The Story I'll Tell
Jessica Lanan
(Illustrated by)
Description
In this tender story of international adoption, a mother weaves a magical web of tales to explain how her child came to be part of the family.
A young child asks his mother to tell the story of where he came from. "I might tell how you came from a land far away in a hot air balloon. The basket slowly drifted down like a feather into our yard. I dropped the firewood I was carrying and ran to you. 'You're home now, ' I said." Or maybe it was a lark--and not a stork--that brought the child to the mother. Or perhaps he was rescued from a dragon! Each lyrical and fantastic tale contains a small kernel of truth that pieces together the baby's journey from China into his new mother's arms.
Beautifully illustrated by Jessica Lanan, The Story I'll Tell is a gentle and moving story of international adoption and parental love that is sure to touch the hearts of readers everywhere, no matter how they came to be a family.
Product Details
| Publisher | Lee & Low Books |
| Publish Date | February 08, 2022 |
| Pages | 32 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781643795980 |
| Dimensions | 10.2 X 8.3 X 0.1 inches | 0.3 pounds |
About the Author
Nancy Tupper Ling is the winner of the Writer's Digest Grand Prize and the Pat Parnell Poetry Award, and is the founder of Fine Line Poets. She was inspired to write The Story I'll Tell from the multicultural background of her own family and the experiences of friends who have adopted children from all over the world. Ling resides in Walpole, Massachusetts, with her family. You can visit her online at nancytupperling.com.
Jessica Lanan is an award-winning author and artist from Longmont, Colorado. She's the illustrator of many children's books including Lee & Low Books's The Story I'll Tell which received two starred reviews. Jessica's first book as an author-illustrator, The Fisherman and the Whale, was awarded the 2020 Bull-Bransom Award for Wildife Art. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she enjoys thunderstorms, crunching autumn leaves beneath her feet, and leaving footprints in freshly fallen snow. Visit her online at jessicalanan.com.
Reviews
* "Titles like I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (2000) have given adoptive parents ways to tell their children how they reached their new families. Laced with Chinese-flavored splendor throughout, Lanan's spreads match Ling's romance with pools of moonlight, banks of clouds, and ghosts of zodiac figures. It's an unabashed love letter, one that many families will treasure." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "In Ling's latest picture book, a mother anticipates a time when her adopted child will ask how they found each other. Lanan's fanciful watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations match and enhance the tone of these stories Though there are plenty of picture books for new children, adoption stories are somewhat less common than birth stories, and this is a particularly well-done example of an adoption fairy tale that is sure to be a comforting resource to parents and children alike. And when the narrator comes to the "true" account of how this mother adopted her son--she traveled on a plane and gathered him "in a silk blanket and flew on wings through the sky"--it seems just as magical as the other stories." -- Booklist, starred review
"Love for an adoptive child guides fanciful musings about his origins. A heartwarming conclusion ties the mother's fanciful stories to the parents' real flight through the sky with their new baby and acknowledges that "the truth is a beautiful story too." -- Kirkus Reviews
"For many transracial adoptees who have crossed oceans to join their families, that birth story can often be a mystery. Here, author Nancy Tupper Ling adds whimsy and joy to the son's origins, while artist Jessica Lanan paints Ling's visions in magical swathes of glowing, multilayered hues. Page by page, this Story resonates throughout with love and laughter that turn tears to smiles. It's quite the resplendent reminder that families are created in any number of ways . . . and that children - however they arrive in your arms - are the "best gift we ever received." Amen to that." -- BookDragon by the Smithsonian
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