Four Feet More

There are so many great adoption-related children's books out there, and I'm pleased to see that more and more are dealing specifically with adoption from Russia. A few that I've mentioned before are "Borya and the Burps, " "When I Met You," and "Nikolai, the Only Bear." However, this November, another book came out, and I quickly snatched it up for the kids as a Christmas gift. The book is called, "Mishka: An Adoption Tale," and it was written by the same author who wrote "When I Met You."

Both Vika and Eamon love this book. It tells of the adoption of an "older" child, through the eyes of a teddy bear (mishka) that is bought for the boy by his adoptive parents. The mishka shares feelings of confusion, anxiety, and happiness as the story unfolds, and also tells of his desire for a family - even though he doesn't quite understand what a family is. I love the way the feelings that many adopted children may have felt are projected onto the bear. It seems to make it safer for kids to identify with those feelings and recognize the anxiety and confusion they may have felt during their own adoption.

I have an even more personal reason for liking this story in that the boy, Yuri, reminds me very much of Eamon. In one illustration, he's even wearing baggy, yellow tights like the pair Eames wore during our first visit with him. We also bought Eamon a teddy bear during the adoption process, which he slept with for months on end, and still calls "Mishka." When we read this story to Eamon, he holds his Mishka on his lap so that he can "listen" to the story as well.

If you have adopted, or are in the process of adopting a preschool age or early school age child, this book may be one you want to check out.