Carolyn’s Story is told from the viewpoint of the author’s nine-year-old daughter, who was adopted from Honduras when she was a baby. The book is longer than most adoption picture books and will appeal to somewhat older children than picture books, although younger children will be engaged by the photos and simple narration.
The book is also unique in featuring the situation of many adoptive children: a family where one parent has children, often grown, from a prior marriage. Wishing to have children together, the new couple—often past prime childbearing years—turn to adoption. Carolyn’s story includes a visit to her older half-sister and her husband. Carolyn also has a younger brother who was also adopted from Honduras as a baby.
The book was written in 1996. Most children adopted today are not from Honduras, but that makes the book useful for those children who are adopted from any Latin American country, regardless of age. Children have been adopted to the U.S. from Brazil, Columbia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, and Guatemala as well as from Honduras, although many of these countries remain smaller and little-known adoption programs.
Author Perry Schwarz, in his introduction, directly addresses “those who wonder whether the love parents have for an adopted child differs from the love they have for a birthchild, the answer is clearly “no”. Our feelings for Carolyn and her brother, Michael, are the same as those we have for my two birth children, Catherine and Elizabeth.”
The book has lots of photographs of Carolyn and her family and friends, in Honduras when they met Carolyn, at home and with her family, and with friends. Carolyn has friends adopted from Korea, Columbia, Honduras and Paraguay. She shares that some of her friends think adoption is really cool and not being adopted is boring! She also mentions her feelings about being asked lots of questions about adoption and where she’s from.
Please see these blogs of interest:
Adoption Programs You’ve Never Heard Of