As the sun rises over North America, four diverse households greet the day anticipating the same great event. At the same time, the moon rises over China, and four little ones go to sleep. They are dressed exactly alike, but Wu Li sleeps on her back with “her arms stretched wide like the branches of a tree”. Qian Ye yawns and curls into a ball. Li Shen snuggles on her side; Chun Mei Ni rolls over and smiles in her sleep. The girls have their own delicate features too, shown in the illustrations by Meilo So, which are simple yet convey a wealth of detail.
A redheaded woman in Minnesota, two women on an island near Seattle, a casual, colorful couple from Florida, and a Japanese-Canadian couple in a Toronto apartment all begin their journeys. We see their different reactions to their excitement, ranging from prayer and journaling to reading baby books to scarfing several bags of airline peanuts. A woman practices saying “I love you” in Chinese, while her husband wonders if the toddler will love them.
The travelers arrive in China at night and immediately take a long bus ride to another city. Then they catch another bus to the White Swan hotel—“the White Swan Express”, the bus driver jokes. (The White Swan is an actual hotel used by many adoptive parents.)
Next morning, the travelers are escorted through a marketplace, where they buy bracelets with bells, a traditional birth gift for a baby girl in China. They are led through streets filled with bicycles to a government building, where workers from the orphanage bring their babies. (Two of the girls are actually toddlers, a piece of reality which I enjoyed seeing in this book.)
The joyous meeting is shown, along with the well-wishes received from several Chinese persons the families meet. The book concludes with holiday cards the families send each other, with pictures of their children.
Author Elaine Aoki based this book on her experiences of adopting in China. (Her co-author Jean Davies Okimoto is the daughter of an adoptee.)
There is a page of notes at the end of this book about Chinese adoption.
Note: This book was published in 2002. Since then, China has changed its rules. Like Korea, China now permits only married couples to adopt.
My six and nine-year-old daughters enjoyed the book, even though they are from Korea, were in foster care not an orphanage, and had a different adoption procedure. My nine-year-old spontaneously commented on the diversity among the adopting families.
“It shows that all kinds of people can adopt,” she said.
The book does show a household of two women preparing to receive an adopted child. The book avoids stereotypes—one of these women is the one who wears a cross necklace, and she and the Jewish single mother both pray during their long journey.
To purchase The White Swan Express, click here.
Please see these related blogs:
Kids’ Books on Adoption from China