SURROUNDED BY LOVE

In this picture book from Olson, an owl tells the story of a young girl’s open adoption.

Wanda, a bespectacled brown owl in professorial robes, speaks to an unnamed redheaded girl: “Would you like to hear a special story? / It’s a love story—and it’s all about YOU!” Wanda explains that the girl’s parents—a loving, male couple—wanted and wished and prayed for a child and describes how they applied to an adoption agency, and how the girl’s birth mother loved the girl and scrupulously chose her adoptive dads from an enormous stack of hopeful applicants. Wanda shares how the dads hugged each other and danced upon receiving the good news; how they were present at the hospital for the girl’s birth; and how, as the girl grows, they will share pictures and life updates with her mother. Wanda observes, “YOU have brought two families / together through their love / for you.”  Olson’s text is composed of straightforward, nonrhyming prose; the narrative skirts the question of why the girl was given up for adoption and instead emphasizes the love that all three parents feel for her—and the love that she, in turn, brings to them. Urbiztondo’s digital illustrations capture the tenderness and joy in the adults’ expressions and exuberant body language, as well as in the sweetly rendered flowers, trees, family snapshots, and swirls of emotion.

An LGBTQ+ affirming celebration of parental love in all its forms.