Star of the Week Format: Hardcover

The husband-and-wife team behind this book drew on their own adoptive daughter’s experience in creating this accessible, appealing story celebrating the love of families everywhere.

When it’s Cassidy-Li’s turn to be Star of the Week at school, the spunky kindergartener gets to create a poster about herself. She has pictures of all the important people in her life—with one big exception. Cassidy-Li, adopted from China when she was a baby, doesn’t have a photo of her birth parents. But with a little help from her family, she finds a special way to include them.

Cassidy-Li’s thoughts and questions about her birth family will resonate with adopted children and serve as a springboard for discussion in homes and classrooms. This picture book gently explores what adoption means for growing children—the questions adopted children have don’t stop as they grow older.

Any young reader who feels that their family structure is unusual will find a reflection of themselves in Cassidy-Li’s struggle to define her own family.

Darlene Friedman, an award-winning writer and editor, works for an international women's organization in Philadelphia. She lives with her husband, Roger; their daughter, Eden; and their dog ("The Dobo") in Springfield, Pennsylvania. This is her first book for children.

Roger Roth is the award-winning author and illustrator of The Sign Painter's Dream and Fishing for Methuselah. He has illustrated dozens of children's books, including The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History by Jennifer Armstrong and the Unsolved Mystery from History books by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple. This is the first of what he hopes will be many collaborations with his wife, Darlene.