I'm Adopted!

Large, casual photographs of contemporary children, sometimes alone but mostly with their adoptive families, dominate this clear and reassuring introduction to the topic of adoption. Rotner and Kelly, who previously collaborated on Shades of People (2009), use minimal, pared-down text to describe common adoption scenarios ("When people are unable to make a baby, or choose not to, they can adopt one") and address situations that might have led to a child being put up for adoption, such as when parents are unable to care for a child due to youth, poverty, illness, or war. Both the prose and the photographs, which show ethnically diverse families (as well as same-sex parents), create a solid sense of community, emphasizing to readers that many children are adopted and, more importantly, that "children are happy in their families, no matter where they were born... when they know they are cared for and loved." For parents and adoptive children just beginning to have conversations about how they came to be a family, it's a good starting point. Ages 2%E2%80%935. (Aug.)