Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata tells the story of adopted 11 year-old Jaden whose family is about to adopt a baby from Kazakstan. Jaden is still afraid to love anyone and holds on to his feelings of abandonment by hoarding food and other behavior issues. He is scared of what a new baby in the family will mean. Are they going to love him more than me? When Jaden and his parents travel to Kazakstan, they are introduced to a baby and are given bonding time before they can travel home with him. Jaden’s difficulty in allowing himself to be close to his parents and fears of a new brother are realistic and heartbreaking. You just want him to give in to being loved. The adoption process seems authentic and the foreign setting believable- so much so that I wonder if the book has more appeal for grown-ups than a middle-school aged child. I enjoyed the story and was caught up in Jaden’s world of learning to become part of a family.
