Product Description

In I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, Rose Lewis and Jane Dyer told the heartfelt story of one woman's adoption a baby girl from China. These sentiments are brought to life again in this touching portrait of birthday celebrations and unforgettable moments between a mother and her little girl: from joyous hugs for a new puppy, to quiet nights gazing at the stars remembering a faraway family. Capturing the richness of both Chinese and American cultures, Every Year on Your Birthday is a poignant tribute to the growing bond of love only a parent and child can know.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #539224 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316525527
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1—Another tender offering from the creators of I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Little, Brown, 2000). Here, a mother relates her thoughts and emotions on her daughter's birthdays, reflecting on the child's birth in China ("I wasn't there, but I was thinking about you as I waited at home to be your new mother"), recalling a first birthday enjoyed with family and friends, describing how her daughter became an American citizen at age two, and so on, to her fifth birthday, which is spent at a riverbank picnic watching a colorful dragon-boat festival. The text alternates between specifics of each celebration and a scrapbook of the mother's thoughts ("…I think about how quickly your gurgles have turned to giggles. It seems like just yesterday when I met you."). Throughout, the mother preserves her daughter's Chinese heritage and includes multicultural layers in her upbringing. Dyer's delightful watercolor illustrations highlight the most touching points of the story. The birthday cakes reflect the themes and add an element of fun to an otherwise poignant book. The pictures match the pace of the text, getting brighter and busier as the years go by and the child becomes more active. The book ends fittingly with the Chinese character for "family," which "is a synonym for 'home.'" A sweet, gorgeously illustrated book that's perfect for family sharing.—June Wolfe, Bushnell-Sage Library, Sheffield, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* The cover, featuring a birthday cake and and an Asian girl wearing a party hat, invites the reader inside. A mother's voice begins, Every year on your birthday, I think about the day you were born. I wasn't there, but I was thinking about you as I waited at home to be your new mother. Mom recalls their special celebrations, and a cake motif records each snapshot moment. On her second birthday the girl becomes an American citizen; on her third, they fly a kite; on her fourth, she's given a puppy; and on her fifth, she and her mother have a picnic and watch the Dragon Boat Festival. Delicately expressive watercolors capture the girl's excitement and happiness. Beautifully designed with framed scenes and boxed sequences of her growth, this loving portrait of a single mother and an adopted child gently accentuates the importance of incorporating the child's culture into her new life. On the last page the Chinese character for family is painted; it is a synonym for home. In the same way that Amy Erlich's Zeek's Silver Moon (1972) broke ground depicting an unconventional family that reflected the times, this topical story, based on the author's personal experience, will be welcomed by families of all kinds adopting an Asian child. Cummins, Julie

About the Author
Rose Lewis, author of I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, has a Master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. An accomplished still photographer and award-winning producer for WCVB-TV in Boston, she now manages relations for the Lahey Clinic. She lives with her daughter (upon whom her books are based) in Massachusetts.

Jane Dyer is the acclaimed illustrator of more than 40 books, including her own anthology, Animal Crackers, the Little Brown Bear books, as well as the best selling picture book, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose Lewis. She also lives in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Great companion to Crazycakes
I bought this book for my daughter's 4th birthday. It really captures the experiences and feelings of those first few years following an adoption (from China). The pictures are beautiful and the prose is graceful and moving. Of course I will have to practice until I can read the last page without crying. I'm so glad that Rose Lewis wrote this book. Now I wonder... will there be more? The preteen years? When your daughter goes to college?

A Beautiful, Thoughtful Book for Growing Chinese Adoptees
I Love You Like Crazy Cakes came out just as I was completing the paperwork for my daughter's adoption, and Every Year on Your Birthday arrived just in time for my daughter's 4th birthday.

When she opened her present, she held up the book and proclaimed, "It's ME!" I can't overemphasize how important seeing other Asian faces is to my daughter-- and our family goes out of its way to ensure that.

The illustrations are beautiful, the sometimes difficult subject matter of orphanage life is treated sensitively, even positively.

I highly recommend this book for Chinese adoptees-- and even other Asian adoptees-- although the content doesn't *quite* match all experiences, it is an excellent starting off point. For example, we talk about what we did on various birthdays, speculate as to how she celebrated her first birthday before she was adopted, how we celebrated her birthdays and GOTCHA days each year. What a wonderful, easy way to begin sometimes difficult conversations.

An excellent addition to any pro-adoption library!

Lewis & Dyer's second gift to the adoption community
What a joy to open up that Amazon.com box and see the smiling face of Alexandra Mae-Ming Lewis, daughter of Rose Lewis, starring up at me rendered by Jane Dyer in her familiar and much-loved watercolor illustrations. If you and your little ones enjoyed I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (2000), I think you'll want to take a look at Every Year on Your Birthday.

Aimed at children 4-8 years of age, Every Year on Your Birthday is a sweet, simple and lovely book that illustrates, birthday by birthday, how the lives of Rose Lewis and her daughter have proceeded since they first became entwined in a hotel room in China. I think that many who have adopted from China will be able to identify with both the images and the experiences offered up in the book. For example, with my own girls now 4 and 6, I could identify quite completely with lines like "I think about how quickly your gurgles have turned to giggles." And I was equally moved by Jane Dyer's poignant illustrations showing the little one's progression from toddler to little girl; her illustrations could have been watercolor renderings of many of the snapshots awaiting placement in a scrapbook here at our house!

While Jane Dyer's illustrations were probably my favorite part of the book--I love watercolor and will admit to a particular soft spot for her work--I was also very appreciative of the way the book stayed connected to the child's history before her adoption. For instance, one section of the book celebrates the little girl's relationship with her "first friends," her orphanage "sisters" and those who cared for her in the Social Welfare Institute. And, as was the case in Crazy Cakes, the book offers a remembrance of the child's Chinese birth family, using the idea of looking up at the stars as a point of reference for them and a way to send them good wishes.

With Every Year on Your Birthday Rose Lewis and Jane Dyer have given another gift to the adoption community and to those who wish to better understand the experiences of adoptive families. For some, it will be a way to remind a child of the good time spent; for others, it may be used as a springboard for discussions about birth families and a life before adoption. Either way, it is a beautiful, heartfelt addition to the books on adoption from China.