Half A World Away

Half A World Away by Cynthia Kadohata, 225 pages

Jaden, who is twelve now, was adopted from Romania when he was eight.  Although his adoptive parents seem to love him, Jaden doesn’t really feel like he belongs.  He doesn’t really trust that they won’t eventually give him up like his birth mother did and he doesn’t feel like he can allow himself to love them.  Now his parents are planning to adopt another child.  They are planning a trip to Kazakhstan to get their new baby.  Jaden thinks that his parents aren’t happy with him so they want to start over with a new baby.  Once they actually get there, several things seem to go wrong but maybe, in the end, everything can turn out all right after all.  This is a good story about a young boy struggling with his feelings about adoption.  This is a book for kids who like realistic fiction.