``Once there was a little girl named Xiangwei (SHAN-way). She lived in China with a group of girls and boys who didn't have mothers or fathers to love them.'' D'Antonio turns her experience adopting a Chinese baby into a photo albumlike book, addressing her daughter in the brief text and superimposing full-color snapshots on a white Chinese brocade. Keeping the language simple enough for preschoolers, she explains how sad she and her husband were without a child, and how they wrote the Chinese government about their wish to adopt one. When the photograph of Xiangwei arrived months later, D'Antonio and her husband flew from New York City to China, explored Beijing, walked the Great Wall, visited at the orphanage with other adoptive parents, met their new daughter, signed adoption papers, and went home. The final photos feature grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, the family cat—the child's ``forever family.'' A gentle, upbeat exploration of one form of adoption. (Picture book/nonfiction. 3-7) Read full book review >