Chloe has one wish: to stay in her latest foster home, “the first foster home where I didn’t hide.” She is making friends at school, learning to dance, and getting all A’s. Life with her two foster dads has “felt like a happy dream.” She knows that even if her wish to stay with them doesn’t come true, however, she will still have the happy memories of the year.
In the end, though, Chloe’s wish comes true, and her new dads surprise her with the words “Welcome home, Chloe!!!!” chalked onto their driveway.
Nevertheless, Chloe and the Fireflies paints an almost too-perfect picture of life in her new home. While it acknowledges she is sometimes still scared about goodbyes, she quickly makes friends and does exceptionally well in school, setting perhaps unreasonable expectations for many foster children, who unfortunately struggle, even in their permanent homes. And Chloe seems perhaps too accepting that if her wonderful year with the dads must come to an end, she’ll simply be content with the memories. For many children and families, Chloe’s story may come off as just a little too saccharine, although it does acknowledge Chloe’s past difficulties in other homes. For some readers, however, it may resonate and reassure, making it a recommended title.
I like, too, that this book gives us much-needed representation of a two-dad couple adopting an older child rather than an infant. (The 2016 Home at Last showed us an older child adopted by two dads from a group home, but also included a now-dated comment about it being “really odd” to be adopted by two dads.) I should also mention Miles Comes Home, published on the same day as Chloe and the Fireflies by another publisher, which similarly helps to fill this gap. In Miles, however, the child knows from the start of the story that he is going to his permanent home; in Chloe, she doesn’t know until the end. In Miles, too, a new sibling plays an important role; Chloe seems to be the first child for her dads. Each approach may appeal to different families.
Chloe and one dad are Black; the other dad is White.
