A Is for Always: An Adoption Alphabet

by Linda Cutting, Leonie Little Lex (Illustrator)

Overview

A is for Always. With your hand in mine,
Adoption’s a gift that will last for all time.

With gentle rhymes and lovely illustrations, A Is for Always celebrates the joy and love of adoption from A to Z. With B for birth parents, Q for questions, and U for understanding, it frames challenging aspects of adoption in a way children can understand. Best of all, each page shows a different adoptive family of cuddly animals welcoming and cherishing a new child.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641706629
Publisher:	Familius
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	643,478
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD570L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

A Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers award winner, Linda Katherine Cutting’s Memory Slips also won the ASCAP Deems Taylor award for excellence in writing about music. Linda, a professional pianist and former college teacher, left her career to write full-time in 2017. She has published essays in The New York Times, The Guardian (UK), The New Republic, The Boston Globe, Literary Hub, Cognoscenti, Wired, and The Beacon Book of Essays by Contemporary American Women. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with her husband and two adopted children who inspired the picture book A Is for Always.

Editorial Reviews

"A Is for Always has at its core the love and sense of belonging that adoptive family members have for each other. Thoughtful rhymes make the lines memorable." — Patricia Cambell Carlson, Spirituality Practice

A is for Always is a rhyming alphabet book that explains various aspects of adoption in an age-appropriate manner. Leonie Little Lex provides adorable illustrations of animals and their adopted children. When the readers see chickens holding a baby mouse or a bear cuddling a rabbit, they will likely understand that these animals are not biologically related. The concept of birth parents vs adoptive parents can be difficult for younger children to comprehend, so this creative approach will help them retain that understanding. My favorite symbolic image shows a mother sheep doing her hedgehog child’s hair; this page talks about inherited traits that come from your birth parents. Examples like this will be extremely helpful for children and adoptive parents that come from different ethnic backgrounds.

Linda Cutting uses carefully crafted words that can easily be understood by children ages three to six. This book also includes many references that can be elaborated on by the reader or the story. This book encourages children to ask questions when they feel ready. I highly recommend this book for all families; exposing children to the concept of adoption at an early age will help them understand and accept their adoptive peers.

—Rita Long, San Francisco Book Review

Unique, charming, gentle, inspired, "A Is for Always: An Adoption Alphabet" is a children's book about adoption written in verse. Especially and unreservedly recommended for family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community library picture book collections for children ages 3-6, "A Is for Always: An Adoption Alphabet" is an ideal introduction to the subject of adoption and family life.—James A. Cox, The ABC Shelf by Midwest Book Review

Through rhythmical storytelling, Cutting uses animals to show the ways adoption makes a family, from A to Z. Describing adoption as a gift and celebration creates a story of acceptance and love for those involved in the adoption process. The story gives simple examples of how people can come from all different parts of the world, through a variety of circumstances and backgrounds, to form loving and bonded families. It does not shy away from questions that kids may have about how they came to be adopted, or the challenging emotions that may be present. Adoption is represented as an opportunity for nurturing, reflection and growth. The variety of animals, from a kangaroo to an otter, suggests the diversity that adopted families. Characters are shown soothing their children, answering hard questions, spending time as a family, and working together to build homes. This story would help anyone who has adopted children begin or continue conversations about the adoption process. Written for early elementary school-age children, this book could be used with upper elementary-age children as well.—Children's Literature

Looking for a book to explain the various aspects of adoption to kids? With simple rhymes and sweet illustrations, A Is for Always offers a creative approach that kids can understand. A is for Adoption, L is for Loving, Q is for Questions, and S is for Soothing... the friendly animals on each page depict an adoptive family cherishing a new child. (Ages 2-8)—Deb Greenberg, The Story Monsters Ink Shelf

From the Publisher