Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born

Curtis, Jamie Lee. Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born. Harper Collins, 1996. Print.
The lovely illustrations make this book come alive as the young narrator tells her story through a reoccurring phrase at the beginning of each page. We’re given the story of the narrator’s adoption from the moment she is born through the first night with her adoptive family. There are appealing parts for both children and parents—the pictures appear in a very cartoonish manner—almost as if a child had drawn them. However, they are informative with the text, showing the written story on another level. The book shows all of the struggles that a family goes through, and all of the triumphs that are brought by the experience of adoption. Some readers may find the repetition distracting, but Curtis’ use of the narrator’s birth story is one of progression in literature for adoptees, it is not something that is done often. This gives the adoptee a chance to see the story behind their adoption; they were really born like everyone else. Curtis stumbles when she writes, “Tell me again how you couldn’t grow a baby in your tummy, so another woman…was growing me…” (Tell Me Again 11) She describes surrogacy here, and could cause confusion with adoptees that this is the typical situation. By incorporating this same idea in a different manner, confusion could have been avoided all together. Minor flaws, but all around highly recommended to enrich children’s ideas of adoption and to ensure them that their life is similar to others, too.