I’ve made it a tradition the past few (3? maybe) years to donate books to Nate’s school (preschool previously) during National Adoption Awareness Month. They actually don’t have to be about adoption; they’ve typically been books about adoption, diversity, or celebrating differences. The books about adoption actually don’t even say “adoption;” these have been about how families don’t have to look like each other to be families, i.e. multicultural families.
Frank usually takes Nate to school, but Frank is sick so I took Nate in today and took the opportunity to take the books in to his teachers for their classroom. This year I picked out the following books:
* A Mother For Choco by Keiko Kasza
* Little Miss Spider by David Kirk
* The Family Book by Todd Parr
* Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
* All Kinds of Children by Norma Simon
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When Frank and I had the parent-teacher conference with Nate’s teachers (the teacher and the teacher’s assistant), we mentioned that in family therapy, we had a conversation about how he could respond if any of the kids wondered why he doesn’t “match” his parents. They said that a lot of the kids in their class don’t match their parents, whether it’s because their family is interracial, they have a step-parent, or whatever reason. They have every form of “family” that there is so I think that many of the kids there will relate to these books.
And it just felt really good to give something.
