Megan's Birthday Tree: A Story about Open Adoption

This is a well-written and beautifully illustrated story about open adoption that can be read to/with/by children, Grades K and up. The theme is open adoption, and young Megan is an adopted child who keeps in touch with her biological mother, Kendra. The two share notes and photographs, and one in particular is of the Birthday Tree, a tree planted by Kendra after she had given up baby Megan for adoption - it has become a tradition for Kendra to send a picture of the tree every year for Megan's birthday. When Megan finds out that Kendra is getting married and moving to another town, she gets worried that there will no longer be a Birthday Tree for Kendra to remember her by and Megan tries to do something about it. This story focuses more on the relationship between the Megan and her birth mother, Kendra. Megan's adoptive parents are not involved much in the story, though Megan's adoptive dad is featured a little bit. I would have preferred it if the adoptive parents had been given a more conspicuous role in the story, but I guess the author's focus was on Megan and her relationship with her birth mother. The story itself is engaging and well-illustrated in full color.

"Megan's Birthday Tree" is hands-down one of my favorite children's books about open adoption. Some of the things I appreciated as an adoptive parent: 1) The book has an actual plot. Many adoption books for kids focus on explaining adoption. It was refreshing to read a storyline about something other than the birth and/or placement. This is the first adoption book I've read in awhile in which I was actually interested in seeing how it ended. 2) Megan has complex feelings about her adoption appropriate to her age. They are her own feelings and not just a reflection of what adults have told her about her adoption. 3) The adoptive parents play a very supportive, but minor role. The story focuses on Megan and her relationship with her birth mom, Kendra. As an adoptive parent trying to create space for my son and his birth parents to develop their own relationships, I appreciate seeing that modeled. This is an excellent book for any family involved in an open adoption. Its message that birth parents will always remember the children they placed for adoption could be reassuring for children in closed or semi-open adoptions, as well.