Customer Reviews

The Coffee Can Kid

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A friend gave us this book as a gift because our daughter was adopted. How she could have read it and then given it to us, I have no idea. The book reduces the main character's identity to the metaphor of a coffee can. In the book, the child finds a coffee can which, it turns out, holds the keys to her birth mother and birth situation, and a letter from the birth mother. The child's father tells her that the social worker told him to keep this information in a coffee can. There is no explanation why (so it will last a long time? moisture-free? who knows?!), but the symbolism here is really unfortunate. Also, because the child pictured in the book is Asian, the book helps to promote the common misbelief that most birth mothers (in China, for example) leave a letter with their baby when the baby is relinquished or placed for adoption. In the majority of overseas adoptions, no letter is left behind. I feel I'm not being particularly eloquent here, but I think it is because the book made me so mad I could spit! This book raises many more questions than it answers, and it raises them in very negative ways. Why does the child just find the can in the house (in a closet, I think)? Why wasn't this information made known to her in a more positive way? I could go on and on, but I won't. I'm adopted, too, and find this book insulting and potentially harmful -- not just to adoptees and their families, but to people who read this and think that this is a positive adoption book. I wouldn't want to be known as a coffee can kid, and I know my daughter wouldn't either. There are many other ways in which the author could have dealt with a child finding out about her own birth information. It's an important issue, but this book doesn't deal with it well at all.

My three year old, adopted from China, enjoys this book and wants to read it as her bedtime story quite often. There are several reasons why I especially enjoy this book: it shows the closeness of the father-daughter relationship and it gives some background information about rural poverty, explaining why the Korean birthmother made the difficult choice to give up her daughter. Off-hand, I cannot think of another picture book for small children that conveys this difficult kind of info. in a way that a small child might understand it. I think that it's important to have a variety of adoption narratives available for your children to help them understand the wide range of adoption experiences. (So far, the only adoption narrative that I haven't found acceptable is the film version of _Stuart Little_, but that's another story.)

My older daughter likes another book by Ms. Czech called _An American Face_. She took it to kindergarden for MLK Day this year to share with the other students.

I would recommend both books to adoptive parents as ways to talk about racial difference and the reasons why their birth parents might have relinquished them.

I first came across this book while looking for a great springboard to teaching the importance of "time capsules" in my classroom. A colleague recommened it. The Coffee Can Kid is a great coupled reading for the English Language Arts classroom as it shows how important memories can be for explaining both the past and the future. I would highly recommend using this book as a classroom resource in teaching students about the importance of things like adoption, heritage, and personal history.
My students also each make their own coffee can in September and get to open it at the end of their middle school career. They are always astounded at what they learn about themselves and how this compares with what The Coffee Can Kid learned.

How else would you convey the information that your child was adopted? The story, by the way, is based on a real person, even though most of it is fiction, the story line has enough information that is highly accurate to the facts and situation of Annie's adoption. The majority of international adoptions do not have any record of the geneology of the child. But at the same rate, there are a few children who are lucky enough to have some sort of memory, through a picture or a letter. As for storing these items in a coffee can. The idea of it is like storing stuff in a box, a hope chest, etc. The items are keepsakes and are meant to be accessible by Annie, in the closet, so that she can see her information, and know her identity whenever she feels it is necessary. The coffee can is explained in the book. The author makes sure to have the father explain that the woman from the adoption agency said that it would keep those things safe for Annie - especially the rice paper letter - so they won't fade. Another book to read, which also illustrates the EVIDENCE that pictures or letters are left behind is A SINGLE SQUARE PICTURE by Katy Robinson. She is adopted at the age of 12 and is sent to America with a picture of her mother and grandmother and herself before she leaves. So obviously there are opportunities for adopted children to have some semblence of their biological information.

This is a fabulous book to open up a discussion about adoption with children. For adopted children, it can be especially useful to compare and contrast their own adoption story with that of the character, Annie. Each child's story is unique and I especially like that this tells Annie's story in a very detailed, thorough way. But it is not overly sentimental, as some adoption books can be. The illustrations and descriptions are beautiful. This is one of the few adoption books that I've been 100% happy with. As a side note, we have a very open domestic adoption, but I feel that this book addresses many aspects common to all adoptions. It's really perfect for us. I also like that it shows my young daughter that not all adoptees have relationships with their birth parents.