Is That Your Sister?: A True Story of Adoption

by Sheila Kelly Welch

An adopted six-year-old girl tells about adoption and how she and her adopted sister feel about it.

Genres: Adoption

31 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1992

About the author

Sheila Kelly Welch writes and illustrates for children of all ages. Her story, “The Holding-On Night,” published in Cricket, won the International Reading Association’s Short Story Award. Her most popular books are Little Prince Know-It-All and A Horse for All Seasons. Her middle-grade novel, The Shadowed Unicorn, was short-listed for the Prairie Pasque Award and was likened to Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia in a Booklist review. Her most recent novel, Waiting to Forget, was on Bank Street College and PA School Library Association Best Books lists. She also has two picture books published by the digital company, MeeGenius.

Sheila and her husband live in Illinois where they raised five sons and two daughters. Four of the children were adopted when they were of school age. Although she has two degrees from Temple University, she has learned more from her children than from any college course.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad this book exists. The narrator, 6-year-old Catherine, is adopted and gets lots of questions because she doesn't "match" her mother or her adopted younger sister. Catherine's parents have two biological sons who are older than Catherine. Catherine was adopted as an infant through an adoption agency. Her younger sister Carla was adopted at age 3 from foster care, and Catherine remembers Carla's adoption. Only the children are pictured, and based on the illustrations, my guess is that the two brothers are Caucasian (possibly Hispanic) while Catherine and Carla are African American, and Catherine has lighter skin (possibly biracial or multiracial) and different hair than Carla.

Catherine expresses a range of very real feelings and questions - wondering why her birth mother couldn't raise her, wondering if her birth mother loved her, wishing her (adoptive) mother were her birth mother, wishing that she looked like her birth mother, annoyance at the questions people ask her. ("Sometimes I hate talking about adoption with a lot of dumb kids and grownups, too…they ask too many questions and it makes me feel funny.") She also recognizes that her family is a lot like other families - they fight sometimes, sometimes Mommy yells, sometimes Daddy buys ice cream sandwiches.

The book felt outdated to me as I read it, but I haven't found a newer book that fills this niche. Transracial family, domestic adoption, adoption from foster care, adoption of older children (not infants), centering of the adoptee and her story, and matter-of-fact inclusion of the loss, questioning and challenges that are part of adoption.

[Alora · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good explanation of foster care to adoption through the eyes of a child.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a true story about adoption. You could read this book when talking about nonfiction. I would read this book to discuss adoption because it gives a real account from an actual adopted child.

[Sierra Lasky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an informational storybook that follows a young girl through her experience with adoption. She takes you through the whole process and explains all of the different people and things that must take place in order for an adoption. She explains the good and bad of being adopted.
Rating: 4 stars
Coming from a family that has adopted children I found this book to be a very interesting and accurate representation of the adoption process. I really enjoyed reading it and it is written in a way that would allow children to easily grasp the concept of adoption.