The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption

by Jean Davies Okimoto, Elaine M Aoki (With), Meilo So (Illustrator)

Overview

Many people from North America make the long journey to their children in China. But first the family has to complete all the adoption-agency paperwork, have interviews, fill out legal forms, and receive approvals. Then a tiny photograph of their child arrives. Finally, they travel to China to embrace their long-awaited child.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989429160
Publisher:	Endicott & Hugh Books
Publication date:	02/19/2015
Pages:	34
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.09(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

MEILO SO is the illustrator of such beautiful, award-winning books such as Moonbeams, Dumplings, and Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities, and Recipes and The White Swan Express: A Story about Adoption. She lives in the Shetland Islands, UK.

Editorial Reviews

This tender, ebullient picture book tracks a quartet of parents in North America and a quartet of baby girls in China as everyone prepares for the "special day" they meet. Okimoto (the daughter of an adoptee) and Aoki (the mother of an adoptee) effectively contrast the flurry of excited activity on one side of the world ("In Toronto, Howard Suzuki sang in the shower while Jessica dried her hair") with the peacefully slumbering babies on the other ("Li Shen snuggled on her side. Qian Ye slept curled in a ball"). Readers get a peek at the mechanics of international adoption (including the long plane trip and bus ride to the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou) and the emotions of the prospective parents (the government waiting room was "as silent as still water." But their hearts "thumped like drums and fluttered like the wings of a bird"). Set against clean white backdrops, So's (Tasty Baby Belly Buttons) expressive watercolors bloom like spring flowers. The parents emerge as distinct individuals, each exuding a unique energy-an impressive feat given the economy of line with which the artist articulates each impressionistic illustration. With its matter-of-fact mix of parents that include two married couples, a lesbian couple and a single mother, the book's understated message-that families come in all shapes and sizes, and are bound together by love-comes through loudly and clearly. Ages 5-8. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 3-Lovely Asian-inspired watercolors and an engaging text tell the story of four baby girls from a Chinese orphanage and the families who adopt them. First readers meet the North American families, including a single mother and another consisting of two female partners. They anxiously make the trip halfway around the world to the Chinese city of Guangzhou where they become acquainted at the White Swan Hotel. Juxtaposed against the excited, expectant parents are portraits of darling, slumbering babies. The prospective moms and dads are shown waiting anxiously in a room of the orphanage before they finally meet their children. Then they must negotiate the bureaucracy of foreign adoptions before going home. The four families keep in touch after their homecoming, especially during Chinese New Year. An afterword describes the real-life parallel experience of the coauthor. Though slightly longer, this title compares favorably to both Rose Lewis's I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Little, Brown, 2000) and Stephen Molnar-Fenton's An Mei's Strange and Wondrous Journey (DK Ink, 1998; o.p.). There is no pronunciation guide for the Chinese words and phrases. Despite this quibble, this charming offering successfully joins the growing collection of literature about adoption.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Young readers will love this story of how four Chinese babies come to be welcomed into new families in North America. Especially powerful is the depiction of those who are traveling to China to get their children. A couple from Miami, a pair of women from Vashon Island near Seattle, a single mom in Minnesota, and couple with a Japanese surname in Toronto, Canada all set out for the city of Guangzhou, in China. Meanwhile, "Still asleep, Wu Li smacked her lips, Li Shen burped, Qian Ye yawned, and Chun Mei Ni snored." The parallel depictions of the soon-to-be parents and the soon-to-be adopted children across the ocean help to create the sense of family right from the beginning. The seven parents become a group in China and exchange stories and expectations as they make their way to the White Swan Hotel, their home away from home, while they arrange to meet and adopt their beautiful daughters. Dr. Aoki uses her own experiences with adoption as the basis for this account, co-authored by Okimoto (Dear Ichiro, not reviewed, etc.), who has written before about Asian-Americans and is herself the daughter of an adoptee. So’s (Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats, below, etc.) effervescent watercolors in a vibrant and colorful palette add much to the presentation of a story that will intrigue and interest both those who are adopted and those who are not. A must buy for all libraries and a lovely gift for new families of all stripes. (extensive afterword) (Picture book. 4-9)

Kirkus Reviews

"Effervescent watercolors . . . a must buy for all libraries and a lovely gift for new families of all stripes." Kirkus Reviews

"This heartwarming story [is] a complement to the study of China as well as a good book to explain adoption." Booklist, ALA

"A purposeful, successful picture book. . . emotionally involving enough for any group interested in understanding the different ways families grow." The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher