We Wanted You by Liz Rosenberg

Illustrated by Peter Catalanotto. 27 p., Roaring Brook Press, 2002. In the voice of adoptive mother and father, this book tells a boy how much he has always been wanted, even before he was born. The illustrations show the boy as a high school graduate and then younger and younger in each picture, until the parents finally describe his adoption in early infancy. The parents explain that although they weren't his first parents, they waited for him and cared for him, and the boy and the parents belong to each other. The illustrations fast-forward to the boy's departure for college as a young man, his parents again saying how much they've always wanted him, up to and including this moment. This story offers children the sense of having a whole lifetime together with adoptive parents. Ages 3-7