Sarah Brannen is probably best known to readers as the author of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, the now-classic tale of a girl who is worried that her favorite uncle won’t have time for her after he marries his boyfriend. Now, Brannen turns her talents to a warm and lovely new story about a boy in foster care who is meeting his new parents and going to his new, permanent home.
The story opens as Miles wakes up at his foster home and goes downstairs “with a fluttery feeling inside.” He plays a last tune on the piano, then meets his new dads and hugs his foster mom goodbye. As they drive home, Miles is “excited and scared and a little sad,” an important acknowledgment of the many feelings, both positive and negative, that foster children may experience at such moments of change. I also like that we see the foster mom, plus another woman in the background who is wearing business attire suggesting she is a case worker; they are both part of Miles’s story, too. While their part in it is not explored here, their representation may offer readers and their adults a jumping-off point for discussion.
When Miles and his new dads arrive home, his new sister Michelle is excited to show him his room and to do things together. He’s a little scared to try ice skating (as is one of his dads), but makes a good attempt. The one thing he misses, however, is playing the piano, which he did at his last foster home.
The days and seasons unfold, and the family continues to do things together at home and away. Miles comes to like it in his new family—and on his birthday, there’s a wonderful surprise, inspired by the observant Michelle.
Several recent books about adoption by same-sex parents have focused on adoption of an infant—important representation, to be sure, but not the only way adoptive families are formed. Miles Comes Home gives us much-needed representation by showing us an older child adopted from foster care by a same-sex couple. (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 Chloe and the Fireflies, published on the same day as Miles Comes Home 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.
Brannen’s spare text and lively dialogue gently show us how Miles comes to feel a part of his new family, for example, when he asks Michelle to paint him into a picture she is drawing. And her words work beautifully in tandem with Forrest Burdett’s expressive illustrations. All told, it’s a highly recommended title that should find a welcome place in many homes and libraries.
Miles and one dad read as Black; the other dad and Michelle as White.
