Rating: Buy it or borrow it!
Swift, Gayle and Swift, Casey. ABC Adoption & Me. Illustrated by Wesley Blauvelt. 2019. 38p. Gayle Swift, $13.99 (9781733659741) Recommended Grade Levels K-2.
This picture book written for younger adoptee readers is an ABC book with words related to adoption. At the beginning of the book, the authors provide context framing their approach to writing the book through adoption attunement encouraging families to read the book with the adoptee, and raising conversations around adoption. The illustrations represent children with cartoon-like sketches of different ages and racial identities. There is lots of color and imagination throughout the pages. Letters like K for kisses represent lots of joy and others like M for miss, acknowledge the complex feelings of adoption. There are also representations of the birth family and birth mother. This picture book for young readers provides a mirror, and window, and can be the beginning of establishing important conversations throughout the adoptee’s life.
Perspectives: Co-written by adoptive mom and adoptee, this book is written through their lived experience and practices as educators.
Practice: There is a “How to use this book” section and a list of elements of adoption attunement that are both valuable for adoptive families. I could also see this book being used in a clinical setting. Though the ABC words may not all have been the ones I would have picked, I think this book is one of the only adoptee ABC books I know with child representation and acknowledging a fuller perspective of the adoption experience.
The Adoptee Bookshelf 