“To understand the fantasies and feelings of the adopted child is to understand powerful notions that grow from the common predicament of childhood itself.”
In this book adoptive parents try to explain to their little adopted son the basics of adoption. All the relatives are present at a large family Thanksgiving gathering. Other than Joshua, all of them look like one another. They have black hair. Joshua doesn’t look like them. His hair is blond. Joshua is adopted. The other children talk about being born and tell funny stories about their births. Joshua has nothing to say. He doesn’t’ know how he was born. He doesn’t know the mother who gave birth to him. “Who is my real mother?” he asks.