We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families

A review crossposted from Book Dads to celebrate National Adoption Month.
Todd Parr lends his distinctive picture book style to adoption in his latest book. Every two or three pages, Parr writes “We belong together because …” and then fills in the blank in different heartfelt – and sometimes whimsical – ways. The pictures show families of all different kinds (including same-gender and different color), and in a rare Author’s Note at the beginning, Parr encourages parents to change the pronouns in the text to fit their family.

This book doesn’t discuss the facts of adoption or even use the word “adoption”, but instead deals with the feelings behind adoption and wanting to be a family. In this way, it deals with the essential truth of adoption better than any book that focuses on the facts of the matter. This also makes it a good book for reading to very young adopted children who may not yet know the details of their adoption, and speaking as an adoptive father I was unable to read this book to my son without getting all choked up.

Excerpt:

We belong together because, you needed a home and I had one to share.