Born from the Heart

by Berta Serrano, Alfonso Serrano (Illustrator)

Overview

“Rose dreamed of her baby every night . . . She couldn't wait to share hugs and giggles.”

Every child is born from the heart—whether or not the mother gave birth to that baby. This poetic and magical parable celebrates the richness of family as Rose and Charlie embark on the search for the child they so desperately want. As Rose's dream gets closer to coming true, her heart grows and grows . . . until it bursts with happiness, laughter, and wonder when she finally kisses the beautiful face of her new baby.

First time author Berta Serrano and her brother Alfonso Serrano are the author-illustrator team behind this warm and quirky love letter for Berta's adopted son.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454911449
Publisher:	Sterling Children's Books
Publication date:	10/15/2013
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	356,281
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 11.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	560L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Berta Serrano, a native of Bilbao, left Spain in search of something new. She found a source of inspiration in New York City, and decided to stay. She received her Masters in Art from New York University and has worked in the art world since. Berta lives with her husband and son in NJ.
 
Artist Alfonso Serrano, a former art director at Saatchi & Saatchi, has won many international awards, including a Bronze Cannes Lion Award at the International Festival of Creativity (2007). His work has been exhibited at the Reina Sofia Contemporary Art Museum. Alfonso's main sources of inspiration are his wife and his son, Alfonsete. They live in Bilbao, Spain. 
 

Editorial Reviews

08/26/2013
Debut author Berta Serrano and her brother, Alfonso, use the metaphor suggested by the book’s title to describe the relationship between parents and their adopted children. The analogy is a fine one, but the execution falls short. Rose and Charlie are eager to become parents, and a visit to the doctor provides them with a recipe that involves love, enthusiasm, and patience. Rose mixes up the resulting “potion,” and a return trip to the doctor reveals that it’s working. “I believe you are going to have a child,” says the doctor, pointing to an X-ray of Rose’s heart, inside which a fetus appears. “I can see something gleaming in your heart!” Alfonso Serrano’s illustrations portray the couple as oddly elongated and almost wormlike; as time passes, it’s Rose’s heart, not her belly, that continues to grow, bulging from her chest like that of a lovestruck Looney Tunes character. While the eventual arrival of the child and the story’s underlying message are touching, its adult focus and strangely literal moments are more likely to confuse than comfort. Ages 3–up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2013
K-Gr 2—In this story about adopted children, Rose and Charlie dream of starting a family. A doctor gives them a recipe for parenthood: "1 pound of love, 2 cups of enthusiasm, 1½ tablespoons of patience," which they follow with great results. The doctor sees something shining in Rose's heart and it grows and grows as the couple plan for the arrival of their baby. Rose's heart grows, protruding from her chest, until the day she meets her infant, who "was born-from her heart." There is a wonderful message for children in this book, but it is most powerful at the beginning and the end of the story when it is explicitly stated. In between, the parallel made between Rose's growing heart and a pregnant woman's growing belly is interesting, but perhaps too literally interpreted. It is jarring to see a heart shape sticking out of a character's chest, and to have her shop for special clothes to fit her changing body seems unnecessary. The illustrations are modern-looking with long faces and limbs, which may not be appealing to children. The bright, simple cover is the most attractive illustration in the book; other spreads are too busy. Stick to tried-and-true titles like Jamie Lee Curtis's Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (HarperCollins, 1996).—Marian McLeod, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT

School Library Journal

2013-09-15
A well-intentioned, heartfelt effort to celebrate adoption ends up delivering problematic messages about fatherhood, birth families, and even the birds and the bees. Cartoonish cover art shows a woman, Rose, with her heart protruding from her chest on a stemlike appendage. It's not a grotesque image so much as it seems a feeble attempt to literalize the oft-stated line in adoptive families that children are, as the title says, "born from the heart." This approach ends up making Rose appear pregnant, sort of…while her husband's body remains unchanged. Is the child not born from his heart, too? Why not? Later, the doctor who has prescribed a "magic recipe" to Rose can "see something gleaming" in the prospective adoptive mother's heart, akin to a sonogram image. This attempt, among others, to equate the adoption process with having a biological child seems to undermine the celebration of adoption by trying to make it "just like" having a biological child, suggesting that there's something shameful about adoption itself. Then when the mother holds her new baby for the first time, the art depicts her lying on her back on the ground, her knees up and spread apart, in a quasi-birthing position. Other, much stronger titles about this important theme abound. In sum, while this title has its heart in the right place, it misses a lot of beats in its efforts. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews