The Day My Heart Grew

Written by a Christian, but with no explicit faith content, ‘The Day My Heart Grew’ would make a lovely gift for an adoptive family of any faith or none. It describes, in simple language accessible to younger children, the adoption process from a parent’s perspective. I love the imagery of our hearts ‘growing’ and filling with love for a child or children who we didn’t give birth to, but love as if we do. The book travels through the adoption journey from initial thoughts to meeting each other to becoming a family – and, all the while, it is clear to an adopted child reading this book just how much their parent values and loves them. I like how the commitment for the future is also clear.

The illustrations are just beautiful – cute and quirky – and cleverly feature a penguin family, so that families of any race or colour can identify with the message of this book. I particularly like the warm, glowing heart on the parent’s chest (and, eventually, the child’s chest too).

My only slight niggle (and it is slight) is the line about ‘achievement’, because adopted children often already carry a sense of needing to please their new parents for fear of being abandoned again. However, I think the author’s intention was any achievement, as the next line talks about new words and new steps – it’s just unfortunate that the illustration for this page shows an academic achievement.

Overall, this is a book which has been really carefully worded and put together, with a lot of subtle detail that makes it a brilliant book to share with adopted children. It would be a brilliant gift to a new adoptive family too!