Customer Reviews

Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Immediately after I read Star of the Week, I emailed Ms. Friedman to thank her and her husband for such a "lovely, touching, fun and honest book that I look forward to reading with my adopted son." I also wrote that I hope they "collaborate on more adoptive picture books in the future!"

As a teacher of second graders for over thirteen years, I know how difficult "Star of the Week" can be for some students. I believe Ms. Friedman's book will help open up the lines of communication for my son and others as well as show how wonderful and special the "Star of the Week" experience can be!

Today I am going to buy three more copies for my friends who also have children they adopted from Russia.

Thanks again Ms. Friedman!!!

Darlene Friedman and Roger Roth are a great team. The writing and illustrations in this book communicate a loving and sensitive story of a child's quest to come to terms with her adopted past...not an easy subject. As a teacher, I see this book as a vehicle for self discovery for my students. The story presents many meaningful writing opportunities for students to explore who they are and how their roots have an impact on their lives. As a parent, I think this book can show how difficult situations can be approached with love and honesty. I enjoyed the book very much, and I highly recommend it to adults and children of all ages.

I collect children's literature and this book is fabulous. It's a perfect book to share with children whether they are adopted or not! It addresses questions that adopted children have and builds an understanding of what these issues may be for children who may have adopted friends or classmates. The illustrations just grab you! They capture the spirit of Cassidy-Li.

Perfect for my 1st grader - her class is about to get started with the Star of the Week program, and this book was very timely. My daughter was adopted from China like the main character in this book, and it really helped us discuss what she wanted to share with her class and what she wanted to keep private. Wonderful for teachers too, to make them aware that some assignments might be tricky for some families.

Excellent picture book with an uplifting message that applies not only to adopted children, but also to the ever-growing number of other children whose family situations do not fit the "norm."

Kids of all kinds will enjoy and take comfort in this story. The book's picturesque settings and thought-provoking story make it a great "read" for parents and kids.

This is a wonderful book that brings up many questions and makes people think! I love how when talking about how Cassidy-li and her parents talked about the reasons why people can't take care of their children and how regardless to how a child enters your family it doesn't matter because we're family. I like that they didn't mention China's 1 child rule. I love the illustrations also make this book so wonderful!

As an adoptive parent we made it through our 1st kindergarten ALL ABOUT ME poster - but it wasn't blank but general sort of questions to fill in the blanks on favorite color, animal, how many people in my family and etc. It wasn't has hard as having to create a poster on a blank sheet of paper. I am absolutely thrilled that 2 of the other reviewers are teachers and I hope that they are sharing this book with their other co-workers and other teachers out there. It is so important for teachers who do these types of assignments to be flexible when it comes to adopted or fostered students who are in their class. Maybe instead of a family tree project it could be a family home or apartment with different branches being different rooms, or a family garden or grafted tree adding in a China, Vietnam, Russian branch. I know this project is coming and I'm interested to see how my daughter will want to handle it. I hope she'll include her birth parents as in a mention of my roots are in China, my husband thinks I'm making too much thought into this and basically when we adopted her she became our family there for becoming Hawaiian, English, Scottish-Irish, Dutch and German like we are. It's her project and up to her and her teacher.

This book is a family affair! It was written by Darlene Friedman who is married to Roger Roth who illustrated this book and they have a daughter who is from China. I look forward to many more books by this terrific team! Congrats and keep those books coming!

The review I got from my 6 yr old adopted Chinese daughter is as follows: "I liked that she talked about her birth parents but why was she afraid to talk about it (adoption) at school?"

This is a great adoption book. My daughter is in kindergarten and this book was one additional means of starting a conversation about her birth parents. The girl in the book is creating a poster about her life and she is very upbeat and combines everything - it is a great book!

I have an adopted daughter and quite a few books to read to her so she can relate her experience. Now she is 5 and just the right age for a book like this.

Our heroine in this book is to be the Star of the Week at playschool and one of the things she will do is bring a poster of her life. All the other kids have pictures of themselves as newborns but Cassidy does not share the same past.

It all ends with a beautiful twist and gives my little one the words for her own feelings.

It comes with my best recommendations.