The Story Cure. Ella Berthoud

      THE TEN BEST BOOKS FOR ADOLESCENCE

       Dogsong GARY PAULSEN

       Go Ask Alice ANONYMOUS²

       The Chocolate War ROBERT CORMIER

       Dear Nobody BERLIE DOHERTY

       The Princess Bride WILLIAM GOLDMAN

       The Farthest Shore URSULA K LE GUIN³

       All Our Pretty Songs SARAH MCCARRY

       Remix NON PRATT

       The Square Root of Summer HARRIET REUTER HAPGOOD

       The Scar Boys LEN VLAHOS

      SEE ALSO: acne • alone, wanting to be left • arguments, getting into • astray, being led • bargaining, endless • body hair • body image • body odour • chores, having to do • clumsiness • dating • different, feeling • embarrassment • exams • friends your parents don’t approve of, having • gaming, excessive • gay, not sure if you are • good at anything, feeling like you’re no • happy ever after, had enough of • hormones, raging • innocence, loss of • laziness • moodiness • obstinate, being • periods • screen, glued to the • sulking • trashing the house while your parents are out • understood, not being • wet dreams • zits

adoption

       The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly SUN-MI HWANG, ILLUSTRATED BY NOMOCO

      Once upon a time, adopted children were sat down at a random moment in childhood and delivered the ‘oh, by the way, you’re adopted’ bolt from the blue. Thankfully, we’ve moved on since then, drip-feeding the knowledge from the beginning. Picture books are a great way to help do this, as well as reiterating the message that adopted children are planned and deeply wanted. Which stories strike a chord will depend on the particular circumstances of the adoption: find those that best fit the picture from the list that follows.

      As adopted children get older, they generally ask more questions about their birth parents and may try to seek them out. This brings a flood of new and complex emotions for both the child and the grown-ups who adopted them. A story which shows it’s normal to have mixed feelings about your adoption is The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by the South Korean author Sun-mi Hwang. Sprout is an egg-laying hen who harbours a dream – not to fly, in fact, but to become a mother. So, together with her friend Straggler, a duck, she escapes the barnyard and makes a new life in the wild, foraging for food and doing her best to avoid the ever-hungry weasel. When she stumbles on a nest in a briar patch containing a ‘large and handsome’, still-warm egg, she sits on it through the night. By morning she can feel the tiny heart beating inside the shell.

      When the little duckling – as it turns out to be – emerges, Sprout’s happiness is moving to behold. With her baby, Greentop, in tow, she struts proudly past the animals in the barnyard, impervious to their taunts. ‘Sure, he’s a duck, not a chick. Who cares?’ she says to herself. ‘He still knows I’m his mum!’ When, all by himself, Greentop learns to swim, then fly – spending entire days wheeling over the reservoir – Sprout is happy for him, even though she’s left on the ground. One day, Greentop senses something approaching the reservoir – something that will cover the entire sky and fill the air with its honking . . . and he begins to tremble with a mixture of excitement and impending loss . . .

      This fable-like novella is about many things – the desire to be a parent, and the need for a child to be who they are. But what we remember most is the over-arching love Sprout feels for her baby. Sprout knows that the best way to love her son is to understand him – even if that means acknowledging he’s different to her and may have to go away at some point and find out who he is. Give this to kids as they begin to ask questions about their birth parents to show that you understand.