Half a World Away

Starred review from June 23, 2014
Romanian-born Jaden knows fear and anger but has trouble feeling love and trust. He was abandoned by his biological mother at age four, then shuttled to several foster homes before being adopted by an American couple. Now 12, Jaden thinks his adoptive parents must not be “satisfied” with him because they want another child, and they expect Jaden to go with them to Kazakhstan to meet and bond with his new adoptive baby brother. In this candid novel about three individuals struggling to become a family, National Book Award–winner Kadohata (The Thing About Luck) offers a rare insider’s view of a boy with attachment difficulties searching to find security and purpose. While visiting the orphanage in Kazakhstan, Jaden is drawn to a special-needs toddler, even as he has trouble feeling anything for the baby his parents plan to adopt. Jaden also forms an unexpected and eye-opening friendship with the family’s outspoken hired driver. Without sugarcoating the complexities and mishaps that can accompany overseas adoption, Kadohata creates an inspiring story that celebrates hope and second chances. Ages 10–14.

July 15, 2014
Four years ago, Jaden, 12, was adopted from Romania, but he still grieves for the birth mother who abandoned him; accompanying his parents to Kazakhstan to adopt his new brother, Jaden's confused feelings intensify.Jaden doesn't remember his biological mother, and memories of the years between her abandonment and his adoption are vague but horrific. He's learned to use his passionate interest in electricity to calm himself. After years of therapy, he's stopped setting fires, but he continues to hoard food and to steal. He recognizes that his behaviors cause his parents pain and exhaustion. In Kazakhstan, everyone's expectations are upended. As his parents struggle to accept new adoption ground rules, Jaden befriends a toddler and the prickly driver assigned to his family, with whom he finds common ground. Kadohata excels at turning complicated realities into compelling middle-grade fiction, but this is difficult narrative terrain. Children traumatized by abandonment, abuse and neglect; well-intentioned but naive affluent parents adopting children in impoverished countries where corruption is rife: These subjects challenge adult comprehension. No surprise then that distilling these matters into compact storytelling for young readers proves problematic. Much-needed exposition slows the pace, yet troubling questions remain: Jaden's parents don't question the ethics of an adoption that requires paying a facilitator $14,000 in crisp new $100 bills, even after things go wrong. Despite flaws, a realistic-and much-needed-portrait of older-child adoption. (Fiction. 10-14)

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September 1, 2014
Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Jaden Kincaid is fascinated by electricity, admiring its powerful constancy and connectedness to everything. Electricity is one of the many things Jaden didn't know about when he was adopted from a Romanian orphanage four years earlier. More importantly, it serves as an emotional salve against the deep-rooted pain the tween feels from having been abandoned at age four by his birth mother. But Jaden doesn't feel connected to Penni and Steve, his adoptive parents. He lashes out by hoarding food, stealing, and lying to those around him. With his parents preparing to adopt a baby from Kazakhstan, Jaden feels confused and worries that he is being replaced. While the Kincaids busy themselves with the adoption, Jaden bonds with Dimash, a special needs toddler with whom he feels an instant kinship. Kadohata writes compellingly about the convoluted issues surrounding overseas adoption, including profound psychological and physical traumas suffered by children who are abandoned and neglected in orphanages of developing countries. Jaden is a multidimensional character who will likely frustrate readers but also draw their sympathy. Though it has strong characterization, the story suffers from issues that strain credibility; for instance, Jaden's parents don't see anything wrong with adopting another child when they already have a son with so many psychological issues. The pat conclusion feels like a letdown given the narrative's complex arc. Despite these slight flaws, Kadohata's candid exploration of adoption and attachment disorder is a timely choice that fills a gap in middle grade literature.-"Lalitha Nataraj, Escondido Public Library, CA"

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2014
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Jaden is fascinated by electricity, which always relaxes him. And relaxation is important to the 12-year-old who was abandoned by his mother when he was 4 and adopted from Romania when he was 8. He has been told by doctors that he is a textbook case of a troubled, older adopted child: he has set fires, hoards food, steals, lies, sleeps on the floor instead of in a bed, and, worst of all, seems incapable of feeling love. And now his American parents are taking him along as they fly half a world away to Kazakhstan, where they plan to adopt a baby. How is Jaden to feel about this? And, once there, what will happen after he bonds not with the baby but with a special needs child at the adoption facility? Newbery medalist and National Book Award winner Kadohata has written a remarkable, insightful study of a troubled boy, the challenging circumstances in which he finds himself, and his painful journey to bonding and, perhaps, to love. Along the way, she has given readers a candid and often disturbing look at the adoption process in a remote country, while her memorable novel is further enriched by the depth of her characterizations; even minor characters come alive on the page. Thought provoking and emotionally engaging, this is wholly satisfying.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2015
Twelve-year-old Jaden, adopted from Romania and suffering from attachment disorder, travels to Kazakhstan with his parents, who have decided to adopt a second child. As his parents struggle to bond with an emotionally unresponsive infant, Jaden bonds with disabled toddler Dimash--a breakthrough for Jaden. This story about a troubled adoptee and the equally troubling issues of international adoption is compelling and involving.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2014
Twelve-year-old Jaden, adopted from Romania at age eight, travels from the U.S. to Kazakhstan with his parents, who have decided to adopt a second child. Sadly, Jaden believes he is defective and that his parents' disappointment with him is the reason they are adopting an infant. He suffers from attachment disorder and is keenly aware of their exhaustion and exasperation with him; several therapists have attempted to curb his hoarding, lying, and fire-setting, having success only with the last. Jaden knows that Penni and Steve (as he thinks of them) love him, but he doesn't feel much of anything for them except annoyance -- for taking him away from Romania and his birth mother, who gave him up when he was four. As Jaden's parents struggle to bond with an emotionally unresponsive infant at the "baby house" in Kazakhstan, Jaden bonds with Dimash, a disabled toddler there. The novel makes it clear that Jaden's parents feel bad for Dimash and see Jaden's poignant relationship with him as a real breakthrough for their son, but their decision to adopt both "emotionless" baby and special-needs toddler is hard to swallow. (Don't they already have enough on their plate?) Nevertheless, readers will undoubtedly feel happy for Jaden, and this story about a deeply troubled adoptee and the equally troubling issues of international adoption is both compelling and emotionally involving. jennifer m. brabander

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)