Our Wish for You

This moving picture book about open adoption shares all parents’ wish for a child’s life to be full of love and family.

One birth mother is pregnant with a baby and wants to find parents to adopt the child. Eventually she finds two dads who will be just the right parents, because they, too, share her same wishes of love and happiness for the baby. Author Dano Moreno drew from his and his husband's experience with adopting their son to write a gentle, universal story about all the hopes, dreams, and wishes parents have for their children to live happy lives. 

Sweet and tender, Our Wish For You is the perfect gift for growing families, baby showers, or adoption day celebrations.Adoptive parents reflect on the hopes and wishes they share for their son with the child’s birth mother, whose sustained relationship with the family unites the parents in love. Addressing the reader as the adopted child, the fathers emphasize the solidarity and unified vision of their open adoption. “Before you were born, we wished for you. . . . We hoped and waited.” The child’s birth mother also “made a wish just for you [but] . . . didn’t feel she could fulfill her wish on her own.” Through the matchmaking process, birth, and playful milestones, tenderly rendered in warm digital illustrations, the adults celebrate the growing child’s emotional health and successes. Unadorned language and repetition of themes are heartfelt and gentle, with an emphasis placed on small moments and simple joys. An author’s note briefly explains adoption types as well as his family’s experience with open adoption. A welcome addition to the growing cannon of adoption stories, where open adoption is underrepresented, and an affirming message of love.

—BooklistDano Moreno started writing for kids when he became a father.  When not writing, he works as a public health advocate and enjoys time with his husband and son in Portland, Oregon. He is also the author of Hope for Ryan White.

Ryan O’Rourke is the illustrator of many books for children, including Alphabet Trucks; Alphabet Trains; and Night, Night Curiosity. cargocollective.com/ryanorourke