Not Always a Sob Story

Maia’s Birthday Party

Yvette Fernandez

©2012       

Adarna Publishing

Not always a Sob Story

By De Jesus, Jeanina Charisse R.

I-BS CDE

Teacher to be, reader for life, Writer as dream.

Being an orphan, according to media means you are a sad, sad soul. In books, they are mistreated because of the frustrations of their parents. Shunned from the world for not having any parents and always alone. More often than not, once one is told that he is an orphan, he goes off into a journey to find his real parents.

But in the real world, are orphans only adopted to be used as slaves? Do they really leave on an epic adventure to find who their true parents are? This story says different. The story speaks about how life truly is for an adopted child. It shows that even foster parents go through the same hardships and joys that other parents experience. Maia also goes through the same experiences and joys—more even than—of any growing child.

No were in the story shows any sign of sadness. The book is filled with nothing but love; from the first moment where the father and mother, excitedly plans for the arrival of their daughter, until the celebration n with her friends. Even through the long nights of her crying, Maia’s parents still show her affection, like any parent would. The two treated the child as if she were their flesh and blood, to the point where they seem themselves in her.

Even if the book speaks about the happiness and truth, it seems to have focused on how Maia’s parents treated her as if they shared DNA. Aside from pointing out that her parents picked her up from the orphanage, they don’t speak about it any more.

The book does not show her parents first telling her the truth—even if the narrations are through Maia’s point of view. The author failed to mention how the parents explained, did they tell her directly “You are not our child. But we love you anyway.” Or tell a symbolic story to her—so it would be easier to understand. So it was surprising that she would celebrate her birthday from orphanage, or have friends from there because there was no connection with any of them aside from the fact she was from there. The author also did not express how Maia felt knowing that she came from the orphanage.

The illustrations are large and cartoon like, a mixture of two drawing styles, cartoon and chibi—a form of Japanese cartoon intended for children. The illustrator’s drawings are of the real world, no intimate objects could talk, no sun smiling down at Maia—literally, no flower danced as she played. Only humans had voices and not animals, making this story closer to reality than most.  The pages alone are coloured with a bright background no white at all.

The book itself is of average height, the words are of average size and of black font, making it easy to read over the colourful pages of the book. The sentences are simple but appear long from the big text. The book dual language, English and Filipino paragraphs are separated from one another. If the two paragraphs are on separate pages, the English translation is always located at the left page. If the two translations are on one page, you can find the English on at the top.

But all in all, I believe that this book could cater to children, it would teach them that just because someone is not with their biological parents, and it doesn't mean that they are sad. It teaches that an adopted child is no different from them and is just as happy if not happier. Because of the joy and enlightenment and joy it leaves, this book a thumbs up and an addition to the must read list.