Product Description

Ilya is an eight year old boy who has lived his whole life in an orphanage in Russia. Now he must adjust to living in America with his new mom and older sister. Telling the story in his own words, he marvels at the difference between his experiences as an orphan and his new life as a boy named Jack.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1350130 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-15
• Released on: 2007-01-15
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• 44 pages

About the Author
Holding a bachelor's degree in Drama from the University of Georgia and a master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee, Dee Thompson has written two books, three screenplays, a collection of poetry and numerous magazine articles. In 2004, she adopted a daughter, Alesia, from Russia. They live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful story of International adoption from the child's perspective
This book is wonderful to own for any adoptive family. It would also make a super gift for a family adopting an older child. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story from the child's perspective of coming to America from Russia and being adopted by an American family. As an adoptive family, many of the words rang true. My child also enjoyed reading it and could relate to many of the feelings expressed by the boy in the story. I would highly recommend this book which has lovely and creative illustrations and is printed in both in English and Russian.

Great help for older adopted Russian kids
I really wish this book had been available when we adopted our two daughters from Russia a year ago. These children get exposed to so many new things so fast, and they usually can't communicate very well with their new parents so everything is all the more scary. Just knowing that other kids have been through the same thing is very reassuring, but this book takes things further and provides information for the kids on what's happening and how life may be different for them with their new family.

The calm, reassuring tone of the book is especially great, and the parallel text in English and Russian will help the kids start to recognize some English words. My girls, who can read in English now, were laughing over trying to read the Russian parts and figure out which words were the same. They also loved the illustrations and wanted to go meet Jack and his family.

The first months home are very hard on some older kids, and this book is just one more way of helping them to feel safe and loved. I recommend it highly to anyone adopting an older child from Russia or a Russian-speaking country.

Excellent Book for Adopted Children and Adopting Parents
This is an excellent book to help ease a child's transition from the orphanage to a home. It covers topics such as the plane ride, new smells, leaving the orphanage, etc... It reads like a diary of an adopted child's experiences. It also gives adopting parents some insight as to how their new son or daughter may be feeling.