Nini
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Long before Nini was born, she was in a safe place where a familiar voice promised her a loving home. But once she was born, that soft voice was replaced by the words of care givers in an orphanage. Though they were kind, Nini missed the soft voice and the promises it made. Then, one day, a man and a woman on the other side of the world learned that their dreams were about to come true. They would finally have a baby to love. When they all met, Nini once again heard a soft voice, as reassuring and as loving as the first, and trusted that the promises had come true. But her first memory was never lost – it remained an echo for her to share with her parents in her new home.
This exceptional book about adoption is a comforting story for children and families who have experienced it first-hand, a tribute to the author’s own adopted child, and a very heartfelt thank-you for the gift of family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Illustrator Thisdale (Bird Child) makes his authorial debut with a lyrical story of a child's adoption in which somber moments are never far from those of hope and joy. The story opens before the child has been born, as she listens to her mother's voice, which "spoke of rice paddies and lotus flowers, blowing in the evening breeze," but also of troubling circumstances, left vague. After the baby is born, "he first hands she felt were the hands of love," but she is abruptly taken to an orphanage. Meanwhile, after a woman on "the other side of the world" loses her baby (the text, while circumspect, implies miscarriage), she and her husband soon come to adopt the girl, Nini, with whom they form a deep bond. Rendered in deep jewel tones and forceful brushstrokes, Thisdale's richly layered images incorporate Chinese characters, na f children's drawings, and sometimes unsettlingly realistic images of Nini to dreamlike effect. The story's sadder moments will almost certainly draw questions from children, but the message of connectivity and love over distance, time, and circumstance resonates. Ages 3 6.
