ALA Booklist (Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2015)

An innocent victim of China's adoption system, Kara was left in a basket and rescued by an American woman. An unwanted female baby with a deformed hand set Kara apart from birth, but Mama, her savior, was a 60-year-old Montana woman living on an expired visa. That Kara was never officially adopted and her mother was not able to work created for the pair a desperate life of stealth and abject poverty. Kara did not attend school and spoke only English at home, so her native language was stifled, and their world was terribly small, frugal, and fragile. When Jody, Kara's American sister, comes to visit, their secret is exposed. Kara is sent to an orphanage where she is placed with children with special needs, and she is eventually adopted by an understanding and remarkable Floridian family. Sonnichsen's sparse narrative in free verse moves Kara's life along with deliberate sentiment, effort, and loyalty. Sympathetic readers will appreciate that Kara learns to build trust with those who demonstrate their compassion in constructive attempts to right some of the wrongs of her difficult beginnings.

School Library Journal (Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2014)

Gr 4-7 After being found abandoned as an infant in Tianjin, China, Kara was never formally adopted by her American parents, leaving her with no identity papers. Kara's mother hasn't had a valid visa in years, but she refuses to leave China without Kara. Now 11, the girl is discovered by police who deport her mother and send Kara to an orphanage for disabled children (she has a malformed hand). There she struggles with her feelings of abandonment, and the emotional conflict from the reality that the Chinese government won't let the only mother she's ever known adopt her. But soon a different family wants her. Told in free verse that occasionally plays with form to capture Kara's mood and decorated with small illustrations mixing watercolor and collage, the narrative is broken into three distinct sections: "Crawl," set in Tianjin; "Dissolve," set at the orphanage; and "Fly," set in Florida. Based on the author's own experiences in fostering for years before being allowed to adopt from China, "Dissolve" is particularly heartbreaking and occasionally shocking, despite the underfunded orphanage being (under)staffed by caring adults. Readers everywhere will empathize with and root for Kara as she discovers where she belongs and her true home. Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington County Public Libraries, VA