Connecting the Dots: Exploring Themes in Adoption Picturebooks

Approximately 1.4 million school-aged children entered their families through adoption. As such, adoption represents a real and complex social issue with which young children—adopted or not—can grapple. Adoption picturebooks provide a medium by which children can explore this complicated concept. This manuscript analyzes a standard library collection of adoption picturebooks to explore the salient themes that arise throughout this body of children’s literature. Four major, yet overlapping themes emerged: the adopted child as “precious”, the search for identity, the pursuit of adoption, and the need to establish a sense of belonging. This study shows that the themes located within this subset of children’s literature are broad, fluid and often intricately woven together; a complexity that is mirrored through the same qualities in life. Through adoption picturebooks, children are provided with a terrain in which to explore the conceptual components that frame their identities and are presented with a space to examine the realities of adoption.