exhibition and working on well-received portraits for foreign art dealers.
Reviews
Adoptive Families Magazine
February, 2004
By Kathy Urbina with help from Wuhan Girls Zoe, Addie, Lea, Maya, Sarah, Victoria, and Marina.
On Sept.28th, 2003 most of the WUHAN GIRLS (Wuhan, Hubei, September 1994 trip and siblings) gathered to celebrate our 9th adoption reunion. We read and discussed AT HOME IN THIS WORLD by Jean MacLeod. This new book tells the story of a 9 year old girl as she reflects on her adoption from China.
The Wuhan Girls all agreed this book provides a good explanation of being left alone and found as a baby in China. It’s hard to understand in your heart how this could happen. Birthparents often think they need a son to take care of them when they’re old and sick, so it’s mostly girls in the orphanages. We all agreed - Mom’s too! – that sometimes this is all very sad. Everyone has found this subject difficult to think and talk about at times.
Before they were adopted, each of the girls in the group had a foster mother. We all remember the foster moms crying and waving on our adoption video and we were sure that they loved the kids. One member of our group had met her foster mother when she visited China. She reported that her foster mother felt very proud and happy to see her again. Everyone expressed a desire, one day, to return and see them again.
Everyone also thought of their birthparents and wished they could meet them and ask them some questions. Some of the things that the girls most wanted to know were:
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Why couldn’t keep me?
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Do I have brothers and sisters?
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Did you give me a name?
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What’s your name?
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How tall are you?
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What kinds of foods do you like?
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How old are you?
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Do you like TV as much as I do?
Just like the story’s main character, the girls felt that they were from two places – here and China.
The Wuhan Girls give this book 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. Everyone felt that the book did a great job of putting into words how they often felt about their story. Many of the girls felt that it helped to show how their similar stories made them special. They wished that the scenes of China were more clearly illustrated, and everyone wanted to know the name of the girl in the story.
They all thought this would be a good book to give their best friends or favorite teachers. By reading this book, they might come to understand how girls adopted from China feel sometimes. The group felt that this book would be much too personal and private to read with their entire class. They worried that a classmate might use it as ammunition for teasing. Without question though, they felt that it was a good book for children adopted from China to know about and read.
The Wuhan Girls recommend you read AT HOME IN THIS WORLD.
Parents note:
This is not an especially easy book to read for preteens. We recommend this book for group readings and discussions. Many of our group had shown little or no interest in the book when read alone at home. We gathered as a group, read each page out loud and paused for discussion. This experience helped our group recognize their shared experience and I think strengthened our common bond. In my family, continuing discussion about this book has been extremely helpful in taking away some of the sting of our sensitive origins. Adoption from China is very much in the public eye and everyone seems to have an opinion about it. If we don't help our kids sort out these complicated issues and feelings, who will?
Richard Fischer
Editor, Adoption TODAY Magazine
“Although birth parent and orphanage language is common around my daughters, reading this book with them gave a green light to their curious minds. Their interest and questions were invaluable to me, and gave me an opportunity to respond and listen to their concerns without being the interrogator. What do think my birthmom looks like Daddy? Can we go to China to see her? Can we ask her to come to our house and visit? This book was more than casual reading to them and presented a sense of discovery to a familiar topic. I took the opportunity this book created to express my sadness over their loss and to reaffirm my love and support for them.”
Cindy Champnella
Adoption Social Worker, author of The Waiting Child
“Finally, the book I have been waiting for! At Home in This World needs to be on the bookshelf of everyone with an adopted child who seeks their own truth. Without sugar coating or undue sentiment, this story will touch the hearts and the sometimes empty places inside of many adoptees. After I read this book to my 7-year old, she clasped it to her and then placed it proudly in the spot where she keeps all her special treasures. That, in and of itself, is a remarkable endorsement of this powerful story.”
Gail Steinberg & Beth Hall
Directors, PACT an Adoption Alliance
“At Home in This World gets deep into the heart of an adopted child’s feelings in an unsentimental and easy to identify with way. Respectful of the emotionally evocative issues naturally raised by the transition from China to the United States, the book’s responses are reassuring and realistic and will resonate for all adopted children, not just those adopted from China. This is a book which will jump start important conversations about what it really feels like to grow up adopted from a child’s perspective. Highly Recommended.”
Dr. Jane Leidtke
Founder and CEO, Our Chinese Daughters Foundation
"At Home in This World illustrates through beautiful images and a child’s voice how important it is for children to understand their emotions about the circumstances surrounding their adoption."
Dr. Kay Johnson
China researcher and author "Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son".
"I highly recommend this book, especially for pre-teen children who are just beginning to think more deeply about issues raised by international adoption. The watercolors are beautiful, the concept is excellent and the narrative well written and very strong. At Home in This World will help older children think about the issues surrounding their abandonment and adoption and may help many of them articulate their own ideas and feelings. I especially like that this story is told through the voice of an older child rather than an omniscient narrator or parent. It invites the reading child to identify with the narrator and leaves room for the child to spin the story as she wishes. An important contribution to the emerging literature written for internationally-adopted children."
Lynne Lyon, MSW
Adoptive Mom and Founder of Attach-China.org
“More than anything, our adopted children crave knowledge of and connection to their unknown past. Often we cannot provide that because of the lack of factual information. However, we might avoid talking about the difficult truths of losing their birth families because not only do we want to avoid causing our children any pain, we want to avoid feeling the pain that our children already carry with them. This gentle, yet truthful children's book acknowledges our children's difficult life transitions and invites children and their parents on a journey towards discussion and openness.”
A Parent from Louisville, KY
“Our family has a number of friends with adopted children, many of whom are from China. This was the perfect book for my nearly nine year old daughter to read. It answered questions that I have been unable to answer. "At Home in this World" clearly illustrates the issues faced by adoptive children. The book has given my daughter a lesson in compassion that I couldn't have given her. She was able to relate to the young girl in the book through the eyes of her close friends from China. The author was most sensitive in her description of the missing pieces that these young people feel. I highly recommend this book. ”
Book Details
Reinforced Hardbound with dust jacket, acid free paper
ISBN: 0-9726244-1-4
LCCN: 2003107585
size: 9 x 6"
32 pages with watercolor illustrations
MSRP $15.95
Ages 6-9+ and perfect for educators with adoptive children in their classrooms
This book is available at www.emkpress.com, Amazon, Tapestry Books, Chinasprout, Adoptshoppe, Emily’s Books, Baker & Taylor, Quality Books, Broadart, Meklin Library Media, special order at Barnes and Noble and Borders, or by special order from your local independent bookstore.
For larger versions of our cover images suitable for full color printing, please visit http://www.emkpress.com/about.html and scroll down.
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EMK Press • 16 Mt Bethel Road, #219 • Warren, NJ • 07059
732-469-7544 • 732-469-7861fax • info@emkpress.com
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