The Story I’ll Tell

* "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."

* "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."

"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."

"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."