A BUFFALO OUT OF WATER

A young water buffalo struggles with the fact that he was adopted in Dunn’s illustrated children’s book.

Wade is feeling rather glum, because his birthday is coming up and he’s wondering what he always does around this time of year: “Why was I given away?”  He reflects on how he was adopted by some American buffaloes from an orphanage in India. Wade loves his family, but it bothers him that he looks different than them, with his black fur and longer horns. At school, he’s often asked about his “real” family, and grown-ups keep saying he’s “lucky,” which confuses him. In his room, Wade cries himself to sleep and dreams that his bed is floating on an unfamiliar river. A much older water buffalo appears by his side and tells him a story about another water buffalo who lost her parents at a young age. As an adult, she worked hard, fell in love with another water buffalo, and got pregnant; he left her, and she was all alone. She places her baby outside an orphanage in the hope that he will have a better life than what she could give him. The baby, of course, is Wade; the storyteller then introduces himself as Wade’s great-great-grandpa and tells him that he wasn’t adopted because his birth mother didn’t love him, but because she did, with all her heart. Dunn’s book offers an important story about adoption. Some young readers are more likely to connect and empathize with human characters, but Aronovà’s artwork anthropomorphizes Wade and those around him. The story is tender and skillfully written, providing nuance to a complicated situation that’s unique to adoptive families. Helpful tips in the back of the book offer advice on how to approach adoption-related topics with children. Aronovà’s full-color cartoon illustrations are carefully rendered, mixing the whimsical aspects of the story with realistic, engaging images that often span two-page spreads.

A thoughtful story for young readers that deeply explores adoption narratives.