This story is one reason I don’t ask students to do family trees. Families can all look different, but even knowing that, a project like a family tree can bring up sad feelings. This book validates that.

This picture book is about an adopted child's experience missing her homeland and wondering about her mother. The author is an adoptive mother and a social worker, and she conveys the child's emotional experience in a way that feels authentic.

The illustrations are nice, but the text is sometimes difficult to read when it fades into parts of the illustrations, and I found it somewhat confusing that this child had so much uncertainty about her background, since she was clearly older when she was adopted. Even though she would still grieve the absence of her mother and deal with questions about that, I felt that the level of vagueness she feels about her origin story would make more sense for someone who was adopted as a very small child. I wish that the book had included more details about her memories and experiences from her life before.

One of those books geared to Being Useful as opposed to being entertaining, this does have enough emotion in it to be re-readable, but might possibly have managed both in a stronger way. It concerns a Colombian girl, adopted by a white American family. So while they have a family tree as long as you'd like, she feels like a fallen branch, wondering how her mother thinks of her, and missing the food from home. I can't disagree at all with the people thinking she's too old for the part in the visuals, as she's practically a teenager, but the feelings of being left out, and having been pushed asunder at least once in her life, will resonate with many. How useful is a school's family tree exercise when she clearly has none of their DNA, and will the family recognise this? Like I say, this is really geared to practical lessons and discussion-forming, and in that is surely successful.

This adoption-themed picture book, which is the second in a series, is intended for older children adopted abroad. It's written by an adoptive mother.

Carla has to do a family tree project for school. Her adoptive mother helps her, but it brings up lots of emotions and questions for Carla. She struggles with jealousy, anger, grief, and not looking like her adoptive family or even sharing the same culture.

As an adoptive parent myself, I see how this book might be helpful in some situations, but I think there is too much emphasis on how the child makes her adoptive family feel. "My mom is sad when I blurt out those things..." Her feelings seem to be internalized and her family makes decisions that would be better deferred to Carla. For example, they declare that they will celebrate her adoption day every year, but many adoptees don't like celebrating adoption days.

Well-intentioned but leaves much to be desired.

This is a beautiful sensitively written book about adoption. It leads to many discussions with pupils and allows them to empathise with the experiences of other children. It also would be a great comfort to any adopted children in school.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own opinions.
This is my first book in the L.I.F.E Adventures series, and I am now going to look up book 1. It's very well written and displays the complex feelings and emotions an adopted child goes through. I think it will help kids to understand it's okay to miss your origin story when starting a new life chapter. Big feelings are to be expected.

It's also a good reminder to the parents that those big feelings are normal.

I am really glad children's literature is now touching on these topics as I think it's really important. There's a lot of misunderstanding & judgement when it comes to adoption in today's world.

My only notes are that some of the text boxes could use some altering - for example, on page 16, the text is quite hard to read because of the white text on a white background.

Being a child of adoption as well as my husband we enjoyed this book very much so beautifully and thoughtfully written and illustrated I believe this book should be a staple in group home settings as well as personal libraries in homes that openly accept any child in need

I teared up while reading this book. It's short but packs a lot in. If I knew any international adoptees, I'd get them a copy.

This children's picture book tackles themes of adoption, birth family curiosity, and emotionally challenging school projects such as the family tree. Written by a social worker with experience in international adoption, the book felt real and acknowledging of all the complex and individual emotions a child may experience as an adoptee. The book was also beautifully illustrated, and the scenes complemented the dialogue. Some of the text was difficult to read, but I will chalk that up to formatting issues that often come across in electronic ARCs that don't display in printed editions or final electronic versions.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

How I wanted to like this book! Anna Maria DiDio’s book! Carla is an adoptee, originally from Colombia, now living with an Anglo family in the United States. Carla’s assignment — to build a family tree — strikes a nerve because she doesn’t know her birth mother or any of her family. Carla’s only been in the United States for a year, and she misses the food, sights and smells of Colombia. Her new family reassures Carla that it’s normal to wonder and that her new family understands and loves her.

Carla appears to be a teenager. Would she not remember her mother at all? Was she at a Colombian orphanage? Does she miss anyone she actually knew in Colombia? These facts contradict the simpler story that How I Wonder Where You Are hints at. Either DiDio should have made Carla younger, or the reader should have had more information on how Carla came to her new family.

That said, I loved the pastel illustrations.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and BooksGoSocial in exchange for an honest review.

How I wonder where your are is a little book full of big emotions. Books with all sorts of family's are important so all children feel included and so that other children understand that there are different types of family that's why this book is great.

I devour books and stories about adoption. As an adoptive mom with a teen son that was born in Guatemala this was a great find on NetGalley. Thank you for the ARC for the purpose of this review. I am suggesting the title to all of the adoptive families I know! It was well written, appropriate for families that desire discussions with their children. A good jumping off point for having talks. Five stars. Beautiful illustrations.

How I Wonder Where You Are is a heartwarming story about a young girl who was adopted from Colombia by a white family. While she feels loved in her new family, she struggles with missing her old life, with all the changes in her new family, and with mixed feelings about her birth mother.

This book shows adopted kids that all the feelings they go through are normal and OKAY. It is so important to validate their feelings! This is also great for other kids, so they can learn empathy and be able to understand a little more about friends or classmates who are adopted.

This is a wonderful book. The illustrations in this book are gorgeous, and the story is heartwarming. This would make a great addition to your classroom/school library, and it's a must if you have a young adopted child!

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this advanced review copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest review on the book!

The author does a great job of showing the emotions an adopted child can go through. It was nice seeing how the adopted child worked through these emotions to embrace her new family.

How I Wonder Where You Are effectively conveys the polarizing emotions that can surround adoption. Carla's adoptive family does not replace her first mother, and this book reinforces that it's okay to acknowledge the feelings of loss when transitioning into an adoptive family. The story also touches on the different experiences between Carla and her adoptive sister who looks and sounds like the rest of the family.

This book is beautifully illustrated, however, the white text over a beige background at points was difficult to read.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the perspective of an adoptive child joining an established family unit, especially in unfamiliar surroundings. How I Wonder Where You Are would also be great for adoptive children and families to read together, as the message is both realistic and optimistic.

This story does a good job of bringing up some of the unresolved issues around international adoptions in particular - including the fact that children may look very different from the adoptive parents as Carla does (coming from Colombia and being adopted by a anglo-saxon family), or that they may come from a culture where the food, traditions, and understandings about relationships are quite different.

It also discusses the issue of "disenfranchised grief" and how many adopted children feel sense of loss and longing for their birth families. This is often the case even if they are happy with their adoptive families.

Very often, these emotions are not recognised by others, including the adults around them, hence the use of the term disenfranchised grief.

By telling Carla's story, the book also discusses the sense of anger and abandonment a child may feel, which can cause them to lash out unintentionally. A simple homework assignment, such as the preparation of a family history, can trigger such feelings for an adopted child.

But there are also ways of being sensitive to, and of better handling such situations. And this story describes some of those tools. It would be a good book to read not only for adoptive parents and siblings, as well as adopted children, but also for anyone who has adoptees in their lives in any role.

I give it 3.5 stars