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What books did you like (or dislike) as a child that you now recognize had something related to your adoption? How do you think those books touched on adoption either directly or indirectly? I'm now re-reading Tin Tin in Tibet (the Chinese version) as a way to help boost my Chinese language studies. It dawned on me that I perhaps some of the reasons I was so drawn to the book as a kid were the underlying parallels to adoption. Tin Tin's Chinese friend Chang, whom Tin Tin goes to search for in Tibet, is an orphan. The whole story is about Tin Tin's search for his beloved, lost friend. We find out that Chang had been saved (adopted?) by the yeti. There are a lot of sadness and moving moments in the story (just have a look at the Wikipedia overview of the story). If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Apparently it was the author Herge's favourite and Tin Tin was the first fictional character to be given the Truth of Light award by Tibet's Dalai Lama.
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I particularly liked "I Belong In A Zoo" by Dr Seuss; I don't even want to contemplate its connection to my being adopted! I was particularly fascinated with literature about magical, mystical things (King Arthur, fairies, Native Americans, stuff like that). Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence (the namesake of which is now being made into a movie) really held my attention. I think I desperately wanted to be far away, in another land and time, and have fantastical problems to solve (because the kids always successfully beat their foes), rather than my own painful, personal ones. Come to think of it, I still love to read fantasy--albeit Terry Pratchett, so I don't really escape from the real world, just see its image distorted in a fun-house mirror. As an English major and lover of literature, I'll be interested to see what else turns up on here! Great thread, ripples.
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As a little kid, I really liked this book a friend of our parents printed for me. It was the story of my adoption, how my parents chose me, and how adoption = love. It had my own name in it, which is cool to a little kid, and had a picture of our new family in the back. It gave me a secure foundation about adoption when I was younger that still holds strong today.
And yes, that "I Belong in a Zoo" by Dr Seuss was awesome!
I particularly HATED the velveteen rabbit. Unfortunatly my mom played it for me almost every night before I went to sleep. It's because the rabbit was abandoned by the boy because the boy couldn't keep him around. I never really realized until now though that velveteen rabbit got a better life as a real bunny in the end, and I got a better life in the end too. Still makes me sad though.
Not so much from early childhood, but some of my favorite books are about orphans of one kind or another - The Clan Of The Cave Bear series by Jean Auel, The Color Purple (still makes me cry) and Jane Eyre are all books that I've read over & over again. (And I'm a voracious reader who rarely ever reads anything twice).
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